Freddie Mac CFO in apparent suicide: police source

By Deborah Charles

RESTON, Virginia (Reuters) - The finance chief of troubled U.S. mortgage giant Freddie Mac, David Kellermann, was found dead on Wednesday after apparently committing suicide, a police source said.

Kellermann, promoted to acting chief financial officer last September after the government took control of the company, was found hanging in the basement of his home in an affluent Washington suburb at around 5 a.m. (0900 GMT).

There was no immediate indication what would have driven 41-year-old Kellermann, who was married and had a young daughter, to kill himself.

Kellermann, a 16-year veteran of Freddie Mac, had played a key role in helping it to navigate past accounting scandals and answer questions from regulators and investors who put the company under intense scrutiny as a five-year U.S. housing market boom ended in 2006.

Last year's government takeover of Freddie Mac and its sibling mortgage agency Fannie Mae came as the companies, known as government enterprises, faced deep losses and the effects of the housing crash engulfed other financial institutions.

Freddie Mac is currently being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. It has provided documents and made employees available for interview in the case but neither the company nor the SEC have given details.

"Freddie Mac knows of no connections between this terrible personal tragedy and the ongoing regulatory inquiries discussed in our SEC filings," said Freddie Mac spokesman David Palombi.

The current probe is far less intense than the grilling several years ago after accounting and political fundraising scandals, several Freddie Mac employees said.