Death of GSE's Acting CFO Delays Note Pricing

Freddie Mac has delayed its pricing of a five-year Reference Note offering expected to be at least $1 billion in size due to the "unattended death" of the government-sponsored enterprise's acting chief financial officer David Kellermann — an employee of the firm for 16 years. Mr. Kellermann was found dead at his Northern Virginia home early Wednesday morning, according to police. A spokeswoman for the Fairfax County Police Department told National Mortgage News that the medical examiner will perform an autopsy on the 41-year-old Mr. Kellermann later today. The police issued a press statement saying, "there was no evidence of foul play." Freddie said it found it "appropriate" to "temporarily postpone" the pricing "at least one day" in response to the death. Mr. Kellermann had been Freddie's CFO since September, when the government placed it and its sister company, Fannie Mae, into a federal conservatorship. As acting CFO, Kellermann was responsible for the GSE's financial controls, financial reporting, tax, capital oversight and related matters. He began his career at the company as a financial analyst/auditor. He also worked in Freddie's securities sales and trading unit. One former Freddie employee who worked at the GSE when Mr. Kellermann was there described him as "a very nice man, a family man." According to his company bio, he was a volunteer board member of the D.C. Coalition for the Homeless. Back in 2003 Freddie was embroiled in an accounting scandal where its top executives were accused of under-reporting income by $5 billion. A criminal investigation ensued but no charges were ever brought. Freddie's CEO (also appointed in September), David Moffett, resigned last month. Mr. Kellermann was promoted to acting CFO when Anthony 'Buddy' Piszel resigned.