New York's attorney general says American International Group Inc. has given him the list of employees who received a total of $165 million in retention bonuses.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said he won't release any employees' names until his office has answered any security concerns raised by the AIG employees.
He also said he will work with AIG in the coming days to determine which workers have decided to return the payments.
Cuomo had sought the names from AIG chief executive Edward Liddy through a subpoena. The deadline was Thursday.
AIG has been come under sharp criticism from government officials including Cuomo and President Barack Obama for paying retention bonuses to employees in the unit that led to the insurer's near-collapse. AIG has gotten $182.5 billion in federal aid.
On Thursday, AIG's corporate office put out a memo to employees to not wear their badges or company insignia in public amid safety concerns.
As outrage grows over the bonuses, analysts and lawmakers are taking a closer look at a clause in the $787 billion economic stimulus plan approved by Congress in February that capped bonuses for executives at companies getting federal bailout aid.
A one-paragraph provision tucked into the massive bill modified the cap to apply it only to future bonuses, not those that might have already been legally contracted.
Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has been taking a lot of heat for allowing the provision through.
Meantime, 19 states, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, are demanding AIG bonus details.
The House of Representatives have also approved a bill that would put a 90-percent tax on Wall Street bonuses -- a move that many say is too little too late. The Senate is also considering a similar bill.
