hunter mill estates

“The acting chief financial officer of troubled mortgage giant Freddie Mac was found dead in his Fairfax County home early this morning after apparently committing suicide, Fairfax police said.

David Kellermann, 41, was a longtime Freddie Mac executive who joined the firm as an analyst in 1992. Police were called to his stately red brick home in the upscale Hunter Mill Estates subdivision shortly before 5 a.m., police spokesman Eddy Azcarate said….Azcarate said Kellermann’s body was found in the basement…..

Kellermann was named acting chief financial officer of Freddie Mac last September, when the federal government seized Freddie Mac and ousted its top executives….

As acting chief financial officer, Kellermann reported directly to the company’s chief executive, according to a biographical profile posted on the company’s Web site. He was responsible for the company’s financial controls, financial reporting, tax, capital oversight, and compliance with federal oversight requirements. He also oversaw the company’s annual budgeting and financial planning processes.

Kellermann previously served as senior vice president, corporate controller and principal accounting officer for Freddie Mac, the profile said.

Of course, merely by reporting the story we’re all jumping to some conclusions about why this happened. It is Kellerman’s link to Freddie Mac that makes this something more than the usual if tragic suicide, most of which go unreported in the media.

It’s also true that for every suicide of a high-profile executive struggling to deal with the consequences of this meltdown, there are probably hundreds of suicides and thousands of divorces also attributable in some fashion to the crisis. Futures are being destroyed, as are decades of past work building careers and retirements.

Such losses far outweigh the losses we might see in our 401-Ks, or the losses on Wall Street. They just can’t be measured as easily.

From The Washington Post: