Oct 06 2008

3 Obama advisors who helped Wall Street fall.

Published by Terrell at 11:37 pm under Economy, Federal, Presidential Race

Here is a quick look into 3 former Fannie Mae executives who have brought down Wall Street. This is from dap19 a poster on Talking About Politics.
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. At the time of his departure The Wall Street Journal noted, ”Raines, who long defended the company’s accounting despite mounting evidence that it wasn’t proper, issued a statement late Tuesday conceding that ‘mistakes were made‘ and saying he would assume responsibility as he had earlier promised. News reports indicate the company was under growing pressure from regulators to shake up its management in the wake of findings that the company’s books ran a foul of generally accepted accounting principles for four years.” Fannie Mae had to reduce it’s surplus by $9 billion. 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. http://housingdoom.com/2006/12/18/fannie-charges/ . The Government noted, ‘The 101 charges reveal how the individuals improperly manipulated earnings to maximize their bonuses, while knowingly neglecting accounting systems and internal controls, misapplying over twenty accounting principles and misleading the regulator and the public. The Notice explains how they submitted six years of misleading and inaccurate accounting statements and inaccurate capital reports that enabled them to grow Fannie Mae in an unsafe and unsound manner.’ These charges were made in 2006. The Court ordered Raines to return $50 Million Dollars he received in bonuses based on the miss-stated Fannie Mae profits.

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. In everyday English - he was cooking the books. The Government Investigation determined that, ’Chief Financial Officer, Tim Howard, failed to provide adequate oversight to key control and reporting functions within Fannie Mae,’ On June 16, 2006, Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., asked the Justice Department to investigate his allegations that two former Fannie Mae executives lied to Congress in October 2004 when they denied manipulating the mortgage-finance giant’s income statement to achieve management pay bonuses. 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 is a former executive at Lehman Brothers and who was later forced from his position as Fannie Mae CEO.   A look at the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s May 2006 report on mismanagement and corruption inside Fannie Mae, and you’ll see some interesting things about Johnson. 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.’   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 Chief Economic Advisor.

TIM HOWARD?
Howard is also a Chief Economic Advisor to Obama.

JIM JOHNSON?
Johnson hired as a Senior Obama Finance Advisor and was selected to run Obama’s Vice Presidential Search Committee.


3 Responses to “3 Obama advisors who helped Wall Street fall.”

  1. # Julianneon 07 Oct 2008 at 11:30 am

    Those three advisors? Not so much with the advising.

    1) Franklin Raines has spoken with the Obama Campaign ONCE. So much for “Chief Economic Advisor”, but nice try.

    2) Jim Johnson was in fact hired to vet VP candidates. No role in finance. He quit months ago.

    3) The Tim Howard connection is a COMPLETE FABRICATION.

    Don’t believe me? Try “the google”.
    http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/fanniemae.asp
    http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=7CBB865D-18FE-70B2-A80ACC7D03A8F14D

    Rebuttals from such bastions of integrity as NRO and FR do not count.

    But, thank you for reposting an unsubstantiated comment you found on a message board. I’m one of those “evil activists” who works the field: I’ll be sure to tell all my nasty Democratic friends about your integrity, Mr. Terrell. Bonus points if you delete my comment!

  2. # Terrellon 07 Oct 2008 at 4:13 pm

    You do not seem to understand that the hiring of someone to a campaign and then having them resign because of their corrupt activity goes right to judgment, character, and integrity. Raines and Johnson have direct ties to Obama that you do not deny. Wright, Ayers, and Lezko also point out Obama’s lack of integrity, judgment nand character. Do you see a theme here?

    If you were truly a “activist” and not a coward you would post your name here. You must be one of those types who wants to continue the corruption here in North Carolina. How much $$ are you getting paid for by the Obama campaign. Would you be working so hard for Obama if you were not getting that check.

    Please post here their and their corporations donations to his campaign? That would settle the question.

  3. # Terrellon 07 Oct 2008 at 4:37 pm

    The question still remains, “where are Obama’s campaign donations coming from”? His campaign boasts of a donor database of over 1.5 million contributors; yet over 60% of the money his campaign has raised has come from less 10% of his donors. In fact, as of late winter, just 350 campaign bundlers were responsible for over $78 million in campaign contributions.

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