Replies to post #298417 on Fannie Mae-No Politics (FNMA)

[955]

As close to a slam-dunk as one could possibly hope for. Sure would hate to be short right now.

U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thomas Wheeler, who sided with Starr several times during an eight-week trial last year, questioned a government lawyer’s contention during closing arguments Wednesday that there wasn’t an illegal taking of shareholder property when the bailout began on Sept. 16, 2008.

“There’s no question in anybody’s mind that there had been a change in ownership of AIG corporation,” Wheeler said. “The government is in there running the show. There’s no doubt about that.”

“How can it be that there wasn’t some sort of illegal exaction or taking for that to happen?” Wheeler asked Kenneth Dintzer, a Justice Department lawyer. It was one of several exchanges in which the judge balked at government explanations of its legal authority to demand equity for the bailout.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-22/aig-bailout-trial-judge-questions-u-s-over-taking-equity-stake