Top Obama Insider Tied To Countrywide, Ran Fannie Mae

By John Carney

One of Barack Obama top talent scout is deeply tied to the mortgage overload mess. Jim Johnson is one of three people appointed by Obama the head up the search for his vice presidential selection. The problem is that Johnson took at least five real estate loans totaling more than $7 million from Countrywide, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The loans to ohnson were made through an informal program for friends of the company’s CEO, Angelo Mozilo, and were made at substantial discounts to prevailing market rates.
Johnson ran Fannie Mae from 1991 to 1996, and appointed Mozilo to Fannie Mae’s advisory board in 1996. He reportedly made $21 million in one year while working for Fannie Mae. So he didn’t exactly need that friends and family discount.
“That’s the problem with bringing a Washington, DC, insider on board,” ABC’s Jake Tapper observes. “They’re sometimes covered with the goop from the insides of Washington.”
Countrywide Friends Got Good Loans [Wall Street Journal]

Comments (27)

  1. 1
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 11:57 AM

    insider loan = goop from the insides of washington?
    hardly, this is pure economic cronyism.

  2. 2
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 11:58 AM

    Good God!! Are you suggesting that business people make special deals for political purposes????
    ~The Forehead Slapper

  3. 3
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 12:03 PM

    Thank goodness for the Republican Party. Where would America look to find honesty, integrity and the very definition of “keeping a promise” if it wasn’t for them?

  4. 4
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 12:04 PM

    Forehead Slapper, missed you buddy!

  5. 5
    Posted by Investorcluzo | June 10, 2008 at 12:06 PM

    forehead slapper! where you been? and has anyone seen GAnalYst?

  6. 6
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 12:07 PM

    Wonder what the Moody’s modeled default rate on Mozilo-approved insider loans is…

  7. 7
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 12:08 PM

    From the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s May 2006 report on mismanagement and corruption inside Fannie Mae:
    http://www.ofheo.gov/media/pdf/FNMSPECIALEXAM.PDF
    [Fannie Mae] failed to disclose to OFHEO in a timely manner a post-employment agreement with former CEO James Johnson that provided him with substantial compensation in addition to that already provided upon his termination as a Fannie Mae employee….
    Shortly after the release of the September 2004 OFHEO report, an article in the December 23, 2004, Washington Post entitled “High Pay at Fannie Mae for the Well-Connected,” suggested that 1998 compensation for former Fannie Mae CEO James Johnson “was [reported to be] $6 million to $7 million a year,” in 1998. The total compensation in 1998 for Mr. Johnson was, in fact, substantially more.
    An initial review of the 1999 Fannie Mae Proxy Statement “Summary Compensation Table” suggests the source of the Washington Post figure on 1998 compensation for Mr. Johnson. A close read of that proxy, including footnotes, shows that the Table itself listed only a small portion of the actual 1998 long-term compensation of Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson used a program available to only very senior Fannie Mae executives (Executive Vice President and above) to defer a sizable amount of earned Performance Share Plan shares. Fannie Mae disclosed in a footnote to the Summary Compensation table that Mr. Johnson deferred 111,623 shares; the actual value of the shares did not show up in the Summary Compensation Table.
    Fannie Mae talking points for that period anticipated possible questions about hiding the compensation of Mr. Johnson. The talking points included several questions and answers: (bolded emphasis in original):
    Gimme a break. He’s hiding his compensation. To the contrary, its all quite clearly accounted for in the proxy. What he is doing is deferring compensation.
    Why is he doing that? It is not appropriate for me to discuss Mr. Johnson’s financial planning.
    He’s trying to hide how much he’s made, isn’t he? Again, we’ve disclosed all cash compensation and stock-based awards over the past three years. It couldn’t be more transparent.
    The way you disclose it isn’t the easiest thing to follow. We account for all options ever granted to Mr. Johnson and to our other senior executives. We account for all options they each continue to hold and those they have exercised. There’s really no problem following it at all.
    An internal Fannie Mae Gross Wage Analysis for Mr. Johnson for 1998 provided a clearer estimate of the actual 1998 compensation of Mr. Johnson. It showed total wages and other earnings to Mr. Johnson of nearly $21 million…
    bitches.
    –DC

  8. 8
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 12:14 PM

    Obamidiots,
    The point is NOT whether the Repubs were any better (they are TERRIBLE).
    The point is that Messiah of Change can croon (hypocritically) all he wants about being a ‘Washington outsider’ and how he will change everything but what the kool-aid crowd does not get is that he himself is the product of one of the most vicious political machines in the country.
    So that ‘change’ thing is crap. If so, then why not rather elect someone a little more well-know (Hillary?) rather than some crazy left wing radical loving sleeper-cell commie?

  9. 9
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 12:15 PM

    The fact that Obama supported the appointment of Todd Stroger in Cook County is enough to discredit his “change” credentials for us in Chicago.

