Acting head of Freddie Mac commits suicide

wtop.com ^ | 4/22/09 | staff

[xtinct]

The acting head of Freddie Mac, David Kellermann, has apparently committed suicide, Fairfax County Police tell WTOP. Fairfax County Police spokeswoman Mary Anne Jennings says Kellermann, 41, was found at his Hunter Mill Estates home Wednesday morning.

Jennings says police responded to the home after family members called police around 5 a.m.

"We were called from inside the house to come investigate an apparent suicide," Jennings says.

Because of legal ramifications, Jennings says she can't describe the nature of the suicide.

"We're not to give you details of the condition of the body, except to say it was an apparent suicide," Jennings says.

[jersey117]

Our whole government needs to investigated.

Amen!

[penelopesire]

Backgroud info on all of the various heads of FM who have resigned(including info on Kellerman). He was to be replaced according to this article:

http://www.iddmagazine.com/news/185949-1.html

[republicanbred]

Very sad...suicide is a “permanent solution to a temporary problem” and is devastating to the family left behind. I know, as I am a family member left behind in a suicide. My prayers are with this family today.

[Liberty Valance]

Prayers for Mr. Kellermann’s family.

[Roccus]

PING!!

Remember Donald Manes? First thing I thought of when I read the headline. Second was Foster.

[peggybac]

And Ron Brown who died in a plane crash. Actually, I think he was already out from some pesky little hole in his head prior to the crash landing.

[concerned about politics]

Perhaps, he was planning to blow the whistle about something.

Well, if he was brought in to clean things up in September, I can imagine what he must have found. There's Dodd, Shumer, Frank, MoveOn, and the Community Reinvestment Act was a democrat legislation that forced the banks to cave to left wing pressure and give out the bogus loans.

The man had a very, very important story to tell. I hope he passed on what he knew before this happened.

[Miss Didi]

For those not watching Fox...the Friends interviewed his neighbor who said she woke up to ambulances and fire trucks at the house around 4:30 a.m. He was active in the community, working with the homeless, and had a little girl Gracie, aged 6 or 7.

[dforest]

I guess the idea it to basically “give” blacks and hispanics houses and send the bill to others in the form of taxes to cover the defaults.

Nothing surprises me anymore. I worked for a place once that built add on enclosures for homes, like garden rooms.

The application had a box for what race you were. Blacks and Hispanics got a lower interest rate. I was asked by the boss if I thought that was wrong. I said “yes, and then quit.

[maggief]

FNC: Survived by wife and five year-old daughter

[Corin Stormhands]

Senator Grassley, please pick up the white courtesy phone.
Senator Grassley, please pick up the white courtesy phone.

[Earthdweller]

“4” Here's another one...

Key witness in (presidential) passport fraud case fatally shot

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2232588/posts

[elpadre]

“..Because of legal ramifications, Jennings says she can’t describe the nature of the suicide.”

What legal ramifications are we talking about? Are they words from the WH? from Emmanuel?? Who??

[concerned about politics]

I heard yesterday that the Fed.gov is once again promoting SubPrime Crime! No money down, no credit check, interest-only loans for the first 10 years to minorities, etc. Anyone able to confirm this?

The Community Reinvestment Act is still on the books. No one has removed it. The banks still have to comply.

[FTL]

Interesting timing....

....sudden reversal of the NeoMarxist to “persecute” for “war crimes”.....

Almost like sending a message....”there are about to be some strange suicides....like those surrounding the Clintons. You guys raise a fuss and we’ll deflect attention with Bush stuff”.

I say let ‘em try.

[Liz]

RAINING MONEY - CEO Franklin Raines is fired for cooking Fannie Mae's books---walks away w/ $90 million in perks and payouts

Proving you can fool most of the people most of the time until you get caught, Franklin Raines (seen here with Clinton), who reigned for 5 years following Clinton's appointing him as CEO of Fannie Mae, the US' quasi-governmental mortgage house, has been ousted.

There are several ongoing investigations of Fannie Mae's operations and accounting practices under Raines covering the last 5 years in order to determine when accounting irregularities started and the magnitude of the financial shortfalls. Current estimates indicate that there was a $9 billion misstatement of earnings and accounting irregularities between 2000-2004.

