NEW YORK — The former top executive of American International Group Inc. plundered an AIG retirement program of billions of dollars because he was angry at being forced out of the company, a lawyer for AIG told jurors yesterday at the start of a civil trial.

Attorney Theodore Wells told the jury in Manhattan that former AIG Chief Executive Officer Maurice "Hank" Greenberg improperly took $4.3 billion in stock from the company in 2005, after he was ousted from the company amid investigations of accounting irregularities.

Wells said that Greenberg, within weeks of being forced out in mid-2005 after a 35-year career building AIG from a small company into the world's largest insurance provider, gave the go-ahead for tens of millions of shares to be sold from a trust fund.

FINANCIAL SYSTEM OVERHAUL SOUGHT

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration wants to overhaul the country's financial rule book by giving the Federal Reserve increased powers but, bowing to critics in Congress, is backing away from proposals to consolidate various regulatory agencies.

The administration's overhaul plan would make the Fed a systemic risk regulator to oversee large institutions whose failure could threaten the stability of the entire system. It also will create a council of regulators with broad coordination responsibility across the financial system, administration officials said.

The administration also will offer a stronger framework for investor protection, including increased oversight of consumer products ranging from credit cards to annuities

ALASKA SPILL COSTS EXXON $507.5M

SAN FRANCISCO — Exxon Mobil Corp. has been ordered to pay $507.5 million in punitive damages to Alaska natives, fishermen, business owners and others harmed by the massive 1989 oil spill off Alaska.

The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco yesterday affirms the figure set by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. It also awards interest payments at 5.9 percent to plaintiffs from the date of the original judgment in 1996.

Plaintiffs originally were awarded $5 billion, but that amount was cut in subsequent appeals by Irving, Texas-based Exxon.