CEO of Fannie Mae
Fannie Mae
The son of a janitor from Seattle, Franklin Raines defied many odds to go to Harvard, become a Rhodes Scholar and later a successful banker and senior government official. In 1999, Raines broke another glass ceiling when he became the first black CEO of a Fortune 500 company – Fannie Mae. But in 2004, Raines was suddenly blamed for the subprime crisis -- in particular, his team is accused of cooking the books in a $6.3B scandal -- and he is booted out of the company. Prosecutors go after Raines for a $90M fine and he is forced to pay $25M+ and the company spends over $160M in legal fees keeping him and other execs out of jail.
Five years after the near-collapse of the nation’s financial system, the economy continues a slow recovery marred by high unemployment, hesitant consumers and sluggish business investment. Many of the top Wall Street bankers who were largely responsible for the disaster — and whose companies either collapsed or accepted billions in government bailouts — are also unemployed. But since they walked away from the disaster with millions, they’re juggling their ample free time between mansions and golf, skiing and tennis.
Franklin Raines: Case Dismissed
Franklin Raines, the Washington power player who served as chief executive of Fannie Mae but retired after an accounting scandal, can breathe a sigh of relief. A federal judge has dismissed a long-running class-action lawsuit against Mr. Raines, ruling Thursday that there was “not only no direct evidence that Raines intended to deceive investors, there is no evidence that he even knew his statements were false.”
CEO Behind Lehman Collapse Isn’t Sorry: Dick Fuld 5 Years Later
Five years after the near-collapse of the nation’s financial system, the economy continues a slow recovery marred by high unemployment, hesitant consumers and sluggish business investment.Many of the top Wall Street bankers who were largely responsible for the disaster — and whose companies either collapsed or accepted billions in government bailouts — are also unemployed. But since they walked away from the disaster with millions, they’re juggling their ample free time between mansions and golf, skiing and tennis.
Why Nobody Went to Jail
‘Not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that’s wrong,” bellowed Charles Ferguson at Sunday night’s Academy Awards. Is it really?
Consider the source: “Inside Job,” Ferguson’s Oscar-winning documentary on the financial collapse of 2008, proudly features Eliot Spitzer — who, as New York’s attorney general, went on a tear against the big brokerages and their executives over various alleged crimes.
Ex-Fannie Mae chief laments company’s tumble
In his first interview in two years, Raines remained insistent that the mortgage-finance giant’s problems are not rooted in the company but stem from a time when the Bush administration and the Fed insisted that the government-sponsored enterprise carried no explicit federal backing.