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.
But as always, NOTHING will come of it! Seriously, I feel like I am living in China! We have Obama controlled media. WTH is going on?? This country is slipping from our hands right before our eyes.
What are you going to do if anything with this info? It needs to get to Drudge and the rest. Also, send it to McCain’s camp. Not that it will do much good....
I seriously want to cry. There is no honor left from those on the left or in the media anywhere.
Yes, the whole statement is remarkably prescient of current events.
Much like his opinions regarding the “surge”.
Democrats have STILL not learned that the good old days when they could brazenly lie with impunity are long gone. THANK GOD for the new media.
Yeah try finding a reference to Global Poverty Act on Obama’s wiki page — not there.
I know where you're coming from, but that's not the case here. At all. Both President Bush AND John McCain are on hard record questioning Fannie and Freddy and asking for inquiries, and the Dem Establishment is on hard record blocking them every step of the way. This is not a matter of opinion that the Drive-Bys can play with. This is a matter of FACT.
Kinda cool to click on the History tab and compare differences between revisions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Franklin_Raines&action=history
Now you see it. Now you don’t.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Franklin_Raines&diff=239463704&oldid=239451138
Strike that, it is - under the “edit page” tab. Just no “edit” links on the “article” tab page. A little odd.
I agree with all you said, this is infuriating to say the least!
Doesn’t matter. None of this matters. Obama could kill someone in broad daylight in front of hundreds of witnesses and TV cameras, and the media would still not report it.
It would be niceif there was a tape of the interview.
The left wing sites and blogs are all in denial. Surfing through a few, the common meme is that the rightwingers are all lying about the connection and that this is another rightwing smear. Of the few that do admit any connection whatsoever, they dismiss it as trivial - Raines took a few calls from the campaign, big deal, that doesn’t make him an advisor.
These people live in some sort of alternate universe. One where Big Brother is alive and well and busy revising the facts to suit his current goals.
Another “Friend” Obama has to hide.
Good job! They’d have a great place there if Wikipedia were honest. Heck, Wikipedia could spare the world of scum and villainy. Unfortunately, they LIKE scum and villainy.
Huh? WTF is that?
“This is gone after somebody changed Raines Wikepedia entry”
My FRiends, we are seeing a glimpse of the future.
THe trench-battles are not gonna be fought by the candidates on the stump.
No, they will be fought by net-savvy people on both sides that will need to stay sharp in order to preserve the truth.
If you’re looking for a new career, this looks like one with staying power...........
“This is gone after somebody changed Raines Wikepedia entry”
My FRiends, we are seeing a glimpse of the future.
THe trench-battles are not gonna be fought by the candidates on the stump.
No, they will be fought by net-savvy people on both sides that will need to stay sharp in order to preserve the truth.
If you’re looking for a new career, this looks like one with staying power......
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