NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Maurice (Hank) Greenberg, the former chief executive officer of American International Group Inc., lied repeatedly at a trial over whether his private company looted $4.3 billion, an AIG lawyer told jurors.

AIG accuses Greenberg's Starr International Co., or SICO, of breaching an unwritten trust to fund a deferred-compensation plan for AIG employees. SICO illegally converted the proceeds of AIG shares it sold after Greenberg's firing in March 2005, AIG lawyer Ted Wells said in federal court in New York.

Wells cited "overwhelming" evidence that SICO began holding AIG shares in 1970 for a retirement plan to benefit AIG employees. Greenberg was enraged after his ouster, and SICO fabricated documents to show the shares benefited charity, not AIG, Wells said. Greenberg also lied to jurors about videotaped speeches in which he discussed the disputed shares, Wells said.

"He fabricated evidence," Wells said in closing arguments at a civil trial that began June 15. "He lied from the witness stand. What he told you is not credible evidence. Mr. Greenberg gave you false testimony repeatedly."

In his summation, SICO attorney David Boies countered that no written evidence supports the claim by New York-based AIG that an oral trust exists solely to benefit the insurer.

"The trust that AIG says exists simply was made up for the purposes of this litigation," Boies argued in his summation.

Jury deliberations began yesterday after US District Judge Jed Rakoff instructed the panel of one man and seven women on the law. Their verdict must be unanimous.

Greenberg, 84, spent seven days on the witness stand, saying SICO was never obligated to continue funding a retirement plan that only benefited AIG employees. Rather, he said, shares could be used for other projects and would ultimately benefit charity at the discretion of SICO's voting shareholders.

The disputed AIG shares held by SICO came from a 1970 reorganisation in which the insurer went public. SICO got shares initially valued at $110 million that later grew to more than $20 billion in value. Over time, SICO used seven percent of its assets to fund a series of two-year deferred-compensation plans. AIG claims SICO sold $4.3 billion in shares after 2005 and used the proceeds to fund investments in China, Russia and elsewhere.

"The evidence was real, the evidence exists," Boies said. "There is absolutely indisputable evidence that the core of shares that was set aside for people's retirement has never been touched, has never been sold."

AIG asserted for the first time in 2005, after the litigation began, that SICO owed a duty to the deferred- compensation plan.

"I leave it up to you to determine what has been fabricated," Boies said.

Boies said that 14 witnesses, including former AIG CEO Martin Sullivan, who succeeded Greenberg, testified that they knew nothing of the trust that AIG alleges.

"Not one witness testified about the existence of the trust AIG alleges," Boies argued.

He said that AIG never disclosed the existence of the alleged trust to its shareholders, auditors, attorneys, or government regulators. The trust alleged, he said, was a creation of AIG lawyers after SICO sued the company in 2005 and AIG filed a countersuit.

Boies said that in 35 years of detailed disclosures, AIG never mentioned the trust it now alleges.

"That's got to be conclusive," he said. "You don't have a multi-billion dollar trust like this for 35 years and nobody ever knows about it until lawyers decide to make a claim."

Wells said Greenberg was angry after his firing and retaliated by ousting AIG employees on the SICO board, revoking the deferred-compensation plan, and rescinding previous written commitments. After the litigation began, he ordered the transfer of AIG stock certificates from New York to Bermuda, Wells said.

"When Greenberg was terminated from his job, he struck back," Wells said.

Wells, speaking about Greenberg's frame of mind, said: "They can't kick me out of my company, I'm Hank Greenberg. Who the hell do they think they are to kick me out of my company?"

Greenberg displayed an "audacity of arrogance" and an attitude "that I can walk through the raindrops", Wells said.

"These aren't small lies," Wells said. "These are big lies. There's a certain arrogance, almost as if I can say anything."

Greenberg sat in the courtroom with his wife of 58 years, Corinne, and held her hand during the Boies summation. He nodded his head in approval at several points during the argument. After Boies finished and the jurors left, Wells hugged Boies. As they left the courtroom, Greenberg embraced Boies.

Jurors will weigh whether SICO improperly converted, or took, AIG shares after Greenberg's ouster. Rakoff will decide if SICO breached its fiduciary duty.

AIG has said it will use proceeds of any judgment to help repay the $182.5 billion bailout package it received from the federal government.