New Foundation Could Receive $20-Billion

An international company has created a charitable foundation that could become one of the wealthiest philanthropies in the world, reports the Financial Times.

The foundation was created by officials who made their fortune from the American International Group.

The new Starr International Foundation, based in Zug, Switzerland, plans to support international educational, medical, and cultural causes. On Thursday, it announced its first grants, awarding $4-million to Doctors Without Borders and $1-million to charities in Switzerland.

The new foundation owns all of the common equity of Starr International Company, known as SICO, the investment company that Hank Greenberg has focused his attention on since 2005, when he was ousted as AIG chairman, the newspaper says.

SICO owns shares in AIG valued at $20-billion, but that money is tied up in a court battle over who has the legal ownership of the shares.

The new organization is not affiliated with the Starr Foundation, in New York, which Mr. Greenberg chairs, the newspaper says. That foundation, which was founded in 1955 by Cornelius Vander Starr, founder of the company that became AIG, has $3-billion in assets and gives most of its money to American charities.