Despite being named in a Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) lawsuit filed in September 2011 for allegedly making ‘materially misleading statements’ in offering documents for mortgage bonds that caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses at government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, former Bank of America manager Adam Glassner was hired by Fannie Mae five months later to serve as its BOA-securities managing director, according to a Bloomberg News report.
Although Glassner left Freddie Mac last year, his hiring illustrates the federal government's dilemma as it recruits veteran mortgage bankers to help reform the housing finance system. As the report points out, the federal agencies overseeing housing finance reform are largely dependent on the very same professionals accused of causing the mortgage meltdown of 2008, as they are the only ones with the skill and knowledge to re-vamp the system.
"There aren't that many people out there with expertise that don't have a potentially tainted background," Isaac Gradman, a lawyer at Perry, Johnson, Anderson, Miller & Moskowitz LLP, tells Bloomberg News.
"Considering that pretty much everyone that was involved in the mortgage business was wrapped up in the crisis in one way or another, it would be tough to blacklist them all and still have the personnel you need to run a successful business," he said.
For more, check out the Bloomberg News report.