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New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has tried to block a request by the former head of American International Group Incto delay a deposition on three-year-old allegations of financial misconduct.

Former ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½ CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg should be deposed “soon as possible,” Cuomo said in a memorandum filed in the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

“(He) has had three years to obtain evidence to prepare, and the time has come for him to sit for a deposition.”

Cuomo’s predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, filed civil charges against Greenberg in 2005 alleging financial and securities fraud and various violations of the insurance and securities laws. Some charges were later dropped.

Greenberg, who ran ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½ for nearly four decades, left the company that same year. ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½ paid more than $1 billion to settle the matter in 2006.

Greenberg had sought to delay giving a deposition, arguing he needed papers that ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½ refused to turn over to him before he could answer any questions.

He won the right to see certain ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½ documents when a New York State Appeal Court ruled in his favor Thursday.

Cuomo said: “Greenberg is 82 years old, and his recollection is not going to be any better a year or two from now …

“Despite his protestations that he is not prepared to sit for a deposition, Greenberg and his spokesmen persist in issuing statements to the press …”

But Greenberg’s lawyer, Lee Wolosky, said no one was more eager to get the process moving than Greenberg.

“For three years, Mr. Greenberg has been asking ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½ to provide him the documents he’s entitled to, so that he can properly defend himself against the allegations that remain in this case,” he said, noting that Greenberg won that right with Thursday’s ruling.

(Reporting by Lilla Zuill, editing by Leslie Gevirtz and Andre Grenon)

Topics New York ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½