AIG CEO: employees starting to return bonuses

WASHINGTON  — The head of financially strapped AIG is telling Congress he's heard the rage over executive bonuses and has called on employees to voluntarily return at least half of the money.

Testifying under oath at a congressional hearing as intense as any in recent memory, Edward Liddy said that some workers there already have stepped forward to give money back.

Liddy, who is chairman and chief executive officer of AIG, told a House subcommittee that the bonuses could be defended legally as a legal obligation of the company. But he also said that given the national uproar, he asked those who got "retention payments" over $100,000 to return at least half of it.