Posted on 04/23/2009 9:58:50 AM PDT by pissant
Both the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal are reporting that Freddie Mac's Chief Financial Officer, David Kellermann, who was found dead Wednesday in an apparent suicide, was involved in recent months in a heated dispute with Freddie's regulator over how to reflect costs of President Obama's anti-foreclosure program.
The Post said Kellermann and other Freddie officials "tussled" with the Federal Housing Finance Agency early last month as the company prepared to file a quarterly report with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Top executives, including Kellermann, were insistent that Freddie Mac inform shareholders of the cost to the company of helping carry out the Obama administration's housing recovery plan, the two newspapers reported. The Post, citing several unnamed sources, said the regulators "urged the company not to do so." An unnamed FHFA official who spoke to the Post disputed that, "saying the regulator did not oppose disclosure but how the information was portrayed in the filing."
In the end, FHFA reportedly retreated and Freddie formally disclosed that the Obama anti-foreclosure plan could force the firm, which is in a federal government conservatorship, to take a pre-tax charge of $30 billion.
While the Obama administration might not want to have the pricetag for its foreclosure efforts look too big, the reason regulators may have pressured Fannie to understate the cost of the program is pretty simple: both Obama and Geithner said publicly that it wouldn't have a material financial impact on Fannie or Freddie.
As Obama unveiled his foreclosure program at an event in Mesa, Ariz. on February 18, he said: "While Fannie and Freddie would receive less money in payments, this would be balanced out by a reduction in defaults and foreclosures."
And when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner briefed reporters at the Mesa speech he said, in response to a question from POLITICO, that officials at Fannie and Freddie had concluded that the program to ease refinancing rules would actually benefit the firms' bottom lines.
“Fannie and Freddie believe that the program we announced--this refinancing program is economically sensible for them and will leave them overall in a better position going forward," Geithner said. The relevant part of the program allowed homeowners with Fannie and Freddie backed loans to refinance even if their loan represented more than 80% of the value of the home, as long as it did not exceed 105% of the home's value.
At the same briefing, Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan did say there would be a cost to Freddie and Fannie to modify some mortgages, but he said that cost would be covered by the federal TARP program.
That said, it's unclear to what degree FHFA would feel obligated to carry water for the Obama administration. FHFA Director James Lockhart had a high ranking post at the Social Security Administration under President Bush and was appointed by Bush in 2006 to head up Fannie and Freddie's regulator at the time, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.
He got Vince Foster’ed.
Object Lesson: “don’t cross or disagree with Damien”
Fort Marcy park has been done before...
Do we have a list of any other suspicious Obamacides?
A couple of people with the Chicago church The Zero attended IIRC
I agree... something doesn’t fit right here.
The unsolved murder of his gay pal and choirmaster Donald Young
Yep. Vince Fostered, Ron Browned...take your pick.
No one is allowed to tell the truth against the grain of the "One".
I will never attend an important meeting again without a recording device.
I’d bet the house it was not a suicide.
Folks, the situation is far worse than we know. This is very serious and Bernanke, Geithner, Obama, et al are simply out of control. Somebody had better step in soon and DO SOMETHING or we are all toast...
How many other derivative failure, bank bailout suicides were there? IIRC, only two — Rene-Thierry who ran a fund connected with the Madoff failure and Christen Schnor of HSBC — although that one may have been something else. He was found hung in a swank room at a London hotel. I’d like to know if there were others.
Statistics are a crime fighters tool, too.
The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT is pushing business people to LIE to their shareholders and the public. This is crazy. Either they’ve lost their minds or the situation is far worse than we know. The ENRON liars went to jail, remember? Here, the government is encouraging them to lie! Kellerman would have been a patriot had he stood up and told us the truth. So, suicide? Or did they shut him up before he squealed? I concoct it.... you decide!
I was wondering what happened this would be a big story on all the news media’s if it was a car chase in California..Not murder, could they be protecting the slugs that did this..
Not to go totally tin foil here, but remember Banco d'Ambrosia (the Pope's Bank) and the guy who was found hung under Black Friar's Bridge in London????
You might want to make sure the recording device is at the other end of a wireless connection so it doesn't disappear WITH you!!!
Right! The circumstances here really don’t add up - and this man apparently had done nothing wrong. Isn’t it usually the criminals who commi suicide AFTER they’re found guilty? I wouldn’t think stress at work would drive a successful man like this to take his own life, especially in his home where his family could find it. And I’m still wondering how his wife found him in the basement in the pre-dawn hours.
ping
I getting one of those USB pens that records mp3.
The Truth?
YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!
Plus, people rarely kill themselves where their kids can stumble onto the scene (unless they REALLY hate their kids) no evidence that this guy was having family problems. Plus, at least one report said gunshot. So, watch the autopsy disappear, the body cremated within hours and the wife scared into silence. They got him...
What are you talking about???
Well, it’s been obvious since last fall that the “bailout” plan is not a bailout plan at all, because Obama and the politicians have all insisted that the banks should continue to make subprime mortgage loans in the name of racial justice.
It is merely a way of leveraging and extending a bad situation and making it even worse. The same politicians who made this mess are still in charge, shoveling in good money after bad.
Naturally, Obama doesn’t want that information to be too widely understood until it’s too late to reverse the damage.
I strongly suspect that he had information on someone that he was going to spill and had to be “silenced”. 0bamacide or Arkancide?
This is EXACTLY what fascism looks like. The govt holds a gun to your head and tells you what to do, what to say, or else. Read about the German economy in the 1930s. No shortage of suicides or “accidents”.
Yeah, I saw that gunshot reference this morning. How strange is that? I’m sure you’re right that the body will be cremated soon and we’ll never learn more. Not only that, anyone who hints that there might be irregularities will be branded a conspiracy freak. Just like Ron Brown and Vince Foster days from the Clinton WH. Here we go...
Yes, completely common, ordinary, nothing to see here. Let's move along... (eyes rolling...)
Both the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal are reporting that Freddie Mac's Chief Financial Officer, David Kellermann, who was found dead Wednesday in an apparent suicide, was involved in recent months in a heated dispute with Freddie's regulator over how to reflect costs of President Obama's anti-foreclosure program.
Sigh, I had wondered if there was more to the story. I can't help but wonder how DUmmies are considering this. It would be strange enough if he had randomly committed suicide during the 100 day honeymoon with the Obama administration and Obama's big fixes, but to find that Kellerman had 'tussled' for months with them is a red flag. Even the lefties should see that...
And, gee whiz, we all know Obama's anti-foreclosure program will cost nothing! It's magic! /sarc
As to the lie part in this - there is an additional lie from the WH. The WH lawyers have advised the people investigating just how dangerous some of the Gitmo terrorist detainees are. The report showed they are too dangerous to release in the US. But Obama refuses to accept that and the WH wants them to redo the evaluation and come up with an "opposite answer! (See article on FR today: Obama Refuses to Accept Findings That Gitmo Detainees are too Dangerous to Release Into US.... ). Directly from Obama's orders - people are not supposed to tell the truth in his Administration...that is certainly "Transparent." So add this to the list of LIES BEING PERPETRATED BY THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION!
Gunshot or hanging? Which? I’ve heard both now.
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