Made in America

Thursday, January 26, 2012

The Three Men Who Brought Down Wall Street

Franklin Raines was a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Fannie Mae.

Raines was forced to retire from his position with Fannie Mae when

auditing discovered severe irregularities in Fannie Mae's accounting

activities. Raines left with a "Golden Parachute" valued at $240 Million in

benefits. The Government filed suit against Raines when the depth of the

accounting scandal became clear.

Tim Howard - was the Chief Financial Officer of Fannie Mae. Howard was a

strong internal proponent of using accounting strategies that would ensure

a "stable pattern of earnings" at Fannie. Investigations by federal

regulators and the company's board of directors since concluded that

management did manipulate 1998 earnings to trigger bonuses.

Raines and Howard resigned under pressure in late 2004. Howard's

Golden Parachute was estimated at $20 Million.

Jim Johnson - A former executive at Lehman Brothers and who was later

forced from his position as Fannie Mae CEO. Investigators found that

Fannie Mae had hidden a substantial amount of Johnson's 1998 compensation

from the public, reporting that it was between $6 million and $7 million

when in fact it was $21 million. Johnson is currently under investigation for

taking illegal loans from Countrywide while serving as CEO of Fannie Mae.

Johnson's Golden Parachute was estimated at $28 Million.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

FRANKLIN RAINES?

Raines works for the Obama Campaign as his Chief Economic Advisor.

TIM HOWARD?

Howard is a Chief Economic Advisor to Obama under Franklin Raines.

JIM JOHNSON?

Johnson was hired as a Senior Finance Advisor and was selected to

run Obama's Vice Presidential Search Committee.