A lawyer for AIG called Hank Greenberg, the insurer’s ex-chief executive who was ousted in 2005, “a liar” and accused him of fabricating evidence in a $4.3bn lawsuit involving his private investment fund.

The forceful remarks punctuated the closing arguments on Monday in a three-week trial involving Mr Greenberg’s Starr International Company, which once funded a retirement plan at the insurer. Ted Wells, AIG’s attorney, painted the termination of that plan in 2005 as an act of retaliation by Mr Greenberg after he was forced out of the company. “He lied to you,” Mr Wells said of Mr Greenberg to the jury.