Fannie Mae (FNMA)

[955]

As the Argentina battle started to tilt Singer’s way, DCI pitched its skills to more hedge fund clients. Paulson & Co., run by New York billionaire John Paulson, hired the firm for a campaign supporting his investment in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. (Paulson declined to comment.)

Thanks to a string of court victories, Singer prevailed against Argentina in 2016, earning his fund more than $2 billion in profit. (In a statement, Elliott noted that thousands of bondholders and pensioners also benefited.) Other DCI projects haven’t gone so well. Congress allowed Puerto Rico to declare bankruptcy, and Fannie Mae shareholders have failed to get the government to come to their aid. A major obstacle has been Senator Bob Corker, who wrote a bill that would wind down the company. Through a shareholder group that it helped set up, DCI has promoted reports of ethical lapses by the Tennessee Republican. “It’s been pretty shocking to me,” Corker said at a 2016 hearing, “to see the lengths that some hedge funds will go to try to shape public policy in a manner that might reap huge benefits.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-01-25/how-hedge-funds-secretly-get-their-way-in-washington