Fannie Mae Accounting Fraud

(NY Times) Nothing makes lawyers more popular than bad times. Accusations of executive excess, accounting fraud and lack of disclosure are far more credible now, since bad bets on real estate and securities linked to home loans have caused some of the biggest and most prestigious financial firms in the country -- Lehman Brothers, the American International Group, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac -- to collapse, sell parts of themselves at fire-sale prices or become outright government takeovers. A legal argument rarely used in investor lawsuits is tempting: res ipsa loquitur, or the thing speaks for itself.

Scott Drake talks with H. Adam Prussin. His law firm, Pomerantz Haudek Block Grossman & Gross, represents Fannie Mae investors.