Fannie Mae fatcat/friend of Obama buys $4.9 million penthouse
Franklin Raines, the Clinton-era head of corrupted Fannie Mae, does not feel your pain. While Barack Obama rails about unfettered greed and callous Washington lobbyists, his friend and consultant made off like a bandit…and has just sold and bought multi-millionaire homes.
Crisis? What crisis? Sacrifice? What sacrifice?
From Washingtonian magazine:
Franklin Raines, the former top man at Fannie Mae, bought a three-bedroom, seven-bath penthouse condominium in the West End’s Ritz-Carlton Residences for $4.9 million. The condo has a rooftop terrace with a hot tub, a butler’s pantry, and three parking spaces. Raines, director of the US Office of Management and Budget under President Clinton, was CEO of Fannie Mae from 1999 to 2004.
Via USAToday, we learn that Raines just sold his old home after splitting with his wife for $7.6 million.
A quick reminder:
“Regulators have said that of the $90 million paid to Mr. Raines from 1998 to 2003 at least $52 million — more than half — was tied to bonus targets that were reached by manipulating accounting,” The New York Times reported two years ago.
The McCain camp put out a good ad last month attacking the Obama/Raines alliance.
Wouldn’t it be a novel idea if McCain himself would start hitting on this?
Sigh. Never mind…
See what others have said
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Categories: Subprime crisis
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Get ready for a lot more of this sort of thing in the next 4 years-except it won’t stand out as much.
Either way, nobody seems overly concerned.
Wonder if he paid cash or got a loan gurantee from Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae?
Why do you need twice as many bathrooms as you have bedrooms? I must be a hick.
He just split with his wife? Quick, MM, see if you can’t get her to talk! “Woman scorned” ya know.
Maybe he took advantage of a foreclosure from the sub-prime fiasco he helped cause and got the home at a fire sale price.
Why is the Worldcom CEO in prison? Why is Ken Lay in prison and this guy is in the penthouse. I’ll bet you Franklin Raines Bentley payments that he won’t ever be charged for cooking the books with taxpayer money. What could the difference be…hmmm. I just can’t think of what the difference between these corporate crooks might be. Some are in jail for their crimes, and one is safely tucked away with his money and his butlers pantry. Any help out there? I just can’t see it?
POTUS is right. If it’s a Democrat, or friend of a Dem, there’s no problem. Especially since the Republicans won’t do anything.
So what if you can’t retire now that Fannied Mae screwed the Markets out of $2 Trillion in 401k money.
Or you’re now faced with living meagerly on Social Security because your life savings were stolen by the Liberal cabal.
Quit your whining, you racist bastards.
I don’t for a second mind high CEO pay WHEN THEY EARN IT. Raines drove that
companyGSE into the ground. He should be in jail. No one really cares though. He is part of the power structure that rules this country, and must be protected. Nothing to see here.As far as McCain actually attacking Obama over this: dream on.
McCain doesn’t get “it.”
I second (third?) that emotion. This guy should be in prison, and his assets seized and liquidated. Based on the NYT story, how can one not concluse that he defrauded the company and its shareholders, and received payments to which he was not entitled?
I can feel a rant coming on, so I’d better stop now…
“conclude” not “concluse”
Preview would be my friend if I could get it to work!
This thread is nothing more than the political lynching of Franklin Raines.
Personal accountability: You’re doing it wrong!
He will get his bail-out check in 5…4…3…
LOL Soap, I was thinking the same thing. He’ll foreclose and will get that home for free.
DavidleeRothman
Ken Lay never got to prison, he died of a heart attack in July 06. I agree with you, though, what Franklin Raines did is no different than what happened to Enron. Wait a minute, there is a difference, Raines is a Democrat, Ken Lay wasn’t.
These scumbags have perfected the art of the racial hustle and the Democrats (Marxists) are happy to accomodate the theft. Our entire governmental and political system has been crippled and overrun.
The Marxists have secured all the agencies of power and information in the US – the republic is in a dangerously weakened condition due to the complicity of the Democrats in Congress. Clearly they believe no one has the courage to stand up to them. We the People have to confront these corruptocrats and bring this criminality to an end.
The ignorant, the transient, and the illegals are so numerous, that they will successfully vote Obama into office. They are either paid to do so or they are depending on his entitlement promises. This country is screwed. I am convinced that Obama is a muslim involved in the ultimate clandestine jihad.
