WASHINGTON (AP) — The 2008 government bailout of American International Group Inc. was specifically designed to punish the insurance giant, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in U.S. court Monday.

The $85 billion loan package extended to AIG — then reeling from the financial and housing crisis — gave the government control of 80 percent of its stock. Unlike other major financial firms rescued in the middle of the worst economic downturn in roughly 80 years, Paulson said that AIG shareholders should have faced punishment for their troubled balance sheet as part of any rescue.