Scrutiny of American International Group Inc., the insurance giant recently rescued by the U.S. government, has revealed that executives concealed risky financial products from auditors.

Executives of AIG, which accepted an $85 billion loan from the U.S. government, are the latest to be grilled by the House Oversight Committee.

Reeling from losses tied to mortgage defaults, the company grabbed the government lifeline last month.

But the company earlier avoided oversight through evasion and deception. Federal regulators at the Office of Thrift Supervision warned in March that "corporate oversight of AIG Financial Products ... lack critical elements of independence."

Pricewaterhouse Cooper sternly warned the company earlier this year that the "root cause" of its problems was keeping internal overseers from gaining access to what was happening in its financial products branch.

"You have cost my constituents and the taxpayers of this country $85 billion and run into the ground one of the most respected insurance companies in the history of our country," Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., told former AIG CEOs Martin Sullivan and Robert Willumstad.

They blamed accounting rules forcing the firm to suffer losses rooted in exposure to bad mortgage-related securities.

But Mr. Sullivan, who ran the company from 2005 until June, convinced the firm's board of directors to award him a $5 million bonus for 2007 as AIG was losing $5 billion in the fourth quarter of that year. He also misled shareholders about the company's status even after Pricewaterhouse Cooper warned him of the firm's weakness.

This is the same company whose executives spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at a California retreat just days after receiving a federal bailout — a spree the White House called "despicable."