Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Rudman says Fannie report 'considerably more' than 600 pages

Marketwatch reports:
A highly anticipated report scheduled for release this week that details the findings of a nearly 17-month internal probe of alleged earnings manipulation at Fannie Mae (FNM) will be "considerably more" than 600 pages, according to the lead investigator.
The executive summary will be thick, former Sen. Warren Rudman said in an interview Tuesday, noting that 50 pages is in the "ballpark." Fannie's board hired Rudman in September 2004 to head up an internal investigation after the company's regulator accused executives of manipulating accounting rules to bolster Fannie's earnings.
"The report itself will be considerably more than 600 pages. The appendices will be voluminous," Rudman said when asked whether the report's total page count will top 1,000 pages as rumored.
Fannie is tentatively set to release on Thursday Rudman's long-awaited report, which is based on more than 2.5 million documents reviewed over the last 17 months by his team of forensic auditors and attorneys at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, according to people familiar with the matter. Neither Rudman nor a company spokesman would confirm that date.
Enron never had such good press.