Freddie Mac CFO David Kellermann commits suicide

[CTBengalsFan]

[url="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090422/ap_on_bi_ge/us_freddie_mac_official_dead"]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090422/ap_on_...c_official_dead[/url]

[quote]VIENNA, VA. – The chief financial officer of Freddie Mac, one of the mortgage giants at the heart of the nation's financial meltdown, was found dead in his basement early Wednesday morning in what police said was an apparent suicide. David Kellermann, 41, apparently hanged himself in his suburban Washington home, said a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation. He asked not to be identified because the investigation was ongoing.

Kellermann was promoted last September when the government seized the mortgage company and ousted its top two executives. Neighbors said Kellermann had lost a noticeable amount of weight under the strain of the new job. Some neighbors said they suggested to Kellermann should quit to avoid the stress, but Kellermann responded that he wanted to help the company through its problems. The neighbors did not want to be quoted by name because they didn't want to upset the family.

Kellermann oversaw a staff of about 500 at Freddie Mac's McLean, Va., headquarters and was working on the company's first-quarter financial report, due by the end of May. Federal regulators closely oversee the company's books and sign off on major decisions.

That relationship has been tense and stressful, with Kellermann working long hours, a colleague said. Freddie Mac executives recently battled with federal regulators over whether to disclose potential losses on mortgage securities tied to the Obama administration's housing plan, said a person familiar with the deliberations who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Freddie Mac, which owns or guarantees about 13 million mortgages, has been criticized for financing risky loans that fueled the real estate bubble and are now defaulting at a record pace. The company lost more than $50 billion last year, and the Treasury Department has pumped in $45 billion to keep the company afloat. Last month, David Moffett, the government-appointed chief executive, resigned in frustration over strict oversight.

Kellermann worked for Freddie Mac more than 16 years, starting out as a financial analyst and auditor.

Freddie Mac and sibling company Fannie Mae have both come under fire from lawmakers because they plan to pay more than $210 million in bonuses through next year to give workers the incentive to stay in their jobs. Kellermann got $170,000 and was to receive another $680,000 over the next year.

Federal prosecutors in Virginia have been investigating Freddie Mac's business practices. But two U.S. law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the Freddie Mac investigation, said Kellermann was neither a target nor a subject of the investigation and had not been under law enforcement scrutiny.

Police responded to a 911-call at 4:48 a.m. at the suburban Virginia home Kellermann shared with his wife Donna and 5-year-old daughter Grace.

Paul Unger, who lives across the street from the Kellermanns in the Hunter Mill Estates community in Fairfax County, called the family a "solid, salt-of-the-earth kind of family" that hosted the neighborhood's Halloween party. "He was just a nice guy ... You cannot imagine what kind of pressures he must have been under," Unger said.

Kellermann graduated from the University of Michigan and was such a fan of the school's sports teams that he named his boat the "Wolverine Dream 2." He later went to business school at George Washington University and started at Freddie Mac in 1992.

Jeffrey Martin, a lawyer and high school classmate from Bay City, Mich., recalled that Kellermann wanted to be "Alex P. Keaton," the television character played by Michael J. Fox on the 1980s sitcom "Family Ties."

Kellermann "knew he wanted to climb the corporate ladder, and he climbed the corporate ladder," Martin said.

This is at least the fifth high-profile executive suicide in as many months.

In January, German billionaire investor Adolf Merckle, who lost a fortune in shorted Volkswagen stock, threw himself under a commuter train. Patrick Rocca, an Irish property investor who lost millions when the real estate market bottomed out, waited until his wife took their children to school before he shot himself in the head. Outside Chicago, real estate mogul Steven Good was found dead in his Jaguar, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

And three days before Christmas, Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet killed himself in his 22nd-floor office in Manhattan. He'd lost his entire savings, and his clients' money, to Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme.

News of Kellermann's death came as a shock to employees of the McLean, Va.-based company, with those who knew Kellermann tearing up on Wednesday morning and a quiet mood prevailing. Senior executives at the company heard the news on local radio before going to work.

Freddie Mac canceled a bond offering on Wednesday and top executives visited the family's home to offer condolences. John Koskinen, the company's interim chief executive, spoke to workers at an 11 a.m. staff meeting mourning Kellermann's loss, telling employees that they could use the company's counseling services and take time off if necessary.

In statement e-mailed to employees and the media, Koskinen called Kellermann "a man of great talents .... His extraordinary work ethic and integrity inspired all who worked with him."

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement that "our deepest sympathies are with his family and his colleagues at Freddie Mac during this difficult time."

And Michael Ferrell, executive director of the D.C. Coalition for the Homeless, where Kellermann was a volunteer board member, described him as a "compassionate, dedicated and committed."

___

Associated Press Writers Matt Small, Kamala Lane, Devlin Barrett and Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report from Washington and Fairfax County, Va. Corey Williams contributed reporting from Detroit and Matt Barakat reported from Fairfax County.[/quote]

I have a feeling this is going to turn into something big...

[BengalBacker]

Why was I thinking his name was Vince Foster? :hmm:

[CTBengalsFan]

True, I'm probably underestimating the Washington elite's ability to sweep these things under the rug.

[|Bengal Migration|]

One down.....

[CTBengalsFan]

[quote name='BengalBacker' post='766793' date='Apr 24 2009, 05:54 AM']Why was I thinking his name was Vince Foster? :hmm:






[/quote]

So this post piqued my interest since I had to wiki Vince Foster because I was 7 when he died. When I saw there was a conspiracy theory about his death, I had to hit that up on YouTube.

I found [url="http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FA0203DCE1CE2F20"]this documentary about Vince Foster's death.[/url] Then I saw something at the end by the creators of the film saying that 26 people connected to Bill Clinton died between 1991 and 1994 of unnatural causes, with 8 ruled suicides, and that they had another movie, [url="http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=836F1AF22BBD9FF7"]The Clinton Chronicles.[/url] Now, I'd heard of Mena, Arkansas, that he was involved in importing cocaine and all that, but damn, Clinton was a far worse person than George W. Bush could ever hope to be. It truly is amazing the amount of left cover provided to Democrats in power.

[#22]

Since when did you go all conspiracy-theory crazy on us?

[CTBengalsFan]

Eh, a while ago. Probably when the Wall Street krew set up shop in Washington around the beginning of the year.

But seriously, Vince Foster didn't kill himself. Unless one believes that he blew the back of his head out in a public park, but they weren't able to find any brain matter, skull fragments, OR the bullet. Nor were the able to find his fingerprints on the gun in his hand, which was conveniently untraceable. Also, it's odd that the gun was sitting there neatly in his hand. Do you think if you blow your brains out, the gun is just going to be lying in your hand? It's not going to recoil and fall to the ground somewhere else? Then the gun powder residue was on his index fingers, meaning he was holding the gun not by the handle, but instead by the cylinder. Oh yeah, plus all the carpet fibers that were on his suit - because I know when I'm wearing a suit, I roll around on the carpet. And his shoes being spotless when he was found on a dirt path. How about the fact that Janet Reno and Clinton insisted that the Park Police handle the investigation instead of the FBI, when it was clearly in their jurisdiction? I know if my childhood friend is found dead, I want the most equipped agency available to deal with it - not ol' Bill though. Okay, I'm gonna stop. The video will cover the rest if anyone's at all interested.

The rest of the Clinton stuff... who knows. There's too much smoke there for there to be no fire, I believe that much.