Sure it’s possible he cooked the books–it’s also possible that he’s hiding pirate gold in his basement. WE HAVE NO EVIDENCE THAT HE COOKED THE BOOKS! SO CRITICIZING A GUY AS “BEING RESPONSIBLE” FOR THE FINANCIAL MESS WHO KILLED HIMSELF LIKELY DUE TO ENORMOUS STRESS IS WRONG! The guy was appointed in SEPTEMBER 2008–that’s SEVEN (7) months ago!–by the FEDERAL government because he has a long, long history of being ethical and knowledgeable. ACCOUNTING is not why the GSEs collapsed! I don’t have a clue how you can come to this conclusion. It’s illogical when the historical record is clear in this regard. I’ll tell you first hand that accounting procedures at the GSEs suck–they are maddening–not because people are “incompetent” but because these are some of the largest, most complex organizations on the face of the earth–and that’s not an exaggeration! But how on God’s green earth do weak controls as determined by audit make a man who is CFO for 7 months “responsible” for the collapse of the GSEs. Freddie Mac was at or close to it’s all-time high in stock price in 2007, YEARS after the accounting scandals in 2003. All I’m saying is the facts–you’re full of sh*t.
So you think he just offed himself, because of pressure or other reasons? I know we are all speculating.
I’m near that guys age and have a daughter. I never worked at a GSE but I’ve been overworked and depressed. I’d never pull the trigger on myself unless there was something so horrible that I couldn’t face it in the future (i.e. fraud, book cookin’, bad accounting, date with WillyR’s mother, etc.) Ever looked at a GSE balance sheet? They don’t make sense to me. Why does freddie need foreign currency swaps? What on earth could they be doing with those? how do they justify being leveraged 30:1? Isn’t that a red flag?
From the NYTimes: ““He had previously been the company’s controller and principal accounting officer. Mr. Kellermann’s job made him responsible for financial controls and reporting at Freddie Mac, a housing-finance company backed by the federal government. He had been with the company for more than 16 years, starting as a financial analyst and auditor in 1992, according to the company’s Web site.” “He was deeply involved in rebuilding Freddie’s accounting systems after auditors discovered in 2003 that the company had violated accounting rules in an attempt to smooth out sharp fluctuations in earnings.”” ------------------------------------- Ok, so maybe he resented the 2003 audit and cooked the books like crazy since then?