Eliot Spitzer, the New York state attorney general has filed a civil lawsuit against AIG, the insurance firm, and its two former top executives, saying they "frequently resorted to deception and fraud in an apparent effort to improve the company's financial results."

The suit said that AIG, Maurice Greenberg, its former chief executive and Howard Smith, former chief financial officer, engaged in "numerous fraudulent business transactions that exaggerated the strength of the company's core underwriting business to prop up its stock price."