AIG will this week come face to face with Hank Greenberg, its dominant chief executive for more than four decades, in a trial starting on Monday over a $4.3bn lawsuit that promises to shed new light on the rise and dramatic fall of one of the world’s largest insurers.

Mr Greenberg, who left AIG in 2005 amid an accounting investigation, is not a defendant in the case but is likely to be its star witness and could take the stand as early as on Tuesday.