NEW YORK (AP) — A unit of American International Group that played an outsized role in the 2008 global financial crises is nearing its official end. AIG said Wednesday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that its Financial Products unit has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Bad bets on mortgages by the Financial Products unit knocked parent company AIG off its feet, leading to a cascading series of bank failures that nearly caused a global economic collapse. AIG was saved by a U.S. funded bailout package that eventually exceeded $182 billion, but the economic damage to the global economy was catastrophic. It was the beginning of the greatest economic catastrophe to hit the U.S. since the Great Depression. The filing for AIG Financial Products Corp. was made Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.