Richard F. Syron was a former American Stock Exchange chief.

McLEAN, Va. (AP) – The mortgage giant Freddie Mac named a former American Stock Exchange chief as its new chairman and chief executive officer Sunday, making him the company’s third CEO since accounting troubles emerged at the company in June.

Richard F. Syron will succeed Gregory Parseghian, who was ousted in August after being implicated in accounting irregularities at the home financing company. Parseghian replaced Leland Brendsel, who was dismissed in June.

McLean, Va.-based Freddie Mac is the second-largest U.S. buyer of home mortgages, a publicly traded corporation with $40 billion revenue a year. It is under criminal investigation by the Justice Department and a civil inquiry by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company has disclosed that accounting errors and manipulations of internal accounts had resulted in misstated earnings by $1.5 billion to $4.5 billion in the 2000-2002 period.

Last month, Freddie Mac further roiled investors and lawmakers when it revealed it had overstated its 2001 income by nearly $1 billion.

Congress created Freddie Mac in 1970 to pump money into the home mortgage market, by buying home loans from banks and other lenders and bundling them into securities for sale on Wall Street.

Syron, 60, is executive chairman of Thermo Electron Corp., which makes scientific and other laboratory equipment.

He previously served for five years as chairman and CEO of the American Stock Exchange and from 1989 to 1994 was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Syron also served as assistant to former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, and as deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury Department.

“Freddie Mac is a great company with an important public mission to help make homeownership more affordable for America’s families,” Syron said in a statement. “I am a strong believer in that mission.”

Freddie Mac’s current chairman, Shaun O’Malley, will become lead director on the company’s board.

Also dismissed in June were president David Glenn and chief financial officer Vaughn Clarke. Glenn has agreed to pay a $125,000 civil fine and help investigators who are looking into the company’s finances.

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On the Net:

http://www.freddiemac.com

AP-ES-12-07-03 1933EST