Remember Franklin Raines? In December 2004 he and Timothy Howard were
very much in the news as they "retired" or "resigned" or were fired,
depending on which version one was reading as CEO and CFO of Fannie
Mae. Their sudden unemployment followed probes, lawsuits, and
audits that revealed that Fannie Mae had cooked the books over a three year
period of time in such a way as to "smooth" income and expenses. One reason
suspected at that time was to ensure that the Corporation's net income
every year was sufficient to match the benchmarks necessary to trigger
large performance bonuses to its executives.
On the way out the door, Raines and Howard collected severance
packages that turned more than a few heads...
...