Mortgage giant Fannie Mae has gutted its ethics and internal investigations unit because the head of the company’s federal regulator was tired of investigations related to diversity, equity and inclusion, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Fannie Mae Chief Ethics Officer Suzanne Libby was fired last week and General Counsel Danielle McCoy was pressured to resign, the Journal reported, citing anonymous sources. About a dozen other officials in the ethics and internal investigations unit were fired Thursday, the newspaper said.
Fannie Mae and its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), did not respond to Inman’s requests for comment.
FHFA Director Bill Pulte posted on X Thursday that “Fannie Mae executed a standard business layoff of over 62 people, across the COO, Information Technology, ‘DEI,’ and other divisions.”
Fannie Mae CEO Priscilla Almodovar was also removed from her job last week, and Chief Operating Officer Peter Akwaboah is serving as Fannie Mae’s CEO on an interim basis. Chief Financial Officer Chryssa Halley handled the company’s earnings call on Wednesday.
Fannie Mae’s ethics team “investigates complaints that come in through a tip line, including allegations of internal fraud or the illegal use of funds,” the Journal reported. “Pulte and leaders at Fannie Mae had grown tired of investigations they viewed as being too tailored toward allegations related to diversity, equity and inclusion, according to a person familiar with their thinking.”
Suzanne Libby
A former Department of Justice attorney in the Bush and Obama administrations, Libby joined Fannie Mae in October 2023 as vice president of ethics and investigations, and was promoted to Chief Ethics Officer in June, according to her LinkedIn bio. She had previously served in ethics and compliance roles for a decade at Capitol One and Booz Allen Hamilton.
Danielle McCoy
A New York University School of Law graduate, McCoy was a 19-year veteran of Fannie Mae, joining the company in 2006 as associate general counsel and working her way up through the ranks to general counsel and corporate secretary in January 2024.
The Trump administration is gearing up to sell part of the 80 percent stake the government has held in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since the companies were placed in conservatorship in 2008. The plan is to sell about 5 percent of both companies’ shares, raising $25 to $30 billion in cash as early as December but more likely in the second quarter of 2026, Pulte said in a podcast appearance this week.
The grandson of PulteGroup Inc. founder William J. Pulte, Pulte fired 14 members of Fannie and Freddie’s boards on March 17 and named himself the chair of both boards. Democrats have questioned the legality of that move, but Pulte has continued to restructure the companies.
In April, Pulte appointed banker and investor Omeed Malik, a business partner of Donald Trump Jr. who’s been called “MAGA world’s premier financier” by New York Magazine, to Fannie’s board.
Barry Habib, founder and CEO of mortgage software platform MBS Highway, was appointed to the board on July 21.
Pulte’s previous additions to Fannie and Freddie’s boards in March included Mike Stucky, a former Pulte Group division president; Tri Pointe Homes Inc. executive Brandon Hamara; and Ralph “Cody” Kittle, a partner at private equity firm RenWave Kore.
Hamara will serve as the company’s co-president along with John Roscoe, a former FHFA chief of staff who was hired as Fannie Mae’s executive vice president for operations and public relations in April.
As chief of staff, Roscoe and his superior, FHFA director Mark Calabria, were investigated by the FHFA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for seeking a $250,000 retention bonus for a Fannie Mae executive.
The FHFA OIG found that the bonus was a “retention award in name only” and the agency ultimately determined that it should not be paid.
Hamara will also serve as Fannie Mae’s head of operations for single-family and multifamily starting in November.
Fannie Mae disclosed Wednesday that the head of its single-family division, Malloy Evans, left the company last week under an agreement that pays him two years of base salary totalling $1.2 million and one year of health coverage.
Dozens of workers who were accused of fraud and fired by Fannie Mae in April filed an employment discrimination lawsuit against the mortgage giant in July and are also seeking $82 million in separate defamation suits against Pulte and Almodovar.
As head of FHFA, Pulte has made three criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, suggesting that New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook committed fraud on mortgage applications. All three are perceived enemies of the Trump administration who deny wrongdoing.
An Aug. 20 Wall Street Journal editorial characterized Pulte’s criminal referral of Cook as “an ominous turn in political lawfare” and warned that “weaponizing” Fannie and Freddie’s federal regulator “won’t build confidence in America’s institutions or markets.”
Pulte has dismissed allegations that he has weaponized the agency, saying the FHFA will pursue fraud cases regardless of the political party, status or wealth of those accused.
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