Audit Guru Named To Fannie MaeBoard

WASHINGTON - (05/22/06) – The board of Fannie Mae saidFriday it replaced the head of its audit committee with one of thenation’s foremost accounting authorities, just as federalregulators prepare to issue a report on the company’s $11billion accounting scandal. Fannie said Dennis Beresford, formerchairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board who nowteaches accounting at the University of Georgia Graduate BusinessSchool, will replace Thomas Gerrity, former dean of the Universityof Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, who agreed tostep down as audit committee chairman. The move comes as the Officeof Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the regulator for bothFannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is expected to release its final reportthis week on the causes and remedies on the accounting scandal thathas ensnared Fannie Mae over the past two years. Beresford was headof the FASB when the accounting standard-setters enacted new rulesgoverning accounting for financial derivatives, one of the mainissues involved in the Fannie Mae scandal.