Thursday, April 23, 2009

Franklin Raines


- CEO of mortgage underwriting behemoth Fannie Mae from 1999 to 2004!

- Middle name: Delano!

- Son of a Seattle janitor!

- Harvard grad and Rhodes scholar!

- First African-American Fortune 500 CEO!

- Called "the Jackie Robinson of corporate America" by the head of the National Urban League!

- Formerly an investment banker and Clinton White House budget director!

- Railed against unethical corporate behavior during the Enron scandal!

- Received $3 million in sweetheart loans from Countrywide Financial while Fannie CEO -- a clear conflict of interest, since Fannie was one the biggest buyers of Countrywide mortgages!

- Cooked the books at Fannie -- and got $90 million in compensation as a result!

- Forced out as Fannie CEO when the SEC started investigating the "accounting irregularities" that benefited him so handsomely!

- Left Fannie with a $19 million golden parachute -- proving that cheating does pay, at least occasionally!

- Paid a paltry $2 million fine for his accounting fraud!

- Insists he's innocent of any wrongdoing!

- Started Fannie's focus on buying subprime mortgages in 2004 -- supercharging the inflation of the housing bubble!

- Purchased a luxury DC condo for $4.9 million in 2008 -- a year that saw a record three million home foreclosures!

- Idiot!

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