Ex-AIG lawyer says fired after ethics complaint

NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) - A former American International Group Inc (AIG.N) lawyer sued the firm on Friday, saying she was wrongfully dismissed in retaliation for complaining about what she believed was the corrupt sponsorship of a South Korean government employee.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan by Kimberly Lebron, a former compliance manager at the financial services firm, alleged she was dismissed in July last year after she blew the whistle on conduct by other employees that could be considered a violation of the federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

"There is no merit to her allegations," AIG spokesman Mark Herr said in response to the lawsuit. "We defend the action vigorously."

The lawsuit said Lebron learned a South Korean government entity, Korea Post, would invest $50 million in an AIG real estate fund in return for the firm sponsoring a "six-week paid vacation" for a government employee in New York and London.

Korea Post is the Asian country's postal and banking industry agency and the employee would be sponsored "under the fraudulent guise of learning about the real-estate investment business within AIG Global Real Estate," according to the lawsuit.

The case is Kimberly Lebron v AIG Inc, AIG Global Investment Corporation, AIG Global Asset Management Holdings and AIG Investments 09-04285 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) (Reporting by Grant McCool; Editing by Andre Grenon)