GOP rep says Fannie Mae exec got loan perks (Anyone surprised?)
And there is this at Slate:
Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines
Don't blame him for the mortgage giant's scandal … yet.
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Posted Thursday, Oct. 7, 2004, at 5:57 PM ET
On Wednesday, when Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines appeared before a House subcommittee to address allegations that he and his finance team had cooked the mortgage giant's books, he had three choices: One, he could do what other CEOs have done—take the Fifth (a prudent legal tactic, even for the innocent, albeit wimpy and unsatisfying). Two, he could claim he was shocked to discover that his finance department was staffed by hoodlums (also typical, even less admirable). Three, he could stand behind the accounting, his team, and his company, explain the decisions, and suggest that the allegations were wrong.
Raines chose option No. 3, which increased his personal risk and raised a for-now unanswerable question: Is he the perpetrator of an accounting crime, the target of a political witch hunt, or the victim of an overzealous bureaucracy?
The subcommittee collared Raines after Fannie Mae's regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (or OFHEO), published a 211-page diatribe citing a litany of sins: "pervasive and willful" earnings manipulation, lax controls, perverse incentives, unjust bonuses. The press pounced, likening Fannie Mae to Enron, calling for Raines' head. The Securities and Exchange Commission launched an inquiry, the Justice Department a criminal investigation.