Tough year for consumer finance. People use online cash advance loans and credit cards to dig in where their paychecks don’t go, but habitual use can create trouble. It has also been a rough year for American high finance. Small and large banks have collapsed under the weight of their own irresponsible lending (special thanks to ACORN and Self-Help, Inc. for that recession bomb). The largest financial institutions have begged at the doorstep of Obama’s big top government, and they have made off with billions of dollars. Whatever confidence investors and the general public had in this system is severely damaged. One would hope that it is not permanent.

Then there are big time lenders like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They have disgraced themselves (again, with ACORN and Self-Help, Inc.’s assistance) before the eyes of the taxpaying public, and the day-to-day efforts to rebuild credibility must weigh on their consciences like a great millstone.

But money and public opinion are never worth more than a life. Sadly, acting CFO David Kellermann of Freddie Mac may have taken his own life over it.

A horrific story

Tom Jackman, Debbi Wilgoren and Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post report that David Kellermann was found dead in his Fairfax County home after apparently committing suicide, Fairfax police said.

Kellermann, 41, was a longtime Freddie Mac executive who joined the firm as an analyst in 1992. He became acting CFO in September of 2008. Police were called to his home shortly before 5 a.m. according to the authorities. The call was made by someone inside the home whose identity has not been revealed. The body was was found in the basement. It was unclear to the Post whether a suicide note or other sign of motivation had been left behind.

A company in trouble

It may very well have been stress that led to the David Kellermann suicide. Freddie Mac had made “risky mortgage-related investments” that resulted in losses in the billions. After the American housing market crashed, Freddie Mac was “transformed into a quasi-government agency, carrying out big parts of the Obama administration’s housing recovery plan,” as the Post puts it.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were severely criticized by Congress for paying $210 million in retention bonuses (spread between 7,600 over an 18-month span). Further inflaming matters, federal regulator James Lockhart defended the ill-timed bonuses, saying “those currently working at the companies are an important part of the solution and not the problems of the past.”

The public didn’t agree

As acting CFO, Kellerman was responsible for Freddie Mac’s financial controls, financial reporting, tax, capital oversight and compliance with federal oversight requirements. He also oversaw the company’s budgeting and financial planning.

According to the Post, Freddie Mac’s government-appointed CEO, David Moffett, quit following disagreements with federal regulators. John Koskinen has been serving as a temporary replacement. No permanent successors to Moffett – or Kellerman – have been named.

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