Freddie Mac executive
committed suicide
By Deborah Charles
RESTON, Virginia (Reuters) - David
Kellermann, acting chief financial officer of troubled U.S.
mortgage giant Freddie Mac, was found dead on Wednesday in his
suburban Virginia home after apparently committing suicide, a local
police source said.
Kellermann, 41, was named Freddie
Mac's acting CFO last September after the Treasury Department
seized the company, and its sibling mortgage agency Fannie Mae, as
the agencies faced deep losses on a crashing U.S. housing market
that was rapidly engulfing other financial institutions.
A police source said that
Kellermann was found hanging in the basement of his home in Reston,
outside Washington.
A 16-year veteran of Freddie Mac,
Kellermann had played a key role in helping the firm navigate
accounting scandals and answer questions from regulators and
investors who put the company under intense scrutiny as the U.S.
housing market ended a five-year boom in 2006.
Police officials in Fairfax County
would not confirm the death was a suicide but said police were
called at 4:48 a.m. EDT (8:48 GMT) to his home.
"Officers arrived and were
directed to the basement of the home where they found David
Kellermann dead," said Eddy Azcarate, a spokesman for Fairfax
County Police.
"We are not speculating as to the
manner and cause of death. We're going to wait for the medical
examiner to give that information," he said. "The body has been
taken to the medical examiner's office. We do not suspect foul
play."
He said police never discuss if
any notes are found.
SEC PROBE.
In March, Freddie Mac said that it
was cooperating with the Securities and Exchange Commission in an
investigation and that employees have been interviewed by
investigators.
There was no indication what
caused Kellermann to commit suicide.
While Freddie Mac has seen its
executive ranks churn since accounting improprieties first emerged
in 2003 and as it has booked multi-billion dollar losses in recent
quarters, those who knew Kellermann spoke of his good character and
dedication to the job.
"For many years, we have known
David as a person of the utmost ethical standards who was
hardworking and knowledgeable in his field," the Federal Housing
Finance Board, Freddie Mac's chief regulator, said in a
statement.
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, known
as government-sponsored enterprises, had a hand in about half of
the entire U.S. mortgage market and were taken over in an effort to
ward off further damage to the U.S. housing market.
Colleagues and former co-workers
were shocked at the news of Kellermann's death.
"He was a smart guy who had risen
fast. And people liked being around him. That's not something you
could say about everyone there," said a former Freddie Mac
executive who knew Kellermann.
Kellermann had been closely
involved in many key accounting and financial issues since 2003
when regulators found that Freddie Mac had improperly booked years
of losses.
HOMELESS CHARITY
Before taking over as acting CFO,
he served as senior vice president, corporate controller and
principal accounting officer.
He volunteered in the community
with a charity for the homeless.
Police spokesman Azcarate said
Kellermann's family was still in the house, and "they are
surrounding themselves with additional family and
friends."
Kellermann died in a sprawling red
brick house in quiet wealthy upscale neighbourhood called "Hunter
Mill Estates."
The New York Times said that
according to neighbours and company officials, Kellermann had
received a bonus of about $800,000. Such bonuses -- which totalled
$210 million for executives at Freddie Mac and its sibling company
Fannie Mae -- prompted scrutiny from lawmakers who have questioned
bonuses for executives of firms receiving government
bailouts.
The Times said that Kellermann
hired a private security firm after reporters came to his house to
ask about his bonus.
HIGH-PROFILE SUICIDES
There have been several
high-profile suicides in the global financial crisis in the past
six months.
German billionaire businessman
Adolf Merckle threw himself in front of a train in January after
heavy losses on the stock market.
Merckle's business empire included
major cement and drug companies but was hobbled by debt and
effectively controlled by the banks that lent it money after a
series of wrong-way bets on stock investments.
In December, Frenchman Thierry
Magon de la Villehuchet, 65, co-founder of money manager Access
International, was found dead in a New York office building,
reportedly distraught over losing up to $1.4 billion in client
money to Bernard Madoff's fraud. He slit his wrists with
boxcutters.
(Additional reporting by Patrick
Rucker in Washington and Walden Siew in New York; Editing by
Frances Kerry)