The Biggest Loser: Hank Greenberg

As the editors of Forbes today made last-minute tweaks to the list of America's 400 wealthiest people, Greenberg was cut from the club. To make the list, individuals must have at least $1.4 billion.

"[Greenberg] is the largest shareholder in the company. Taken together, he and the companies he runs -- C.V. Starr and Starr International -- own 313 million shares of AIG combined," said Ben Silverman, director of research at Insiderscore, a company that tracks executive stock transactions. "Right now that stock is worth $2.05 a share or $625 million. If you go back to the market on Dec. 31, 2007, we're talking about holdings valued at over $17.9 billion."

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While he might not end up out on the street, the company's precipitous decline took the former CEO by as much surprise as it did the other shareholders. He last sold shares of AIG in October 2007.

"He is well aware of what is going on in the insurance industry. He knows how important AIG is to the sector. He wasn't selling stock, he was holding on to it," Silverman said.

On Wednesday, Greenberg said he would "get by" despite the loss.

"I'll get by," he said, "but my heart goes out for the thousands and thousands of employees and their families who are shareholders, and not only in the United States but worldwide."

He blamed AIG's current board of directors. He has been at loggerheads with the company since stepping down in 2005 and has been a regular critic of its management.

"After I left the company, all the risk management procedures that we had in place were obviously dismantled," he told "GMA." "I can't explain that. There was a new board of directors. One should be asking that board of directors what they did and why."

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one board member said Greenberg was bitter and lying, and called the former CEO's comments "unadulterated nonsense."

"[It is] extraordinary he would go public and say something like this. He's just trying to purify his reputation," the board member said.