AIG's troubles amount to big money, even to L.A's wealthiest.

SOME of L.A.'s richest men are big victims in the ongoing saga at American International Group Inc., whose shares have lost nearly half their value over the past year.

Last month, AIG's chairman and chief executive, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, was forced to resign over an investigation into transactions that may have artificially bolstered AIG's balance sheet.

But the probes--and share decline--date back even further, and have cost a handful of the local business elite more than $1 billion on paper.

In October 2004, AIG was named in an investigation of fraud and anti-competitive practices in the insurance industry that targeted bid-rigging at Marsh & McLennan Cos. Two AIG executives pleaded guilty to fraud. Since then. AIG's stock has fallen from the mid-$70s to the low $50s last week.

Philanthropist and civic leader Eli Broad, who sold his financial services firm, SunAmerica, to AIG in 1998, holds 29.6 million AIG shares, or roughly 1.1 percent of common stock, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Those holdings, now valued at $1.54 billion, have contracted by about $718 million in the past year.

Broad. No. 4 on the Business Journal's list of richest Angelenos last year with an estimated net worth of $5.3 billion, was an AIG director until 2003. He has not sold any shares since 2002, according to market research firm Thomson Financial.

Broad did not return a call seeking comment.

Also amassing significant paper losses are Steven Udvar-Hazy, chairman and chief executive of AIG unit International Lease Finance Corp., and his former partners. Leslie and Louis Gonda.

AIG acquired their aircraft leasing company for $1.3 billion in stock in 1990, and those holdings have since multiplied--making Udvar-Hazy, owner of 31.7 million AIG shares, No. 7 on the Business Journal list with a net worth of $2.6 billion last year. AIG's stock decline has cost him roughly $769.7 million in the past year.

Leslie Gonda. who owns 10.8 million AIG shares, retired from the board in 2000. His paper losses total about $262 million; he placed 17th on the Business Journal's list last year at $1.4 billion.

His son is Louis Gonda, worth an estimated $1.6 billion last year and No. 15 on the list. His holdings in AIG are not disclosed.

Also hit was former Broad aide Jay Wintrob, the locally based president of AIG Retirement Services, who owns 1.8 million AIG shares and has lost $43.7 million on paper.

In addition, California's large public retirement systems--California Public Employees Retirement System and California State Teachers Retirement System--have sued AIG to recover $400 million in stock losses suffered since February.