  10. 10
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 12:25 PM

    @12:14…..God love ya budy, kin I put yore comment on the wall to the bunker at my lady frens hous? Thankee, cause herner kids an me an all don’t like the LIBERALS just like yew. My kids Cody, Dakota, Cheyenne and Teton are bean home skooled to pervent LIBERALS from invadin their minds about Global Warmin an ILLEGAL IMMERGANTS who the LIBERALS are takin in there homes an pertectin. THESE COLORS DONT RUN buddy and I want yore comment to hit home with the yunguns. Thank goodness yew think like me.

  11. 11
    Posted by golden girl | June 10, 2008 at 12:30 PM

    Mickey Kaus wrote a ton on this last night, worth the read:
    http://www.slate.com/id/2192801/#embarrassed

  12. 12
    Posted by Suits | June 10, 2008 at 12:30 PM

    Do you think this insider goop has anything to do with Spitzer?

  13. 13
    Posted by merkin capital partners | June 10, 2008 at 12:46 PM

    God I hope someday we can be as advanced as the north. Those accents are truly refined. Between NY and it’s various rat holes, along with NJ and Boston, it’s a wonder our modern lexicon hasn’t evolved to replacing the letter “R” with “W”. Thank god for shows like ‘True Life: I go to the Jersey Shore’ and Wall St. Warriors to offer society a peak into the genius on display in them there parts north.
    It’s a wonder we keep any of these F500 companies or billionaires in residence. Yew’d thank they’duh git tired of lackin runnin pipe waters and lectric lights.

  14. 14
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 1:00 PM

    golden girl, i think the official party line from camp obama is, “i will use the machinery of washington, but i will not let it use me” kind of thing

  15. 15
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 1:12 PM

    I’ve become convinced that real estate madness will make just about anyone do anything to get the home of their dreams. Jim Johnson had bigger dreams than most. The most tarnishing scandal to attach itself to Obama has to do with the Obamas’ need to purchase a house in Chicago that reflected their sense of importance before they could actually afford it. And a lovely house it is!
    Does anyone remembers Web Hubbell, the former close Bill Clinton aide and former law partner to Hillary Clinton? This affable guy from Arkansas started embezzling from the Rose Law Firm when he felt he needed a mansion to keep up with his friends, and his rich father-in-law refused to help him out.
    Chuck Schumer has his faults, but it is endearing he lives with his family in a modest co-op in Park Slope and shares a rental apartment with others in Washington, D.C.

  16. 16
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 1:17 PM

    Maybe he can claim it wasn’t him and he has no idea who “ohnson” is.

  17. 17
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 1:27 PM

    at least Mafia guys try to dress nicely and have manners. The Clinton regime is like the Mafia.
    the Obama regime, on the other hand, makes no pretense at respectability. With convictions or fraud, bombing buildings, and who knows what else to come, these folks are more like Jihadis.
    One thing is fer shure: noboday can say, “Oh, I had no idea,” when this guy and his crew wreck this country to the point where it will take generations to rebuild it.
    Hope and Change baby! Hope and Change!

  18. 18
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 1:37 PM

    Ayers stated as recently as 2001 that he would have loved to bomb more things.
    Lets see. Obama is President. His friend Ayers comes to visit him in the White House. What do you think will the first impulse of the guy who 30 years on STILL seeks the destruction of the US political system be?
    Hope and change? Ya rite.

  19. 19
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 1:48 PM

    country’s already wrecked guy…the new generation is about to begin the rebuilding, funding it by kicking the the capgain to 28…higher higHER HIGHER

  20. 20
    Posted by Lowly Assistant | June 10, 2008 at 2:27 PM

    Wait, so let me know if I have this correct. If Obama gets elected (a) all whites will be shackled, and forced to sew insignias onto baseball hats for the “poors” to wear (with a flat brim); (b) taxes will be raised on the upwardly mobile, then redistributed to all people of Latin origin; (c) Bill Ayers will sneak a pipe bomb into the White House via his fannypack, shaking this foundation to the ground; (d) the American flag will be redesigned, with a panther barreling through the stripes.
    Thanks for the heads up. I’m voting for the good Irish man with a limp.

  21. 21
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 2:29 PM

    @2:27 hahaha awesome. i like the flag design especially.
    yeah whats up the kids these days. those baseball caps are ridic! brims as straight as a ruler!

  22. 22
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 2:41 PM

    @2:29
    Yeah, snoop could wear a bucket on his head and these kids would follow suit…er…bucket

  23. 23
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 3:08 PM

    goop?? seems more like ‘gism…

  24. 24
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 3:43 PM

    I won’t be impressed until Barry can get the Clinton VIP treatment on Burkle’s plane Air F_ck One.

  25. 25
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 5:43 PM

    Liberals on the board please explain. Why just a ‘windfall profits tax’ on oil companies? Why not on tech companies (AAPL, MSFT, GOOG anyone)? Why not on Hollywood and other entertainment and media industries?
    My dumb hickey redneck brain cannot quite understant that . Will you monsieurs please help me out?

  26. 26
    Posted by guest | June 10, 2008 at 6:13 PM

    Comparative inelasticity of demand, which of course opens up the discussion to increased supply or substitute goods
    (bait away)

  27. 27
    Posted by guest | June 11, 2008 at 2:34 PM

    Johnson resigned. Well done.

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