Fannie Mae-No Politics (FNMA)

[kthomp19]

Not sure Sweeney will limit class to pre cship holders, but in any event, she hasn't ruled so its still pending.

I don't think she has a choice when it comes to this. The Washington Federal compaint asks for pre-conservatorship shareholders to be certified as a class. If that doesn't happen, only the named plaintiffs would benefit from any damages award. There is basically no path to the Washington Federal lawsuit giving a direct monetary benefit to post-conservatorship shareholders.

The real value will be in the discovery process: Washington Federal challenges events all the way back to 2008, so they can ask for a lot more discovery documents than any other plaintiff is able to. If the contents of those documents are damning enough, it can make a global settlement easier for the government to swallow.

I did see TH's comment (thank you) and wondered if that is based on past, or recent, knowledge.

The quote from three years ago is necessarily based on old knowledge, but today's post by Tim Howard reinforces it. I don't see any reason to believe that things have changed on that front.

Also, another poster at TH wondered if "new investors" might provide new/additional funding for the Wash Fed suit given that the warrants could have significant value as an element of the takings calculation.

I suppose it's possible, but again, post-conservatorship shareholders cannot directly benefit from the Washington Federal case, whether it's certified as a class action or not. Washington Federal isn't trying to get the warrants cancelled or overturned (and Sweeney doesn't have the authority to do it anyway), they just want money for pre-conservatorship shareholders. There is no avenue in any court case, Washington Federal included, to get the warrants (or the 10% dividend rate, for that matter) overturned.