NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (AP) ? Four former senior executives of Berkshire Hathaway?s General Re Corp. and a former senior executive of American International Group Inc. were indicted yesterday on charges they participated in a scheme to manipulate AIG?s financial statements, prosecutors said.

The indictment alleges that the defendants engaged in a fraudulent scheme to make it appear as if AIG increased its loss reserves, a key financial indicator to analysts and investors.

At issue are two reinsurance transactions between AIG and Gen Re that were initiated by an AIG senior executive to quell criticism by analysts of an approximate $59 million reduction in AIG?s loss reserves in the third quarter of 2000, prosecutors said.

?The Department of Justice and our federal law enforcement partners are committed to investigating and prosecuting corporate executives who intend to mislead investors, employees and customers by manipulating company financial information,? said US Attorney Kevin O?Connor.

The former General Re executives charged were Ronald E. Ferguson, 63, chief executive officer from about 1987 through September 2001; Elizabeth Monrad, 51, chief financial officer from June 2000 through July 2003; Robert Graham, 58, a senior vice president and assistant general counsel employed by Gen Re from about 1986 through October 2005; and Christopher P. Garand, 59, a senior vice president from 1994 until last year.

Also charged was Christian Milton, 58, who was AIG?s vice president of reinsurance from about April 1982 until March 2005.

All of the defendants except Garand had been charged in February in Virginia in connection with the alleged scheme. The case later was transferred to Connecticut, where the defendants face new charges.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a related civil lawsuit.

Allegations of accounting irregularities, including the Gen Re transactions, led to the resignation in March 2005 of AIG?s chairman and chief executive Maurice ?Hank? Greenberg, who had headed the New York-based company for 37 years.

Greenberg has insisted that his actions as head of the company were proper.

Gen Re parent Berkshire Hathaway Inc., an investment company based in Omaha, Nebraska, is led by the influential billionaire Warren Buffett.