Money going to Fannie Mae investors

Money going to Fannie Mae investors

	Published : Mon, 30 Apr 2007 21:21 By : Agencies Print this Story

WASHINGTON (AP) - Money is beginning to be distributed to shareholders hurt by the alleged accounting fraud at Fannie Mae under the record $400 million settlement signed last year with the mortgage giant, federal regulators announced Monday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said the full amount that will go to shareholders, $357 million, is expected to be distributed by October. It is one of the largest such distributions -- provided for by the Sarbanes-Oxley law that followed the 2002 corporate scandals -- in recent years.

Investors may be eligible if they bought Fannie Mae common stock between Jan. 14, 1999, and Dec. 22, 2004, or Class N preferred stock between Sept. 25, 2003, and Dec. 22, 2004.

The accounting scandal that erupted in September 2004 brought the ouster of top executives at government-sponsored Fannie Mae, which finances one of every five home loans in the United States. The company paid a record $400 million civil fine in a settlement last year of federal regulators' allegations of a pervasive six-year accounting fraud.

The scheme included accounting manipulations to reach Wall Street earnings targets so that Fannie Mae executives could pocket hundreds of millions in bonuses from 1998 to 2004, the regulators said.

Fannie Mae also agreed, in the settlement with the SEC and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, to limit the growth of its multibillion-dollar mortgage holdings and make top-to-bottom changes in its corporate culture, accounting procedures and ways of managing risk. Of the $400 million paid under the accord, $357 million was paid to resolve the SEC's charges; the remainder went to OFHEO.

To date, the SEC said, it has distributed around $1.2 billion from settlements with public companies to defrauded shareholders.

The agency said that questions regarding the Fannie Mae distribution can be directed as follows:

--By calling toll-free, 1-800-760-6903, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST.

--On the Web at http://www.SECFannieMaeSettlement.com

--By sending an e-mail to mail@SECFannieMaeSettlement.com

--By writing to SEC Fannie Mae Settlement, 201 S. Lyndale Avenue, Suite S-3, P.O. Box 1883, Faribault, Minn. 55021-7138.

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