AIG has said today that its financial products division will in fact return $50 million in bonuses amid a public uproar given the U.S. fed has provided the failing company with $170 billion in aid.

15 AIG executives from the financial products’ is set to return $30 million, and the rest of the $50 million coming from other AIG division.

Obama has been widely criticized for the recent bill passed by The House of Representatives who imposed a 90% tax on bonuses aimed at executives who earned more than $250,000 of firms who got more than $5 billion in government aid.

In Q4 2008, AIG posted the largest corporate loss recorded in America, $61.7 billion.

American International Group (AIG), is planning to pay about $165 million in bonuses. Today, President Obama said at the White House he plans to explore every legal avenue to block the payments. Obama said today at the White House, “This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed…how do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers,”

However, blocking the payments is a very difficult challenge mainly because of existing contracts already in place between AIG and executives. Others argue failing to pay bonuses will drive the best talent to other firms or even out of the market.

AIG lost $40 billion in 2008. The Fed recently provided $173 billion (80% stake) in emergency government loans to AIG

American International Group (AIG) has just posted the biggest U.S. quarterly loss ever recorded in history, a whopping $61.7 billion ($22.95 per share) Q4 2008 loss, compared to a $5.3 billion ($2.08 per share) loss in Q4 2007. The American government has also opted to give AIG $30 billion in new loans. Q4 2008 revenue was down $23.8 billion. AIG’s insurance division reported a loss of $2.8 billion with premiums down 16.3% to $9.2 billion. For all of 2008, AIG posted Read the full story