Police are investigating the death of Freddie Mac official after he was found dead in his house on Wednesday morning in an apparent suicide.

Kellerman, 41, apparently hanged himself in the basement of his suburban Washington home where he lived with his wife Donna and his five year old daughter.

Last September Kellerman was promoted to CFO when government seized the mortgage company and ousted its top executives.

According to neighbors, Kellerman lost a significant amount of weight and was under severe stress in his new position and when asked by neighbors to quit to avoid the stress he responded by saying he wanted to help the company through the difficult time, the Associated Press reported.

Kellermann was working on the company's first-quarter financial report, due by the end of May. He was also responsible for overseeing 500 members of staff.

That relationship has been tense and stressful, with Kellermann working long hours, a colleague said, the AP reported.

Recently Freddie Mac executives battled with federal regulators over whether to disclose potential losses on mortgage securities tied to the Obama administration's housing plan, said a person familiar with the deliberations who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Freddie Mac, which owns or guarantees about 13 million mortgages, has been criticized for financing risky loans that fueled the real estate bubble and are now defaulting at a record pace. The company lost more than $50 billion last year, and the Treasury Department has pumped in $45 billion to keep the company afloat.

Kellermann worked for Freddie Mac more than 16 years, starting out as a financial analyst and auditor.

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