LIEB BLOG

Legal Analysts

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Fannie / Freddie Ex-Execs Charged

Six former execs, including two former CEOs, were recently charged by the SEC with misleading investors about sub prime loans. In essence, the suit charges that the group greatly underestimated the amount of sub prime loans it had on its books in 2007.

Yet, to be clear, this is not about misleading borrowers, but instead investors. So, all those homeowners out there cannot point to these charges as justice for their personal foreclosures. Instead, this suit is about selling the loans on the secondary market to investors who believed those homeowners / mortgagors / borrowers were more credit worthy than they actually were in the macro.

Its likely that this is not the end of these types of suits and no criminal charges have yet been filed.