Chris Isidore: Fannie, Freddie Execs Score $100 Million Payday

Mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac received the biggest federal bailout of the financial crisis. Nearly $100 million of those tax dollars went to lucrative pay packages for top executives, as filings show. The top five executives at Fannie Mae received $28.1 million, and each company has set pay targets of as much as $28.1 million. Each company also set pay targets of as much as $17 million for its top managers for 2011. That's a total of $95.4 million for its top managers for 2011. That's a total of $95.4 million, which will essentially be coming from tax- payers, who have been keeping the mortgage finance giants alive with regular quarterly cash infusions since the Federal Home Finance Agency (FHFA) took control of the companies in Sept- ember 2008. Fannie CEO Michael Williams and Freddie CEO Charles Halderman each received about $5.5 million in pay for the last year, and they could receive more when their final deferred compensation for 2010 is set. All the executives receive a significant portion of their pay in the year or years "after they earn it". The CEO's pay targets for 2011 are about $6 million a piece, though Halderman might not get that money since he's announced plans to leave Freddie sometime in 2012.