REFERENCE----STATUS CUOMO-GILLIBRAND: Their fingerprints are all over the current depression/recession. ap When NY Gov-elect Cuomo was pointed Housing and Urban Development Secy under Clinton, Cuomo w/ Clinton's approval, was the prime mover behind programs that destabilized Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and his programs to mandate banks loan to low-income and bad-credit homebuyers were a significant factor in the housing collapse.
Congresswoman Gillibrand served as Special Counsel to Andrew Cuomo, Pres Clinton's appointee as Secy of HUD. Gillibrand played a key role in furthering HUD’s Labor Initiative and *New Markets initiative (sub-prime mortgages); Gillibrand worked to strengthen the Davis-Bacon Act and drafting new markets legislation for public and private investment in building infrastructure to revitalize lower income areas across the nation."
"Sure, I know how I got the HUD job. Clinton needed my daddy in his corner,
so I got the HUD job. HUD is where I got the $18 million to run for Governor."
CUOMO AND BILL CLINTON CREATED CONDITIONS FOR MELTDOWN (Village Voice 8-5-08) Andrew Cuomo, the youngest Housing and Urban Development secretary in history, made a series of decisions between 1997 and 2001 that gave birth to the country’s current crisis. He took actions that—in combination with many other factors—helped plunge Fannie and Freddie into the sub-prime markets without putting in place the means to monitor their increasingly risky investments. He turned the Federal Housing Administration mortgage program into a sweetheart lender with sky-high loan ceilings and no money down, and he legalized what a federal judge has branded “kickbacks” to brokers that have fueled the sale of overpriced and unsupportable loans.
Three to four million families are now facing foreclosure, and Cuomo is one of the reasons why.......
SOURCE http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-08-05/news/how-andrew-cuomo-gave-birth-to-the-crisis-at-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac/
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Raines says housing bubble won't burst
Washington Post Biz Journals, June 2003, Jeff Clabaugh
FR Posted by STARWISE
(Excerpt) With home prices in the District up almost 78 percent in the past five years, there is growing concern there is a housing bubble that is about to burst - both locally and nationwide.
Fannie Mae CEO Frank Raines, however, is dispelling those concerns. In an interview with Bloomberg News, Raines, a former budget director in the Clinton administration, says the housing rally won't end like the stock market did three years ago. "We do not see any sign of a housing price decline nationwide, let alone the bursting of a bubble," Raines is quoted as saying. Read more at washington.bizjournals.com ...
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ANALYSIS And this would have made a difference, how? Raines was on the wrong side of history, but he was hardly alone. Housing cheerleaders were everywhere. And back in 2003, the fun had barely even started.
Many of the laws requiring government oversight of the market written after the last great market crash-----in 1929---- were eliminated during the Clinton administration---one of many ignorant moves by the self-absorbed liberal Clintons.
Quota-pimp Clinton made stupid PC appointments----he put know-nothing Franklin Raines into Fannie Mae where the crook proceeded to loot the agency while fraudulently cooking the books.
(Wonder what Clinton's cut was?) Thanks to sap-happy Clinton, 2008 markets are devastated, and multi-billion dollar bailouts will crush the backs of working class taxpayers.
More on Raines below.
Fannie and Freddie are the centerpieces of the Democrat Party's criminal enterprise---where their cronies and collaborators end up in cushy jobs. Bill Clinton appointed Franklin Raines, Daley and Rahm Emanuel just as the quasi-governmental F/M engaged in rampant book-cooking so that F/M insider could help themselves to massive bonuses. The Chi/Tribune exposed how Emanuel's "profitable stint" was low-show w/ no work involved. Emanuel was not even assigned to committees, according to company proxy statements.
Immediately upon joining the board, Emanuel and other insiders qualified for $380,000 in stock and options plus a $20,000 annual fee, public records indicate. W/ Wall Street Emanuel there, accounting tricks were used to mislead shareholders about outsize profits F/M reaped from risky investments. The goal was to cook the books to keep fraudulent earnings on the books, to make Freddie Mac look profitable on paper-----AND to fraudulently obtain humongous annual bonuses for political insiders.
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The Government filed suit against F/M head Franklin Raines when the depth of the F/M accounting scandal became clear. READ IT HERE http://housingdoom.com/2006/12/18/fannie-charges/
The Government noted, "The 101 charges reveal how the individuals improperly manipulated earnings to maximize their bonuses, while knowingly neglecting accounting systems and internal controls, misapplying over twenty accounting principles and misleading the regulator and the public. The Notice explains how they submitted six years of misleading and inaccurate accounting statements and inaccurate capital reports that enabled them to grow Fannie Mae in an unsafe and unsound manner."
These charges were made in 2006. The Court ordered Raines to return $50 Million Dollars he received in bonuses based on the mis-stated Fannie Mae profits. (Soon going to trial.)
CIRCA 2004----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 getting bonuses of over $40 million by this false earnings history."
Update -- 2/22/2006: Former Senator Warren Rudman's team of investigators and auditors 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 supported by Fannie Mae's shareholders----fired for cooking the books and collecting an additional $90 million exit package.
Including: Raines pension is $114,393 a month as long as he lives---his wife collects after he dies. -- 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 to govt riches. 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. As F/M CEO Raines cooked the books and had already collected $40 million in salary and bonuses.
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.
SOURCE http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2086744/posts?page=1