Freddie Mac Executive Commits Suicide

David Kellerman was a top executive at Freddie Mac. He just offed himself:

The chief financial officer of Freddie Mac, who a colleague said “worked himself into a frazzle” trying to save the beleaguered lending giant, was found dead in his home outside Washington yesterday in what appeared to be a suicide. David Kellerman, 41, hanged himself in the basement, sources said. He leaves behind a wife and 5-year-old daughter.

Police said they received a 911 call from the family’s $900,000 house in Vienna at 4:48 a.m. yesterday and said their investigation revealed no signs of foul play. A spokesman would not say if police had found a note. Kellerman had been named Freddie Mac’s acting CFO last year to help pick up the pieces after the Treasury Department seized control of the company. Freddie Mac — which owns or guarantees roughly 13 million mortgages — lost more than $50 billion last year and has come under heavy criticism for financing dubious loans that helped create a dangerous housing bubble. To keep the company afloat, the government has pumped $45 billion into its coffers and ordered a shakeup of the company’s top executives.

Those who knew Kellerman said he had lost considerable weight since taking over the job and appeared to be under an incredible amount of stress. Some suggested to him that he quit, but they said he was too dedicated to the company. “He worked himself into a frazzle,” a former colleague told The Wall Street Journal. Others said that he didn’t seem to be buckling. “The accounting team has been under incredible pressure for years and there are those you might worry about how they are dealing with the stress, but he was not one of them,” said a co-worker.

Kellerman oversaw about 500 employees and had been working tirelessly over the firm’s first-quarter financial report that is due by the end of May. Freddie Mac said in March that it was cooperating with a Securities and Exchange Commission probe into the company’s business practices, but officials insisted Kellerman was not under investigation. Kellerman began his career at the company 16 years ago and was awarded an $850,000 retention bonus last year. He also owned 38,861 shares in the company. They were worth $1.2 million last year, but have dipped to just $33,420 as the company’s fortunes collapsed.