NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Eliot Spitzer said on Wednesday that former American International Group Inc. chief executive Maurice ?Hank? Greenberg and others failed in their duties and enriched themselves as executors of the estate of AIG?s founder Cornelius Vander Starr.

The New York Attorney General, in a letter sent to the Starr Foundation, said Greenberg and other executors had a conflict of interest when they sold Starr?s shares to two companies controlled by Greenberg, C.V. Starr & Co. Inc. and Starr International Co., at an excessively low price.

AIG then acquired these same assets ? now valued at $6 billion ? from C.V. Starr and Starr International in exchange for its stock at a far higher price, according to Spitzer.

The result of these transactions, which took place between 1969 and 1978, enriched C.V. Starr and Starr International, both controlled by Greenberg, and the foundation?s executors at the expense of the foundation and Starr?s estate.

Spitzer said the foundation should set up a committee independent of Greenberg and the others, who had been involved in the sales, to seek recovery of the assets.

Living executors including Greenberg, Houghton Freeman, John Roberts, and Ernest Stempel ? all former senior AIG executives ? called Spitzer?s actions ?absurd and politically suspect?.

They said the sale of the assets was in accordance with Vander Starr?s wishes, and they attacked Spitzer for bringing the issue up ?37 years after the event ... and long after the statute of limitations has expired?. They also argued that the valuation used was appropriate.