Wall Street bankers on target to collect about $1 billion breaking up AIG

Wall Street firms may get their biggest payday -- nearly $1 billion in fees -- working for the government to break up AIG (AIG). The fees will be four times that paid to break up AT&T Corp in 1996, according to a report in today's Wall Street Journal. Most of the fees will be earned by Wall Street banks and lawyers as pieces of AIG are sold off.

The government hopes this grand sell-off over three to five years will enable the taxpayers to recoup more than $100 billion loaned to AIG. The government currently owns almost 80 percent of AIG.