O’Connell was president of U.S. Life Companies, a subsidiary of Pioneer Maurice “Hank” Greenberg’s American International Group, until he joined MassMutual in ’99. This life insurance concern is part of MassMutual Financial Group, a global financial services company with more than $200 billion in assets. MassMutual recently bought a Hong Kong insurance company to use as a portal into Asian markets. O’Connell sent a letter to some of his employees in ’99, informing him that he and his wife, Claire, had each contributed $1,000 to Bush’s campaign. The letter then urged the recipients to send checks to their boss, O’Connell, so he could forward them to the campaign. A Federal Elections Committee spokesperson said the tactic was legal, so long as it was confined to executive and administrative staff and provided that these employees were under no pressure to contribute!