Company Frauds So Terrible You Won’t Believe They Actually Happened

Fannie Mae Pays Up

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In 2006 Fannie Mae was penalized $400 million after a report was released detailing multiple account manipulations by the company. The company lied to investors about its high profits and fast growth rate. The fraud succeeded in increasing the income of high ranking executives. Until they were caught, kind of.

In total, U.S. regulators filed 101 civil charges against CFO J. Timothy Howard, Chief Executive Franklin Raines, and former Controller Leanne G. Spencer. The suit claimed the trio lied about Fannie Mae earnings to increase their executive bonuses. After eight years of litigation, the case was dropped due to insufficient evidence, although the damage was already done in the public eye.

Unlike Fanny Mae, Freddie Mac never lied… after getting caught.