We already look like a third world country. We see graft, corruption, voter manipulation and fraud, and the most obvious is that the government does what it wants, regardless of what the people want. It feels dictatorial.
I just received an email response from Dianne Feinstein to my email of disgust about her voting for the bailout. She admits that she received over 91,000 calls and emails with over 86,000 opposed. She then claims that the reason senators have 6 year terms is to be able to take tough votes because it’s right for the nation even though it may be adverse to the beliefs of the constituency.
WTF. In other words, stuff it. I’ll do what I want.
Okay Paul Revere, what is wrong with that. The man deserves more than a verbal slap. Because of him and many more just like him, our country is on the verge of economic collapse.
What should he get? A gold watch, a smooch, NO !!! He Should Go To Jail and his assets seized by the feds and put back into the kitty!!!!!
Paul Revere RRRRAAACCCIIIISSSSTTTTT
If you think this is bad, wait till the dems have control of the house, veto proof control of the senate, and white house. Yet it will still all be the fault of the republicans, of course.
Now another home will go into default. Hope they catch the bastard.
Memo To McCain:
YOU WILL LOSE, UNLESS:
1. You hang Franklin Raines, and the Democrat’s culpability for the sub prime crisis around Obama’s neck.
2. ACORN and Obama & the role it played in this economic crisis. Obama’s “judgement” for advocating for what has caused this problem
3. Taxes. Talk about it like you know what you are talking about. Quit letting him escape untouched for his lies.
4. ANNOUNCE
a. Rudy Giuliani as your Attorney General to go after every wrong doer and prosecute them.
b. Mitt Romney as Treasury Secretary to get this country on track financially.
* do this and you win. Fail to do this and hand the country over to Socialism. That will be your legacy. The guy who could not take a shot to save his country!
The results of unrestrained Capitalism – be thankful the USA has started to turn towards Socialism under Bush and will continue further when either McCain or Obama become president
I thought the correct term was RAAAAAAAACIST!
Eh, potato, potahto.
Talk about BAD TIMING… Mr RAINES has just won that one hands down…
If it were the result of true capitalism, then most of the arm mortgages would never have been created. Socialism will bankrupt this country in less than 10 years.
I just noticed something interesting in doing some research on Frank and Raines:
Barney Frank – Harvard College and Harvard Law School educated
Franklin Raines – Harvard University and Harvard Law School (also Rhodes Scholar)
Sarah Palin – University of Idaho, (and likely) Chuck Heath (her father) school of hunter safety
Ask yourself who has been/will be better for our Country?
And, flip on your position on drilling in ANWAR and go into detail how the illegals are dragging on the economy and flip and say you’re against amnesty. THEN YOU WILL GET THE VOTES NEEDED. Otherwise, Adios.
(you have one day left before I mail in my ballot. NO movement on those issues and it’s no dispute, I’m writing in Newt.)
Reminds me of obama’s homestead, and the “vacant lot” next to it purchased on his behalf.
This, like his airplane, stinks.
Thank you for saving me the time and trouble of answering that fool.
Not surprising that a big-government socialist, looking at a fire started – i.e., whatever type of problem created – by socialists, recommends more gasoline to put it out.
Typical, dangerous idiot.
Enjoy it while you still can Franklin Raines, your days of freedom will soon be over and your $4.9million apartment will be traded for a jail cell. With luck, you’ll find yourself in similar company – like the AIG execs who just had a half million dollar resort party on the dime of the US taxpayer. What a slap in the face.
Call it what you will, but Obama has his fingers in all of this. He positively reeks of corruption. There’s no way someone can be involved with so many like Raines, like Ayers, like Rev Wright, like ACORN, and not themselves be corrupt. Obama I hope to God you are held responsible for your wrongdoings before you make it to POTUS, or I’m afraid you would use that position to eliminate any and all that speak against you.
Raines’ current net worth is a direct result of his propping up Fannie Mae’s stock with sub prime paper which the US taxpayer is now bailing out. His $90 million now belongs to the US Treasury.
Notable politicians like Raines, Gorelick, Dodd and Frank have either executed or defended this accounting fraud for fifteen years counting.
