Freddie Mac Executive Commits Suicide

The New York Times is reporting Executive at Freddie Mac Is Found Dead.

David B. Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of the troubled mortgage giant Freddie Mac, was found dead Wednesday morning at his home in Northern Virginia, the police said.

The executive apparently committed suicide by hanging himself, according to people with knowledge of the investigation.

Mr. Kellermann, 41, had been Freddie Mac’s chief financial officer since September. He was named to the position when the federal government seized the company and ousted its top executives last fall. In recent weeks, according to neighbors and company officials, Mr. Kellermann had received a bonus of about $800,000. Such bonuses — which totaled $210 million for executives at Freddie Mac and its sibling company Fannie Mae — caused some controversy earlier this month, and some lawmakers called for them to be rescinded.

According to neighbors, Mr. Kellermann hired a private security firm after reporters came to his house to ask about his bonus. The Associated Press reported that Mr. Kellermann and his wife had a daughter.

Some neighbors told The A.P. that Mr. Kellermann had lost a noticeable amount of weight under the strain of the job, and some said they suggested to him he should quit to avoid the stress.

Mr. Kellermann was also involved in recent tense conversations with the company’s federal regulator over its public disclosures. Freddie Mac executives wanted to emphasize to investors that the company was being run for the benefit of the government, rather than shareholders.

The company’s regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Authority, had reportedly pushed to play down that language.

Freddie Mac was (and still is) being run the same way nearly all public corporations are run: For the benefit of the top executives not the benefit of shareholders.

There is no other explanation for executive pay, bonuses, stock options and other perks that all cause massive shareholder dilution over time.

Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo took out $1 billion in stock options and pay while running the company into the ground. Now taxpayers have to clean up the mess. Greed is everywhere you look. I cannot begin to list it all.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List