It’s believed that the 41 year old chief financial financial officer committed suicide by way of hanging. No signs of foul play were found.

Kellermann began his career with the company in 1992 as an analyst/advisor and moved up the corporate ladder during his years with the company. Kellerman was appointed as acting CFO and senior vice President after Anthony Piszel resigned from his position in September 2008.

Executives of the troubled mortgage company have recently been under investigation by the SEC and the Justice department for accounting practices that played a part in the current real estate and economic crisis.

David Kellermann served on the board of directors for Coalition for the Homeless.

A statement was issued by John Koskinen, Freddie Mac’s interim CEO reads:

David was a man of great talents. He dedicated those talents to Freddie Mac for more than 16 years, serving in many business and finance capacities before recently taking the reins as acting chief financial officer. His extraordinary work ethic and integrity inspired all who worked with him. But he will be most remembered for his affability, his personal warmth, his sense of humor and his quick wit. David was a friend to many in the Freddie Mac family, and we mourn his passing.

“I intend to see this through,” Citigroup CEO Vikiram Pandit said at today’s annual shareholder’s meeting. He also said Citigroup would “repay every penny” of the money they borrowed from the government.

Shareholders are expected to vote on 4 four new additions to the board. They are also expected to vote on several other members, causing a major re-shuffling of the board. The board picks are not without controversy as several large shareholder groups are unhappy with the board’s performance.

Despite the profit announcement, Citigroup really isn’t performing that well.

“Citigroup results included several one-time items (widening debt spreads, the sale of Redecard and accounting changes) which muddied the waters in assessing the franchises underlying performance,” wrote Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) analysts Richard Ramsden and Brian Foran on April 19.

The analysts went on to say that Citigroup is still having major problems with credit quality and that doesn’t look to change in coming months.

Yahoo has already cut around 2,400 jobs in the last two years as their market share declined in light of increased competition from Google. There are now slightly more than 13,000 employees at Yahoo.

Yahoo has really lost ground in the display-ad business as advertisers switched to different ad networks, in particular to Google. Yahoo, like many online giants, has decreased the price of ads in the face of diminishing demand.

Google is also expected to announce an erosion in sales revenue, although it’s not likely to be as dramatic as it was for Yahoo.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo charged Merkin with civil fraud for steering many of his clients to invest with Madoff. According the the charges, Merkin steered $2.4 billion of his client’s funds to Madoff, all the while ignoring “glaring red flags” that should have told him the investments weren’t safe. For his part, Merkin earned $470 million in incentive and management fees.

“Merkin duped individual investors, non-profits, and charities into believing he was responsibly managing their investments, when in actuality he was dumping them into history’s largest Ponzi scheme,” Cuomo stated at a press conference.

Merkin, 55, has denied wrongdoing. He said he was “absolutely shocked” to learn about Madoff’s scheme. His lawyer, Andrew Levander, said he would “vigorously defend” his client against court action.

Merkin is already being sued by New York University and Mort Zuckerman over his role in the scheme.

Ezra Merkin ran both the Gabriel Capital and Ariel Fund, which have been shut down. Both are now said to have operated as “feeder funds” that solicited funds for Madoff in return for large fees. Cuomo alleged that Merkin presented himself to clients as an “investing guru” but was only a “master marketer.” Cuomo’s written statement that accompanied the charges went so far as to say that Merkin realized professional investors were questioning “Madoff’s uncommonly steady returns, there were fundamental questions about Madoff’s money management business that suggested fraud.”

Cuomo stated that Merkin had two articles that questioned Madoff’s investments in his files.

Levander said that Merkin had done his due diligence, and found nothing untoward about Madoff.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Merkin’s due diligence, just like the detailed investigations performed by countless others, including regulators, was thwarted by the intricate, fraudulent scheme perpetrated by Madoff,” he said.

China’s Ministry of Commerce decided against the deal, saying it would limit Chinese consumer choice. The deal would have been the largest ever takeover of a Chinese company.

“We are disappointed, but we also respect the MOC’s decision,” said Muhtar Kent, president and chief executive officer of Coca-Cola.

Kent further stated that Coca-Cola had a long term interest in the Chinese market and would work along those lines. The decision could prove significant on several fronts.