Sausage, in order to define Democrat fraud and corruption as “unrestrained Capitalism,” you first have to prove that Raines’, Gorelick’s, Dodd’s and Frank’s business model was remotely based in free market ideals. Judging their model’s ultimate demise, I see no such evidence that it ever was.
Also, be very careful before praising the benefits of socialism over the evils of capitalism. When left to the free market, capitalist excess can always be corrected, but just a cursory review of 20th Century history shows us that there is simply no known hell that can adequately encompass the evils of uncontrolled socialism.
Thug thizzlin all the way to the penthouse. If Obama is elected and enacts slavery reparations (count on it), does Raines get more of my tax dollars because he is a “victim”?
Two thoughts.
1. 7 bathrooms??? Why not just get a catheter, if you can’t walk “all the way” to the other end of your apartment. Geesh.
2. This tax thing…here’s the problem, as I see it. People are so brainwashed that they think it’s their civic duty to pay higher taxes so their “grandchildren” don’t have to bear the burden of the Bush failed economic policies. Seriously. That’s why they are also OK with the socialist agenda.
The things that should shock the conscience no longer do so, which is one of the major problems with Hollywood-minded individuals.
We are in a world of hurt, quite literally.
PR why do you want to inject race into this? This man has played a HUGE roll in ruining our economy and should go to jail for this fraud. His skin color is immaterial. He’s a crook, and crooks should be punished. However, BECAUSE of his skin color and his ability to play the race card, he will avoid being held accountable for his actions.
What a shame. All the low-income people of color that he was supposed to be helping get the shaft while he gets a penthouse. Just like a liberal.
I guess those “political lynchings” really pay off!
Reparations? Damn, you’ll see a big percentage of the non-black population of this country leave these festering shores if that happens. I know I will. Either that, or it will spark off a huge race war. Reparations are inherently racist, as you are punishing innocent people for the acts of others that have long since died. And what about all the white people who died fighting the civil war to rid this country of slavery, do their descendants get reparations too? If not, that would again be racist.
Is an investigation under way?
Are indictments/subpoenas being drawn-up?
Mr. President…..?
Hello…..?
*tap-tap*……..this thing on….?
(1) The U.S. Attorney General should start an investigation into the “cooking of the books”–Raines would look good in an orange jump suit doing an Enron style perp walk.
(2) John McCain should call for hearings on Raines accounting irregularities–and on recovering the “ill gotten gains” from him. It won’t go anywhere in a Democratic controlled congress–but it would play very well on the Fox Channel, internet, and talk radio. Make those protecting the thieves visible to all–out them. Use the “bully pulpit”.
John Bibb
…..ruh-roh, a sequel to #29 above:
Jamie Gorelick – Harvard University (1972) and Harvard Law School (1975) educated
Just another Harvard elitist doing their patriotic duty to ruin our country. Birds of a feather……..
Now tell me its not time for some new blood (Palin) in Washington???
McCain should have opened the debate by saying: “The crisis was caused in large part by FANNIE MAE and FREDDIE MAC and the very first decision that Obama made as Democrat nominee was to make Jim Johnson, the former head of FANNIE MAE, head of his vice presidential search committee. This is the same Jim Johnson who took tens of millions out of FANNIE MAE for his own benefit. This is the same Jim Johnson who disguised the payments to himself. This is the same Jim Johnson who enriched himself when he was turning FANNIE MAE into his own private piggy bank.” Sadly, McCain is not interested in this issue. He is absorbed with issues like the Russia-Georgia crisis.
By the way, one of the biggest contributors to Chris Dodd’s reelection campaigns is none other than Richard S. Fuld, Jr. the now disgraced CEO and Chairman of Lehman Brothers. Wonder when the MSM will bring that issue up when they give sycophantic interviews with Dodd.
Wow! I always imagined Franklin Reins was a liberal white guy sort of like Harry Reid.
No wonder they won’t go after him… He’s the OJ of financial management!
guitarguy, did you really expect Bush’s “do nothing DOJ” to act on this?
This guy pushed mortgages on people who couldn’t afford them sending them into foreclosure while he gets rewarded with a penthouse. Everyone who used poor people to get rich belongs in jail. Sell the penthouse and use that money for the mortgages in foreclosure.
