---

Politics and the Fannie Mae Piggy Bank
...Fannie Mae is the biggest single source of money for mortgages in the United States. From 1998 to 2004, the years covered by the OFHEO investigation, it was headed by former Clinton budget director Franklin Raines, whose top management team included former Clinton Justice Department official Jamie Gorelick, sometimes mentioned as a future attorney general in a Democratic administration. During that period, the report says, Raines and his team grossly overstated Fannie Mae’s earnings — to the tune of $10.6 billion — for the purpose of paying themselves big bonuses. “By deliberately and intentionally manipulating accounting to hit earnings targets,” the report says, “senior management maximized the bonuses and other executive compensation they received, at the expense of shareholders.”...

---

Scandal to Cost Ex-Fannie Mae Officers Millions
WASHINGTON (AP) — Franklin D. Raines, former chief executive of Fannie Mae, and two other top executives are paying a total of nearly $31.4 million over their roles in a 2004 accounting scandal in a settlement that the government announced Friday.

Mr. Raines; the former chief financial officer, J. Timothy Howard; and the former controller, Leanne G. Spencer, were accused in a civil lawsuit in December 2006 of manipulating earnings over a six-year period at the company, the largest American financier and guarantor of home mortgages.

Mr. Raines, a prominent Washington figure who was President Bill Clinton’s budget director, has agreed to pay $24.7 million, including a $2 million fine. Mr. Howard is paying $6.4 million and Ms. Spencer $275,000....