Former Fannie Mae chief executive Daniel Mudd, who was charged with fraud last week by the SEC, is taking a leave of absence from his job as chief executive of hedge-fund manager Fortress Investment Group, the firm said Wednesday.
The announcement did not say whether it was an unpaid leave, and the firm did not immediately respond to that question.
“I have requested a leave of absence from my position as chief executive officer to ensure that any time or attention I need to focus on matters outside of Fortress will not affect the business or operations of the company,” Mudd said in a news release.
Randal Nardone, Fortress principal and co-founder, will serve as interim chief executive, effective immediately, the firm said.
Mudd, 53, received a salary of $200,000 and a bonus of $3 million at Fortress last year, plus other compensation of $72,846, much of that for relocation expenses, Fortress said in a regulatory filing.
When he became chief executive of Fortress in 2009, he was given restricted stock valued at $24 million.
“We are grateful to Dan for his service and leadership over the past two-and-a-half-years and support his decision to take a leave of absence at this point in time,” Nardone said in the news release. “We look forward to Dan’s return in the hope that matters are resolved favorably and expeditiously.”
Mudd was one of six former executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sued last week by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly understating the government-sponsored housing finance companies’ exposure to subprime loans and misleading investors about their vulnerability to the mortgage meltdown.
