Fannie Mae will be fined somewhere between $300 million and $500 million for the alleged manipulation of accounting books.The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) issued the results of a three-year investigation of Fannie Mae today. The assessment is expected to be severely critical of the company.Regulators are expected to recommend that the actions of the executives be reviewed, with the potential firing of several board members and top executives that are still with the company.Documents show that top-level management focused on a $200 million deferral and meeting earning targets in order to receive full bonuses in the $27 million range.According to regulators, Fannie Mae was wrong in deferring accounting in 1998 for $200 in expenses to future periods in order for executives to collect future bonuses.
"By deliberately and intentionally manipulating accounting to hit earnings targets, senior management was able to maximize their bonuses," the ORHEO report states.The report says that Fannie Mae's board failed in its oversight responsibilities and did not maintain its independence from the company's former chairman and CEO, Franklin Raines.Accounting transactions had fake signatures that allowed the company to meet the earnings targets for 1998.OFHEO has already levied a record $125 million fine in 2003 against financial cousin, Freddie Mac, for misstating earnings by $5 billion for 2000-2002.It is estimated that Fannie Mae had overstated its earnings by as much as $11 billion. The SEC has ordered Fannie Mae to restate earnings back to 2001.
The Justice Department is currently pursuing a criminal investigation of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
.Martin Lukac(http://www.MartinLukac.com), represents http://www.RateEmpire.
com and http://www.1AmericanFinancial.com, a finance web-company specializing in real estate/mortgage market. We specialize in daily updates, rate predictions, mortgage rates and more.
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By: Martin Lukac
