American International Group (AIG) is the latest player of strange bedfellows in the water business. AIG is one of the largest insurance and financial services companies in the world, with revenues of almost $100 billion in 2005 alone. This makes AIG, according to Forbes, the ninth largest corporation in terms of revenue. In May 2005, it also became a player in U.S. water when it announced the purchase of Utilities Inc., a water and wastewater utility doing business in small communities in 17 U.S. states. Utilities Inc. has roughly 300,000 customers based in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia.

AIG is linked to several allegations of scandals and fraud, cases include:

• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Justice Department are investigating an AIG practice of providing “loss mitigation insurance” to companies. It appears as though AIG sells this service to help distressed corporations hide their losses from federal regulators. In November 2004, AIG paid $126 million to settle allegations it provided these illegal services to two companies, PNC and Brightpoint.
• New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued the insurance company Marsh & McLennan on charges of widespread bid-rigging; AIG is named as a co-conspirator.
• Both Spitzer and the SEC are investigating allegations that AIG cooked its own books by hiding transactions and debt with other large insurance companies.
  
  

AIG also contributes heavily to politicians. Since 2001 it has contributed over $3 million to federal election campaigns, with 60% of that total going to Republicans.