[CORRECTION: The original headline claimed Pershing is directly suing Fannie and Freddie. They are suing the United States. The article is now updated.] Pershing Square Capital Management, the hedge fund firm run by William Ackman, has sued the U.S. government. According to an article in Reuters, the hedge fund claimed that the government's stripping of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's profit illegally short changes investors in the mortgage companies' common stock.
In a complaint filed on Thursday with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., Pershing is challenging the government's "brazen" practice since 2012 of funneling virtually all profit from Fannie and Freddie into the U.S. Treasury Department's coffers.
It said this will have by next month created a $130 billion "windfall" through the "confiscation of the entire net worth" of both companies, with an eye to winding them down.
