In case people didn't realize this, James Johnson, the man Obama picked to find his running mate, has a dubious background as head of Fannie Mae. In
1998 Fannie Mae failed to report $200 million in expenses, which allowed Fannie Mae to hit it's earnings targets, which in turn allowed Johnson to
collect a bonus of almost $2 million.
An Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight report in September accused the company of improperly deferring $200 million of estimated
expenses in 1998, which allowed management to receive full annual bonuses. Had the expenses been recorded that year, no bonuses would have been paid,
the report said.
Fannie Mae reported paying bonuses in 1998 to Johnson, who received $1.932 million.
Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, chief executives and chief financial officers are required to give back incentive-based bonuses if the company
has to restate its earnings because of financial misconduct. One attorney said yesterday that the law probably wouldn't apply to misconduct prior to
2002. But he said that plaintiffs in a lawsuit could argue that other legal precedents dictate that the bonuses were ill-gotten and need to be
returned.
Source
So not only did Obama pick a Washington insider to pick his VP, he picked an insider that was already discovered to have betrayed the public trust for
his own financial gain.
The amazing thing is that the media has focused on Obama's associations with Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers while totally downplaying his association
with Johnson, and totally ignoring Johnson's past.
Is the main stream media really so far gone and lacking in any journalistic integrity at this point?
