A controversial private holding company controlled by AIG's most powerful people - and holding some $15.8 billion in AIG shares - is no longer based at AIG's Bermuda office on Richmond Road.

Starr International Company (SICo) holds about 12 percent of AIG's shares, but is set apart from AIG as a privately held company.

Although AIG's Richmond Road address was home to Starr until within the last week, probing questions from US regulatory authorities on the independence of the powerful Starr organisation are understood to have forced its move.

"They have sought and obtained alternate premises," a person close to the matter told The Royal Gazette on condition of anonymity.

Although separate from AIG, the company was set up by AIG management in 1975 as a deferred compensation vehicle for senior executives. SICo was named after AIG founder, the late C.V. Starr.

Last week AIG admitted having closer ties than it previously stated to several offshore entities.

Of Starr, it said it would change its accounting treatment to expense the deferred compensation granted to certain AIG employees.

Previously the plush payments into Starr's coffers for the lucky few invited to participate in the lucrative scheme were not included as expenses in the calculation of AIG's consolidated net income.

At last week's closing share value, the dollar value of SICo's shareholding in AIG would have stood at about $15.8 billion.

AIG's share price has slumped recently, closing on Friday at a two-year low of $50.95.

AIG's Bermuda office boosted security measures last weekend after concerns that evidence related to the investigations could be destroyed.

On Sunday, the company fired its Bermuda-based legal counsel, Michael Murphy, for "failure to cooperate with governmental and regulatory enquiries". In addition to being legal counsel, Mr. Murphy, a close confidante of ousted AIG CEO Maurice (Hank) Greenberg, also played key roles in several other Bermuda AIG subsidiaries - but no more.

That may not apply to Mr. Murphy's ties to Starr. Mr. Murphy is believed to have had an association with SICo since the early 1990s, holding the influential posts of director and secretary.

Starr was described by a person familiar with the company as independent from AIG even if only by an "accounting nicety". As for Mr. Murphy's ties to Starr International, the person said: "I believe they continue".

Mr. Greenberg is also reported to still be chairman of Starr despite the high-profile corporate scandal - including allegations that documents and data were removed by AIG employees from the Bermuda operation prompting an indictment threat against AIG from New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer - last week forcing him out of AIG after 37 years holding the reigns.