Greenberg departs from AIG board

Mr Greenberg led AIG from 1967 till earlier this year

Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, ex-chief executive of insurance giant AIG, has severed his last official tie with the company he led for almost 40 years.

Having already stepped down from the posts of chairman and CEO, he announced he was also resigning from the board.

He had previously agreed not to stand for re-election.

A lawsuit brought by New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer accuses him of manipulating the firm's finances to boost its stock price.

Mr Greenberg's lawyers have said they will contest the suit, and say the firm's accounting decisions should not be made Mr Greenberg's responsibility alone.

In a four-sentence letter, Mr Greenberg said he had decided on immediate resignation because of his "inability to receive information regarding the company and its operations necessary to fulfil (his) fiduciary duties".

Mr Greenberg led AIG, which has about 90,000 employees and works in 130 countries, for almost 38 years.

The firm said on 31 May that it had overstated its net profit for the five years to 2004 by 10%, or $3.9bn.