was $ 6.4 million ; seven other people also received more than $ 4 million each . AIG is under fire for awarding the bonuses while being kept afloat by more than $ 170 billion from the U.S. government 's financial bailout . On Tuesday , two key senators also announced a plan to impose a hefty tax on retention bonuses paid to executives of companies that received federal bailout money or in which the United States has an equity interest . Sens. Max Baucus , D-Montana , and Chuck Grassley , R-Iowa , are the chairman and top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee , respectively . They said companies would not be allowed to restructure the payments to those executives through deferred compensation to avoid the tax . Grassley and Baucus said all retention bonuses would be subject to a 35 percent excise tax for excessive compensation to be paid by the company and an additional 35 percent tax to be paid by the individual . `` Millions of Americans are losing their jobs -- millions . And to some degree , they 're losing their jobs because of actions taken by some of these firms , ''
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Insurance giant AIG will have to return to the Treasury Department the $ 165 million it just paid out in executive bonuses , Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday in a letter to congressional leaders . Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said AIG will have to return $ 165 million in bonuses for executives . `` We will impose on AIG a contractual commitment to pay the treasury from the operations of the company the amount of the retention awards just paid , '' Geithner wrote . `` In addition , we will deduct from the $ 30 billion in assistance an amount equal to the amount of those payments . '' That would be a double payment , essentially a $ 165 million penalty on AIG for issuing the bonuses . The move comes after New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo confirmed in a letter to Congress that this year , after receiving federal bailout money , AIG paid 73 employees bonuses of more than $ 1 million each . Watch congressional reaction to AIG bonuses '' Cuomo also wrote that 11 of the employees no longer work for the company . The largest bonus paid