Company to correct accounting

Monday, May 2, 2005 | 9:25 a.m.

American International Group Inc., the world's largest insurer, will correct five years of results for reinsurance and other transactions that inflated net worth by about $2.7 billion, $1 billion more than an earlier estimate.

AIG delayed its 2004 annual report for the third time in six weeks, saying in a statement Sunday that a review of its books may not be finished until May 31. PricewaterhouseCoopers, its auditor, is expected to sign off once the report is done, the New York-based company said.

The accounting review was triggered by regulatory probes of reinsurance transactions and has since uncovered misleading or improper representations of asset writedowns, hedge-fund proceeds, and underwriting results.

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