Fannie Mae has reportedly recruited former Securities and Exchange Commission chair Richard C. Breeden to help it deal with a potential $9 billion restatement, while its former chief executive has relinquished two board seats.
A spokeswoman for the mortgage finance company told The Wall Street Journal that Breeden will serve "as a strategic counsel as the company works through its restatement and reaudit."
Breeden served as SEC chairman from October 1989 to May 1993 under President George H.W. Bush. He also served as the court-appointed corporate monitor of WorldCom Inc. following its accounting fraud and bankruptcy, and led an internal investigation into at Hollinger International Inc.
Meanwhile, the Journal reported that ousted Fannie Mae chairman and CEO Franklin D. Raines relinquished board seats at Pepsico Inc. and TIAA-CREF, and offered to resign from the board of Pfizer Inc. According to the paper, Raines quit the TIAA-CREF overseers board. At Pepsi, he offered to not stand for re-election, and the directors accepted his offer. He also stepped down from Pepsi's audit committee, which he previously chaired, but will remain a Pepsi director until its annual meeting in May.
Raines will reportedly offer to not stand for re-election to the Pfizer board, but his departure isn't a certainty, the Journal said.
On Monday, Fannie Mae announced the planned retirements of Louis V. Hoyes, executive vice president for the company's single-family mortgage business, and Jayne J. Shontell, senior vice president for investor relations, effective immediately.
Fannie Mae said Thomas A. Lund, senior vice president and chief acquisition officer of Fannie Mae's credit guaranty business, will become interim head of the single-family mortgage business, while Mary Lou Christy, vice president of investor relations, will step up as interim head of investor relations.
