The inspector general of the FHFA, which controls defunct mortgage operations Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for $100 million in legal fees paid since each went into Chapter 11. The concern seems fair given that the bailout cost for the two have ranged well into the tens of billions of dollars. The two companies were caught, perhaps because of their own blindness, in the sharp drop in the value of the housing market. Some experts believe that the two held so many home loans that they should have seen the trouble coming.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency inherited legal bills when it took Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under conservatorship in 2008. The bills are for employees long gone but must be paid as a part of benefits packages agreed to by legal contract.
That fact won’t make taxpayers feel any better.
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