WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) - American International Group Inc (AIG), citing abuse directed against traders who got bonuses after the company’s bailout, is fighting to keep pay records private from ex-employees seeking the data in a sex-discrimination lawsuit.“Confidential treatment of this information is crucial to safeguard Financial Products’ employees’ safety and security, which has been jeopardised in the past,” lawyers for AIG said in a filing at US District Court in New Haven, Connecticut, dated April 29. “Previous disclosures resulted not only in the personal harassment of employees and their families at their homes, but also threats of physical violence.”Susan Potter, 58, and Deonna Taylor, 63, ex-vice presidents at AIG Financial Products, sued the company last year claiming the firm promoted a “boys club” culture that discriminated against older women. Their lawyer is demanding to know the salary, bonus and deferred compensation for each AIG FP employee since 2000, including dates of birth and gender, according to court filings last month.AIG executives received death threats, including one that said executives and their families should be “executed with piano wire around their necks,” after the firm doled out $165 million in bonuses following a federal bailout in 2008, then-CEO Edward Liddy said in a March 2009 congressional hearing.Deborah McKenna, an attorney for Potter and Taylor, declined to comment, as did AIG spokesman Mark Herr.AIG executives agreed to forfeit portions of their awards under pressure from officials including then-New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo who got the names of the bonus recipients and said there was no “public interest” in identifying those who returned money.Joseph Cassano was paid more than $40 million in both 2003 and in 2006 for leading the Financial Products unit, according to a document posted on the website of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in February. Cassano stepped down in 2008 after AIG reported a $5.29 billion quarterly loss fueled by his unit’s bets on subprime mortgages through credit-default swaps.