The Anti-AIG Mob Goes After the Wrong Guy

This is what happens when mobs get out of control:

As AIG employees get disturbing threats from people ticked off about bonuses that came in the wake of the federal bailout, the state has thrown someone into the fire who did not belong there, a state representative says.

Christopher Pohle, of New Canaan, was falsely identified as an AIG employee who received a retention bonus, State Representative John W. Hetherington, said in a news release Thursday. To be clear, everyone, he did not get a bonus.

Pohle is demanding that the State of Connecticut, including the Attorney General and the legislature’s Banks Committee, apologize and issue a retraction.

“Mr. Pohle has not been employed by AIG for over a year. He left AIG in January 2008. He did not receive a retention bonus and did not work with credit derivatives,” Hetherington said in the release.

“Mr. Pohle was recklessly targeted, his reputation and good standing have been harmed and he and his family have been unfairly drawn into this situation.”

Pohle’s name was among 13 people who were subpoenaed last week to testify during a Banks Committee hearing, according to several news reports.

State officials obtained the names from media accounts about the bonuses, the Stamford Advocate reports.

It may be a year or two before we know just how much damage Congress did when they decided to demonize AIG executives.