Posted on 09/26/2008 4:13:05 PM PDT by yoe
Barney Frank, the pro-internet gambling advocate from the financial services committee, has apparently backed policies that bankrupted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As you know, Barney Frank has spent much of his time in the past 2 years advocating the legalization of internet gambling, an issue that has gained little traction among his fellow Democrats. Several Republicans have backed his internet gambling legalization platform.
When the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate back in January of 2007, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at an all-time high of 12,400 and gas prices hovered around $2.15 per gallon. The Republican-led Congress of the previous 4-years had left a strong-economy in the hands of Socialist Democrats.
Fast-forward two years, under Democrat-controlled Congress. Just last week the Dow Jones hit a 5-year low of 10,485 and gas prices loomed near $4 dollars a gallon.
These harmful economic events all took place during a Democrat controlled Congress in Washington, led by Harry Reid and Nancy Pilosi.
As Washington politicians consider an 800 billion dollar supplement, American citizens sit back and watch the government spend their hard-earned dollars on bail-outs.
Barney Frank, in his role as Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, sits at the center of the problem.
Barnie Frank, the chairman of the Fannie Pack’ers
Barney.....bad boy....
Yes, they took place during a Dem controlled Congress, but they have been brewing for a long time. Even before the pervert was living in the WH. This country has been living beyond its means, and now we have to come to grips with that.
Follow Couric’s lead. Bill him as:
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Sodom)
And within the next year, reached above 14,200.
Bad argument.
WSJ reports a federal grand jury in LA is investigating so-called "Friends of Angelo" loan program at Countrywide Financial, under which influential borrowers received preferential terms on home loans.......including former Fannie Mae Chief Executive Franklin Raines and Cong Chris Dodd.
A STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE
RAINING MONEY - Franklin Raines fired for cooking the books---walks away w/ $90 million tax dollars
archived headliner reports dot.com with 2006 update
Clinton, and his Fannie Mae appointee, Franklin Raines.
Proving you can fool most of the people most of the time until you get caught, Franklin Raines, 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 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 in Washington 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 selected 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 well being supported by Fannie Mae's shareholders. Some relevant facts include: -- Raines and his wife will be paid $114,393 a month 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, 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, and thereby receive $600,000 more in pay.
Mr. Raines followed a well-worn path in the United States during the later half of the 20th century. His humble beginnings 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, not known about, or not understood that $9,000,000,000 was being mishandled.
FR POSTED http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2086744/posts?page=1
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