The case was the first test of China’s anti-monopoly law. It also shows investors that China may be taking a protectionist attitude towards trade, despite proclamations to the contrary.

Certainly it could cause direct foreign investment in China to dwindle, if companies perceive the market as difficult to operate in. The ruling said that the Coca-Cola deal might help “squeeze out” smaller players in the juice market. Of course that will also be likely in the event of increased competition by any number of foreign players.

Coca-Cola had already planned on spending $2 billion in China in the next three years, in addition to the juice deal.

Some in China are worried that Chinese companies will now have a hard time engineering takeovers of foreign companies as a result of the decision.

“The issue will likely give other countries an excuse to reject China’s investments overseas. Though it seems that the decision can protect the domestic industry in the short term, for Chinese companies looking for overseas expansion, they may lose the best timing and prices to acquire assets,” said TX Investment Consulting Co analyst Shi Jiangang.

According to a document filed at the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, US Prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of Madoff’s homes, cars, boats, securities, silverware and a piano that were believed to be paid for with gains from his illegal business activities.

Bernard Madoff is accused of swindling as much as $65 billion dollars from numerous investors. His scheme didn’t discriminate - he took from actors, charitable organizations and Holocaust survivors.

Madoff took new investment dollars to pay off earlier investors. When the credit market imploded and Madoff couldn’t tap into new money to cover the withdrawal requests of his clients, his fraudulent investment company came undone.

Madoff was denied bail and is currently in jail awaiting sentencing, scheduled to take place on June 16, 2009.

On web discussion group Yahoo Buzz, the comments about Citigroup (NYSE:C) were scathing.

One by “castlewall” was typical: “Look out Citibank, as crooks your days are numbered unless you all sit down and think of all the money you have stolen for yourselves to pay out bonuses,” the message said.

Shadegrown was outspoken in his support of the terrorist group. “Not at all surprising, as Citibank can be construed as the face of significant greed and indifference to others. Well deserved, I would add. Thank God no one got hurt or killed. Bravo,” he wrote.

When the average web surfer cheers for your offices to be blown to smithereens, it’s safe to say as a company you’ve developed an image problem.

It’s easy to understand where all the antipathy towards Citigroup comes from. On so many levels the company is emblematic of the entire financial crisis that currently grips the world. Their continuous miscues and common misdeeds in the pursuit of profit are legendary. Their hunger to dine at the public trough is unprescedented. All of their corporate shortcomings have resulted in a company that elicits reactions such as this one when they’re bombed by terrorists.

“I thought the Upper Management of Citi bank were all terrorists,” said papanielsen.

Ouch. Yep, it looks like Citigroup has a real image problem.

At that time Madoff told his sons that he had engineered a $50 billion fraud. Now prosecutors have upped the amount to $64.8 billion. The actual amount of money stolen is unknown. Investigators are using numbers that include probably false profits that Madoff included in his documents.

So far investigators have only recovered $1 billion.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Litt said that there was no plea agreement with Madoff and that the sentence could be 150 years.

Madoff is expected to plead guilty on Thursday.

Madoff, the former Chairman of NASDAQ, has been under house arrest since December 2008.

On Friday US District Judge Denny Chin invited victims to attend court this Thursday, when Madoff is expected to enter his “Guilty” plea.

It’s widely being speculated that Madoff is likely to enter into a “plea agreement” in order to minimize his legal damages. After his guilty plea, it’s expected that the District Attorney will hit the disgraced financier with even more charges.

“Madoff is about to enter his guilty plea,” SEC attorney Jacob Frenken said. “A criminal information is a consented-to criminal charge used to enter a guilty plea.”

Monsanto replaces TYCO, (NYSE:TYC) a diversified International company that sells various types of safety equipment including electronic security to breathing apparatus. TYCO is in the process of moving their operations to Switzerland, making them ineligible for the S&P indice listing.

Monsanto is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri and has over 18,800 employees worldwide. The company developed the Roundup brand of herbicide, as well as genetically modified seeds and the bovine growth hormone.

Monsanto’s GICS ECONOMIC SECTOR is ‘materials’ and GICS SUB-INDUSTRY is ‘Fertilizers & Agricultural Chemicals’.