Former chief executive Franklin Raines received more than $40 million in bonuses and other pay as a result of falsely inflated earnings at the US' largest mortgage finance company. This is according to a supplement of a lawsuit filed by Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro.

Fannie Mae added "tens of millions of false revenue" to meet "Raines' 1999 publicly announced goal to double" earnings over the next five years, Petro's November 23, US District Court filing alleges. The filing alleges that, "Raines personally profited by over $40 million by this false earnings history.

========================================

Update -- 2/22/2006: Former Senator Warren Rudman's team of investigators and auditors from his law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and from Huron Consulting Group presented their 600-page report calling Fannie Mae's accounting systems "grossly inadequate." It is based on a review of millions of documents.

The report found that accounting obfuscations were intended to increase stock valuations, thus increasing executive bonuses.

Raines was one of the most influential and politically savvy figures in Washington is identified by the Rudman investigation as not directly knowing that Fannie Mae's accounting practices violated rules. The report does state, "We did find, however, that Raines contributed to a culture that improperly stressed stable earnings growth and that... he was ultimately responsible for the failures that occurred on his watch".

===============================

Raines will continue to live in luxury ad infinitum.
--He and his wife will pocket $114,393 a month pension as long as they live.
-- Stock options: Raines holds vested stock options worth roughly $5.7 million.
-- Stock bonuses: Raines was granted awards, payable in stock, for reaching performance goals. Under the program, he got 69,577 shares... half of what Fannie determined he should receive in January. At Monday's close (circa 2006), the shares are worth $4.9 million. It is unclear if he will receive the rest.
-- Deferred pay: For tax planning while employed by the company, Raines was allowed to put off the receipt of payment. These deferred past payments total $8.7 million
-- Future salary: Although Fannie Mae says Raines' retirement was effective December 21, 2004, he is seeking to have it effective as of June 22, 2005, to extort $600,000 more in pay.

======================================

WALL STREET RAINES Mr. Raines followed a well-worn path in the United States during the later half of the 20th century. His humble eginnings were in Seattle. He won a scholarship to Harvard and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. He worked on Wall Street for over a decade in the prestigious firm Lazard Freres. He was a member of President Clinton’s cabinet and director of his Office of Management and Budget. In 1999, Clinton selected him for the position of Fannie Mae CEO.

Following revelations of the financial scandal, Mr. Raines took early retirement from Fannie Mae so that he could collect a compensation package including $1 million per year for life and $11 million in vested stock. In 2003 Mr. Raines was paid $20 million in salary and bonus.

Fannie Mae is facing criminal investigations by the Justice Department, operational investigations by the SEC, and various Congressional investigations. There are questions regarding earnings statements being incorrectly inflated. In 2003, if derivative and other losses had been included, no bonuses would have been paid to top executives. However, deferral of the losses allowed declared earnings to reach a level which triggered maximum executive bonuses.

It is a far stretch to imagine that Franklin Raines actually was capable of satisfying the requirements of the positions he held from Harvard to Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. If he had been competent enough to hold those positions, how could he have been Fannie Mae's CEO for 5 years and allowed, facilitated, and feigned ignorance that $9,000,000,000 was being mishandled?

[Miss Didi]

Politico’s Mike Allen, who has experience reporting on crime, told the Friends that it is very suspicious that a man would commit suicide at home with his family present.

[Eroteme]

He just took over in September...

But he's been with Freddie Mac since 1992. In post 15, right after yours, his previous position is noted--director of mortgage portfolio strategy. Pretty much puts him in the architect's seat...or, at least, foreman at the job site for the house of cards.

[penelopesire]

Letter(pdf) by Kellerman dated June 2008. He sounds like he did not want to reveal info that the accounting board was asking for. Very interesting stuff.

http://www.fasb.org/ocl/FSP133B45C/52192.pdf

[maica]

Thanks for this important post which could be emailed to everyone vaguely interested in the current situation. Reading it with hindsight makes my skin crawl. Why did it not cause the same reaction to everyone reading it in 2004?

Because ‘everyone’ thought that ‘everyone else’ was acting responsibly, so these give-away mortgages must be sound.