U.S. jury rules for Starr in AIG legal battle

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A company run by former AIG CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg did not breach a trust when it ended an executive retirement scheme at the insurer more than four years ago, a federal jury ruled on Tuesday.

The final decision in the case between American International Group Inc and Starr International, heard over the past three weeks in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, will be made by Judge Jed Rakoff, and is expected at the latest by next month.

AIG had sought to establish that there was the creation of an oral trust in 1970, entrusting Starr International to use the block of AIG shares acquired in a company restructuring to fund an executive retirement scheme for generations of AIG employees. It had charged Starr International breached that trust, and with a second claim of conversion related to sales of the stock for the company's own use.

The eight-person jury returned their verdict after 4-1/2 hours of deliberation. It ruled Starr was not liable on the two claims.

Rakoff said in court on Tuesday he would take the jury's determination "very seriously" in coming to his own decision.

The verdict is a personal vindication for Greenberg, 84, who was forced out of American International Group Inc after 38 years as CEO when he did not cooperate with an internal investigation into accounting practices at the insurer that once claimed global dominance.

AIG said in a statement after the jury announced its verdict that it was "disappointed."

"We await the court's final ruling. We continue to believe in the merits of our claims," the statement said.

(Reporting by Lilla Zuill and Grant McCool; Editing Bernard Orr)