Posted on 09/18/2008 6:17:41 PM PDT by mathprof
Franklin Raines
Franklin Delano Raines (born January 14, 1949 in Seattle, Washington) is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Fannie Mae who served as White House budget director under President Bill Clinton. He is currently employed by Barack Obama's Presidential Campaign as an economic adviser.
The son of a Seattle janitor [1], Raines graduated from Harvard University, Harvard Law School; and Magdalen College, Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Raines was of age during the Vietnam War, but performed no military service. He served in the Carter Administration as associate director for economics and government in the Office of Management and Budget and assistant director of the White House Domestic Policy Staff from 1977 to 1979. Then he joined Lazard Freres and Co., where he worked for 11 years and became a general partner. In 1991 he became Fannie's Mae's Vice Chairman, a post he left in 1996 in order to join the Clinton Administration as the Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, where he served until 1998. In 1999, he returned to Fannie Mae as CEO, "the first black man to head a Fortune 500 company."[1]
On December 21, 2004 Raines accepted what he called "early retirement" [2] from his position as CEO while U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigators continued to investigate alleged accounting irregularities. He is accused by The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the regulating body of Fannie Mae, of abetting widespread accounting errors, which included the shifting of losses so senior executives, such as himself, could earn large bonuses [3].
In 2006, the OFHEO announced a suit against Raines in order to recover some or all of the $50 million in payments made to Raines based on the overstated earnings [4] initially estimated to be $9 billion but have been announced as 6.3 billion.[2].
Civil charges were filed against Raines and two other former executives by the OFHEO in which the OFHEO sought $110 million in penalties and $115 million in returned bonuses from the three accused.[5] On April 18, 2008, the government announced a settlement with Raines together with J. Timothy Howard, Fannie's former chief financial officer, and Leanne G. Spencer, Fannie's former controller. The three executives agreed to pay fines totaling about $3 million, which will be paid by Fannie's insurance policies. Raines also agreed to donate the proceeds from the sale of $1.8 million of his Fannie stock and to give up stock options. The stock options however have no value. Raines also gave up an estimated $5.3 million of "other benefits" said to be related to his pension and forgone bonuses.[6]
An editorial in The Wall Street Journal called it a "paltry settlement" which allowed Raines and the other two executives to "keep the bulk of their riches." [7] In 2003 alone, Raines's compensation was over $20 million.[3]
A statement issued by Raines said of the consent order, "is consistent with my acceptance of accountability as the leader of Fannie Mae and with my strong denial of the allegations made against me by OFHEO."[4]
In a settlement with OFHEO and the Securities and Exchange Commission, Fannie paid a record $400 million civil fine. Fannie, which is the largest American financier and guarantor of home mortgages, also agreed to make changes in its corporate culture and accounting procedures and ways of managing risk. [8]
In June 2008 Wall Street Journal reported that Franklin Raines was one of several politicians who received below market rates loans at Countrywide Financial because the corporation considered the officeholders "FOA's"--"Friends of Angelo" (Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo). He received loans for over $3 million while CEO of Fannie Mae. [5] Franklin Raines is currently one of Barack Obama's chief economic advisers.
BRAVO!!
Please look at my post #60. It applies to Shep also.
.
I get "file not found" from your link.
Google is cleaning things, but the Obama camp is using Google too. But as for Google, I think they are going to soon become the next corporate pariah...as in “big information” as big brother.
From The Corner:
Is He or Isn’t He? [Byron York]
The McCain has released a new ad entitled “Advice.” It says:
Obama has no background in economics.
Who advises him?
The Post says it’s Franklin Raines, for “advice on mortgage and housing policy.”
Shocking.
Under Raines, Fannie Mae committed “extensive financial fraud.”
Raines made millions.
Fannie Mae collapsed.
Taxpayers? Stuck with the bill.
Barack Obama.
Bad advice. Bad instincts. Not ready to lead.
Just a few moments ago, the Obama campaign released a statement from Raines:
I am not an advisor to Barack Obama, nor have I provided his campaign with advice on housing or economic matters.
Added Obama spokesman Bill Burton:
This is another flat-out lie from a dishonorable campaign that is increasingly incapable of telling the truth. Frank Raines has never advised Senator Obama about anything — ever...
