The former AIG exec dubbed "The Man Who Crashed The World" by Vanity Fair is back in the U.S.
Reuters broke the news that Joseph Cassano, the former head of AIG's infamous financial products unit, has returned to the United States. (Check out Cassano in our "Where Are They Now?" retrospective on "Financial Crisis Financiers".)
Since his return, Cassano has apparently been laying low in a home described as "modest." Reuters reporters snooped around Cassano's Westport, Connecticut home but found no sign of him with either the editor of the local paper or with a worker at the local golf course.
Did Cassano return to Connecticut because of pressure from his mounting legal troubles? The Wall Street Journal reported recently that Cassano and other AIG execs could face a grand jury in Brooklyn. The NY Post also reported that Cassano will almost certainly be deposed in the coming weeks.
Here's Reuters on Cassano's stateside return:
"On recent visits to Cassano's house, which is about an hour's drive from AIG's Manhattan HQ, there was little sign that it is the residence of a man who received hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation from the company over the 21 years he was there.
The home, which the bespectacled Cassano bought in 1993 for about $750,000, according to real estate records, is most notable for how modest it is compared with some of the far grander houses nearby. The records show it only has two bedrooms, although it does have four bathrooms, an in-ground pool, a bathhouse and two fireplaces.
Instead of the flashy BMWs that dot the driveways in the town, which is part of an area known as the "Gold Coast" because of the area's prosperity and concentration of hedge funds, the couple still make do with the his-and-her Jeep Cherokees they bought 12 years ago and which are parked out front."
WestportNow, which bragged that it respected Cassano's privacy and that "it did not report of [Cassano's return," still took the opportunity to dish this tidbit on its website:
"[Reuters], in a lengthy report on Cassano's move, did not say when the son of a Brooklyn, N.Y. police officer returned to Westport, where he has been a registered voter since 1995. But neighbors told WestportNow late last month they noticed his return when they saw a moving van outside his home."
According to a FundRace search at the address listed in Reuters' piece, Cassano and his wife, Ellen Hooker, each donated $2,300 to President Obama's 2008 election campaign.
Read Reuters' full story on Cassano's return.
Or check out "Where Are They Now? Financial Crisis Financiers".