AIG cuts profits by nearly $4b over 5 years

NEW YORK -- American International Group Inc., the huge insurance company under investigation by state and federal regulators over accounting issues, filed its long-awaited 2004 annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, restating financial results for the past five years.

As part of the restatement, AIG cut shareholders' equity at Dec. 31 by $2.26 billion, or 2.7 percent, to $80.61 billion, less than the $2.7 billion reduction the company had projected. This included an after-tax reduction of $1.19 billion for changes in estimates for the fourth quarter of 2004.

Revised calculations by the New York-based company lowered AIG's profits by nearly $4 billion for the five years since 2000. In its new filing with the SEC, AIG acknowledged accounting improprieties, including ''improper or inappropriate transactions" that ''may also have involved misrepresentations to members of management, regulators, and AIG's independent auditors."