Now, when the ad was released, the McCain campaign also released this supporting information:
The Obama Campaign Has Solicited Franklin Raines, Who “Stepped Down As Fannie Mae’s Chief Executive Under The Shadow Of A $6.3 Billion Accounting Scandal,” For “Advice On Mortgage And Housing Policy.” “In the four years since he stepped down as Fannie Mae’s chief executive under the shadow of a $6.3 billion accounting scandal, Franklin D. Raines has been quietly constructing a new life for himself. He has shaved eight points off his golf handicap, taken a corner office in Steve Case’s D.C. conglomeration of finance, entertainment and health-care companies and more recently, taken calls from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters.” (Anita Huslin, “On The Outside Now, Watching Fannie Falter,” The Washington Post, 7/16/08)
The Washington Post: “Two Members Of Mr. Obama’s Political Circle, James A. Johnson And Franklin D. Raines, Are Former Chief Executives Of Fannie Mae.” (Editorial, “Tough Decision Coming,” The Washington Post, 8/28/08)
As far as I can tell, the Post has not corrected its reporting. Who is correct? We’ll see.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDY5MGQ1MWMwMjQzM2E5ODI0NzNiZmUyZDVkNGVkYTY=
Your Kung Fu is strong.
Saw it. That’s why I first tried to do a google-search for earlier articles. It was clear that google was purging info. So I switched to yahoo and stumbled on what I posted.
What a great find. Thank you for posting this.
I have nothing but respect for the ever vigilant and resourceful posters here on FR. Thank you.
James Johnson: excerpt from NewsMax.
First, there is Jim Johnson, former Fannie Mae CEO turned adviser to the Obama campaign. According to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's May 2006 report on mismanagement and corruption inside Fannie Mae, Johnson obtained millions of dollars of hidden income from the corporation.
In fact, 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 it fact it was $21 million.
“[Fannie Mae] failed to disclose to OFHEO in a timely manner a post-employment agreement with former CEO James Johnson that provided him with substantial compensation in addition to that already provided upon his termination as a Fannie Mae employee,” noted the report.
check out Fannie Mae CEO James Johnson on Wiki.
On May 22, 2008, Democratic Party officials confidentially divulged that Obama had asked Johnson “to lead the process” for selecting Obama’s running mate.[1] On June 4, 2008, Obama announced the formation of a three person committee to vet vice presidential candidates, including Johnson.[2] However, Johnson soon became a source of controversy when it was reported that he had received loans directly from Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide Financial, a company implicated in the U.S. subprime mortgage lending crisis.[3] Although he was not accused of any wrongdoing and was initially defended by Obama on the grounds that he was simply an unpaid volunteer, Johnson announced he would step down from the vice-presidential vetting position on June 11, 2008 in order to avoid being a distraction to Obama’s campaign.
HOW IN THE WORLD WAS THE MAN WHO IS TO “LEAD THE PROCESS” TO FIND A VP JUST AN UNPAIED VOLUNTEER!?????
.....Wiki no good.....
.....Nobama reference added yesterday.....
.....Nobama reference deleted today.....
.....need more than Wiki.....
Obama was returning a big faor, to the tune of 126,000$ in political contributions over 4 years. He is second only to the BANKING COMITTEE’S Chairman, Chris Dodd (D). Yea.... THIS STINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good catch! If the cached page somehow mysteriously disappears into cyberspace, I cut and pasted the Wiki on Frankie on this thread yesterday morning:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2084338/posts?page=28#28
By Anita Huslin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 16, 2008; D01
In the four years since he stepped down as Fannie Mae's chief executive under the shadow of a $6.3 billion accounting scandal, Franklin D. Raines has been quietly constructing a new life for himself. He has shaved eight points off his golf handicap, taken a corner office in Steve Case's D.C. conglomeration of finance, entertainment and health-care companies and more recently, taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters.
bookmark
In addition to the congressional record, here’s an article I found in Fortune from 2005:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2084407/posts?page=7#7
This thread that the above post is on is a compilation of the Freddie and Fannie debacle in case you haven’t seen it.
Mathprof may want to add a link to this thread on that one.
On July 16, 2008, the Washington Post reported that Franklin Raines had "taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters." [9]. Also, in an editorial in August 27, 2008 titled "Tough Decision Coming", the Washington Post editorial staff claimed that "Two members of Mr. Obama's political circle, James A. Johnson and Franklin D. Raines, are former chief executives of Fannie Mae." [10] On September 18, 2008 John McCain's Campaign, in an ad critical of Obama, quoted the Washington Post to claim that Franklin Raines advises Barack Obama on economic matters. Both Raines and the Obama Campaign claim that Raines is not an Obama advisor and has never advised Senator Obama. [11]Seems like a fairly accurate and unbiased edit, so I'm guessing someone will blow it away.
Still no change to the start of the article. Although maybe nobody has a source that suggests he is being paid by the Obama campaign.
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