As analyst Derek Pilecki suggested, the dividends paid on the Treasury draws became, by the Government’s design, deliberately worthless—to the shareholders. Mr. Pilecki stated: “I call the dividend payments on the Treasury’s senior preferred stock Zombie Dividends because Treasury Secretary Paulson wanted the GSEs dead at the time he put them into Conservatorship. He forced them to pay a 10% dividend rate to the Treasury on its senior preferred stock investment. No other financial institution has had to actually pay to the government a 10% rate like the GSEs have.”
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Case 1:21-cv-01949-KCD Document 1 Filed 10/01/21 Page 27 of 45
70. As with any other publicly traded company, owners of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock were vested with specific rights attendant to their ownership. These rights were specifically enumerated in each GSE’s by-laws and the prospectuses and registration statements for each GSE’s common stock and series of preferred stock.
71. The by-laws and offering documents for Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s common stock enumerated specific rights held by each GSE’s common shareholders, and these rights were typical of those rights usually associated with the private property interest represented by common stock in a shareholder-owned company. For example, these included the right of the GSEs’ common shareholders to transfer their shares of stock and to vote for candidates for boards of directors and shareholder proposals. The owners of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s common stock also had the right to receive a portion of the GSEs’ assets in the event of dissolution or liquidation.