UPDATE 1-Icahn nods at Valeant interest, pushes for cash repatriation law

(Adds Icahn comments on Valeant, AIG, cash repatriation law)
By Michael Flaherty
NEW YORK, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn
made a cryptic reference suggesting he has an interest in
embattled drug maker Valeant on Tuesday, and said he was
speaking to U.S. politicians about a corporate cash repatriation
law that would deter so-called tax inversion deals.
"I'm not in Valeant, well, I don't want to say I'm not
completely in it but I'm not going to tell you where I am with
it," Icahn said, when asked about the company at the New York
Times DealBook conference. He did not explain further.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (N:VRX) VRX.TO shares
have plunged almost 40 percent since a scathing report last
month by a short-seller alleged accounting improprieties in a
network of specialty pharmacies.
Icahn said he was speaking to Wisconsin Republican
Congressman Paul Ryan and New York Democratic Senator Chuck
Schumer about a law that would encourage U.S. companies to
repatriate cash from overseas, and would discourage the
controversial practice of inversion, where a company strikes a
merger deal to re-incorporate overseas and lower its tax rate.
Icahn said he supports Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump, but said he would not be Treasury Secretary under
him, as Trump has suggested. The activist investor said he never
goes to Washington, but added that some of the politicians he
speaks to are brighter than some of the chief executives he
deals with.
Speaking on his latest corporate campaign, Icahn said he had
been in touch with American International Group Inc (N:AIG) AIG.N
Chief Executive Peter Hancock and confirmed that the two would
soon meet.
In a letter sent to AIG last week, Icahn said he wanted
Hancock to spin off AIG's life and mortgage units into public
companies, cut costs more aggressively and give back more cash
to shareholders.
Hancock said on Tuesday that a split would drive up certain
expenses and distract the company from cost-cutting, adding the
amount AIG spent on U.S. regulatory compliance was a fraction of
its total regulatory compliance costs around the world.
AIG is also taxed as a life and non-life insurer, which
allows it foreign tax credits. Hancock had said in a letter to
shareholders in 2014 that changes to this structure would mean
forfeiting "significant economic benefit."
Icahn said on Tuesday he has agreed to hear what Hancock has
to say, in a meeting that Hancock said will happen on Thursday.