Enron, Worldcom, Tyco Executives vs. Fannie/Freddie Executives
Wouldn’t it be more novel if the media actually started to investigate into Obama’s friends and family for a change?
Oh, forgot. They’re on his payroll to keep these pesky little details out of the eyes of the public.
Right! Where is Janet Reno in all of this. Oh, wait, she was good for Cubin children and fake Jesus’s. NeverMind
I’m tellin’ ya…the ex-wife is the key to Raines downfall. Bet she’d love to see him in prison, too. Bet she knows lots of interesting stuff. Someone needs to grant her immunity and let the lady sing.
The Justice Department has been closed for several years now. Prosecutions are handled by the NY Times Theatre Critic. Do not complain, we can put you in jail if we want to. PS – Ken Lay is dead.
thanks for the vid.
What is the difference between the capitalist pigs and the government hogs…hmmm. Oh, yeah…the government hogs are democraps.
“PS – Ken Lay is dead”
Quite right. I forgot that the government hounded him until his heart exploded. Black Democrats -er Marxists get to wait until they are 90 years old and die of overexposure to caviar and private jets after stealing their fortune.
Anyone still think we are all equal before the law?
For the past few weeks I’ve been wondering……
What-the-hell is it going to take to get SOMEBODY with some BALLS to take action?
What the hell do we have to do?
A pitchforks and flaming torches march on Washington?????
Do we round-up a militia, and any citizen with a gun/rifle to march on Washington???
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!
We bust our asses punching a clock and paying taxes, while these assholes ruin – RUIN – our great nation.
…yes…..I’m pissed…..
…no, really, what’s the REAL street price the average Joe (albeit with money), without political clout, would pay for this piece of real estate?
I’m sure all these allegations will be investigated with the same fervor that OJ put into finding the ‘real’ killer of Nicole and Ron.
McCain has screwed the pooch on this one.
He, and the rest of the GOP, don’t fight hard enough. I’m tired of their “being British” attitude while we on the right are constantly attacked.
It’s called Community Organizing.
We can’t send Raines to jail, we’ll need him to run National Health Care. You’ll be in bed with a sub-prime IV drip, and he’ll be making sure the accounting favors his bank account. Chnage we can believe in.
IMHO voting does not do any good, calling them does not do any good, writing them does not do any good.
It is time for a revolution.
We need to march on Wash DC and physically arrest all of them and put them on trial.
The American people should refuse to pay their taxes until this mess is cleaned up.
The Constitution allows for us to exactly this but I fear the American people will continue to put their heads in the sand while our Republic is stolen by crooks and thugs in congress.
The founding fathers put the second amendment in the Constitution for times like this.
It is called tyranny.
Did you miss the news this week? After OJ spent the last 13 years searching, the real killer of Nicole and Ron was finally found guilty on all counts and will probably spend the rest of his life in prison.
Thanks OJ!!
McCain won’t say anything about this.
Why, that wouldn’t be “collegial” or “senatorial”. My goodness, someone might get the vapors or call McCain a …dare I say it… RACIST!!!!!11!!1!!
I have become depressed and paranoid! What is this New Party? Why have I never heard of it? This has been going on in Chicago for years and it is news to me only now. Where is the media? Where is the “right wing media”? Are they afraid they will be sued? What the hell is going on? Michelle, I’m very confused.
Welcome to the new society! The masses, that they “support”, always suffer under socialism, while they remain aloof and in their own elite world. We’ll be all grouped together and told exactly what we can have (to “protect us” and “for the children”) and what we can do. Unfortunately, they have duped so many citizens over the years, that it may come to pass in the next few months. You’re seeing it now, where producers are condemned and non-producers are subsidized. To produce for one’s own gain, is evil, in the new society. But, to produce for the elites is rewarded. Stubby (19), saw himself that, to the socialists and the Left, we aren’t worthy to have opinions. They will rule over us, and decide what is best for us, once they take what they want.
The time is near for that march on Washington.
Dow to fall below 8000 today? Anyone?
OT (sort of) from a friend:
Of course he knows I am a Republican conservative. I converted him from the he!! of the Dhimmicrat hoards…
Seriously…seven bathrooms? Mr. Raines needs that many ‘cuz he’s full of…
Now I get it. Raines planned all of this so he could get both the money from the different accounting procedures and cause the housing market to bottom out so he could afford a better penthouse apartment.