March 16, 2009

Cuomo Subpoenas AIG Bonus Information

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As I anticipated, AIG was not in fact able to gather all the information Andrew Cuomo wanted before the New York attorney general’s 4pm deadline. Cuomo wrote a letter to AIG this morning demanding information about the millions of dollars of bonus money it’s handing out to employees of its financial services division—the same division that got it into the mess it’s currently in. As the deadline passed this afternoon, Cuomo called performance bonuses for AIG executives “oxymoronic” and said he was issuing subpoenas immediately.

OnceIf Cuomo gets the names, you can expect the executives who received bonuses to be very publicly shamed. Maybe then some of them will give the money back.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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