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Freddie Mac CFO reported to have killed himself

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-23 07:37

WASHINGTON -- David Kellermann, acting chief financial officer of mortgage giant Freddie Mac, was found dead Wednesday in his suburban Virginia home after apparently committing suicide, a local police source said.

Police officials in Fairfax County would not confirm the death was a suicide but said police were called early in the morning to his home in the leafy suburb of Reston.

Police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell did not elaborate on the cause of death, saying only that the incident was under investigation. ABC News said Kellermann was found hanging in the basement of his home.

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Kellermann, 41, was a 16-year veteran of the firm who had served in various accounting roles before he was named acting chief financial officer in September.

Kellermann lived in Hunter Mill Estates, a well-off neighborhood of large single-family homes with manicured lawns. County records show Kellermann's home is worth about $900,000.

His appointment came after the Treasury Department seized the company, and its sibling mortgage agency Fannie Mae, as the agencies faced deep losses on a crashing US housing market that was rapidly engulfing other financial institutions.

The two government-sponsored enterprises had a hand in about half of the entire US mortgage market and were taken over in an effort to ward off further damage to the US housing market.

Freddie Mac owns or guarantees about 13 million mortgages. It has been criticized for financing risky mortgage loans that fueled the real-estate bubble.

Freddie Mac lost more than $50 billion last year, and the government has pumped in $45 billion to keep the company afloat.

John Koskinen, the company's interim chief executive, said in a statement that Kellermann "was a man of great talents .... His extraordinary work ethic and integrity inspired all who worked with him".

"He was a smart guy who had risen fast. And people liked being around him. That's not something you could say about everyone there," said a former Freddie Mac executive who knew Kellermann.

Kellermann had been closely involved in many key accounting and financial issues since 2003 when regulators found that Freddie Mac had improperly booked years of losses.

Before taking over as acting CFO, he served as senior vice-president, corporate controller and principal accounting officer.