A fourth American International Group Inc. staffer based in Bermuda has quit following the resignation of three others last Friday.

All four staff left the company over concerns relating to an investigation of the insurer?s accounting practices, a senior company executive said last night.

Of those to resign, three were from AIG?s Bermuda legal department, but all four worked with Michael Murphy, said George Cubbon, CEO of AIG?s Bermuda operations.

Mr. Murphy was sacked as AIG?s Bermuda-based legal counsel more than a week ago ? and within hours of the company stepping up security measures at its Bermuda office after attempts were made to remove documents from the building.

The three resignations included Murphy?s assistant, Jenny Barclay, and Hillary Skerrit, also of the company?s legal department. Another staffer, Stuart Osborne, resigned from a separate AIG Bermuda department although Mr. Cubbon revealed that Mr. Osborne had also worked with Mr. Murphy.

The name of a fourth employee to quit AIG in recent days was not revealed, but it is known that the employee also worked in the legal department.

A memo to Bermuda-based AIG employees yesterday announced the resignations, although three of the four left the company last week.

Mr. Murphy, a close confidante of long-time AIG chief executive Maurice ?Hank? Greenberg was fired two Sundays ago for his ?failure to cooperate with governmental and regulatory inquiries?. Mr. Greenberg stepped down as chairman last week after New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer threatened to indict the company on learning of the attempt by employees in Bermuda to remove documents and destroy data, an episode he referred to as the ?document caper?.

Despite no longer having ties to AIG, it is understood that both Mr. Murphy and Mr. Greenberg continue to sit on the board of Starr International Company (SICo), a controversial privately-held holding company that owns about 12 percent of AIG?s stock.

Mr. Murphy?s former assistant, Ms Barclay, is listed in company records as Starr?s assistant secretary. It was not known yesterday if her ties to Starr continue.

Starr was housed at AIG?s Richmond Road address until it moved out about a week ago.

Bermuda is listed in company documents filed with the Registrar of Companies as Starr?s principal place of business. The company is however incorporated in Panama, listing a P.O. Box as its registered office.

Starr has held the Panamanian registration since September, 1943.

The company is named for AIG founder C.V. Starr. It is a private holding company that was set up by AIG management years ago as a deferred compensation vehicle for AIG executives and employees. Starr?s total stake in AIG is worth some $15.8 billion. The company has through the years operated without oversight from the AIG board.

AIG said last week that it would change its accounting treatment to expense the deferred compensations granted, through Starr membership, to certain AIG employees. search of company records at Bermuda?s Registrar of Companies revealed that a number of AIG senior management were added to the Starr board in February, 2001. They were: William N. Dooley (senior vice-president, AIG), Donald Kanak (AIG executive vice-chairman and COO), Kristian P. Moor (vice-president, domestic general insurance), Win J. Neuger (chairman and CEO of AIG Global Investment Group), R. Kendall Nottingham (AIG executive vice-president), Martin Sullivan (AIG CEO and president) and Jay S. Wintrob (president and CEO of AIG SunAmerica). The filing said all were US citizens.

The chairman of AIG?s Bermuda operation, Joseph Johnson, was made a Starr director in September, 1996 as was recently fired AIG executive Howard Smith.

Mr. Johnson took over chairmanship of the Bermuda operations from Mr. Greenberg in January.

It could not be confirmed yesterday which of these AIG executives, if any, continue to sit on the Starr board.

A report in the Wall Street Journal yesterday said that a number of AIG executives had been ousted from the Starr board.

Other past directors on the Starr board include ACE Limited chairman Brian Duperreault (a former AIG executive vice-president), who resigned in September, 1996 and Mr. Greenberg?s eldest son, Jeffrey, (also a former AIG executive vice-president), who quit the board in September, 1995. Well-known retired Bermuda AIG executive Ernest Stempel stepped down from the Starr board in 2001.