Emanuel: Accounting Fraud Overseer

Representative Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), President-elect Obama's selection for chief of staff, presided over massive accounting fraud at Freddie Mac while serving on that company's board of directors, ABC News reports. The ABC report notes that the Securities and Exchange Commission found that the entire Freddie Mac board, including Mr. Emanuel "failed in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention." Those matters include misreporting profits by billions of dollars in order to deceive investors between 2000 and 2002. These fraudulent activities led the SEC to charge Freddie Mac with accounting fraud according to a Saturday Wall Street Journal article and were perpetrated while Mr. Emanuel served on Freddie Mac's board of directors.