WILMINGTON, Del. - A Delaware judge has approved a $115 million settlement in a shareholder lawsuit against former executives of insurance giant AIG.

The settlement approved Wednesday was reached in September, just days before trial was to begin in a 2002 lawsuit challenging hundreds of millions of dollars in commissions paid by American International Group Inc. to C.V. Starr & Co., a privately held affiliate controlled by former AIG Chairman Maurice "Hank" Greenberg and other AIG directors.

Attorneys representing the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana alleged that New York-based AIG could have done the work for which it paid Starr, and that the commissions were simply a mechanism for Greenberg and other Starr directors to line their pockets.