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Hartford, Conn. (WTNH) – Attorney General Richard Blumenthal called on federal authorities to block payment of $100 million in bonuses to AIG employees and bar any company owing bailout funds from paying bonuses until taxpayers are repaid.

State Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, and State Rep. Ryan Barry, D-Manchester, co-chairs of the General Assembly’s Banks Committee, joined Blumenthal’s letter to Special Master Kenneth Feinberg, who has jurisdiction over executive compensation at bailed out companies.

“I am writing to urge you to prohibit AIG from paying $100 million in employee bonuses,” Blumenthal said. AIG still reportedly owes federal taxpayers $124 billion – and should therefore be barred from company from paying a penny of bonus until it repays its massive loan.”

The Attorney General continued, “I urge your office and federal authorities to extend the same policy to all companies owing bailout moneys, prohibiting employee bonuses until taxpayers recover their money. The AIG retention bonuses are a slap in the face to the hard-working taxpayers who saved AIG through bailout loans and stock purchases. Without taxpayer bailout funds, AIG would have failed or been sold to a third party – rendering these bonuses worthless. A ‘giveback’ of $20 million while taking $100 million is meaningless, a continuing sign that AIG and other investment companies simply do not care about Main Street businesses and taxpayers. This arrogance should not be rewarded, and the retention bonuses should not be awarded.”

Attorney General finished by saying, “These huge windfalls for select employees while the company remains deeply in debt to taxpayers are outrageous and unacceptable and must stop.”

Blumenthal said Feinberg should disregard any claim by AIG that Connecticut law prevents AIG from revising or canceling the bonuses. He said that his office studied the claim last year and found it false.