Along similar lines to the BA/Coutrywide deal...

Coutrywide being sued by state of Illinois

What constitutes "unfair and deceptive"?

Any practice that doesn't make a Chicago politician rich!

And den...
Cali

The rich will get richer on the backs of the poor until the whole thing goes "TIP!!!!".

There is a way to prevent this from happening, though.

I gotta put my 2 cents in here.... I processed and funded literally HUNDREDS of loans with CW, and they had some of the more stringent underwriting guidelines inplay PERIOD!... this is utter nonsense, a pure political play to make someone the first of many scapegoats, the Exxon of the mortgage industry.. this lawsuit against them makes me PUKE! wanna know WHY????? GREEDY LOAN OFFICERS AND REAL ESTATE AGENTS, APPRAISERS, and FRAUDULANT BORROWERS! Don't go after CW, go after the the above .... they created the mess, not Countrywide, Indymac, BNC, Decision One etc; afterall the lenders were offering products the BORROWING PUBLIC WANTED/NEEDED to get homes they COULDN'T afford!

No one in Congress remembers the pressures THEY put on investors to make homeownership available to those 'less fortunate'; when the investor community obliges and the market crashes, they point fingers to everyone but themselves... when you point one finger at someone, three other fingers are point back ....

jackass Jerry Brown... He just wants SOME kind of legacy because everything else he's tried has been a miserable failure...

Ok, I better stop or I will really get banned here....

I can't disagree with that. If CW did do wrong...lock em up. Throw away the key. But I always love watching politicians scramble for angles and scapegoats when they see a TV camera or a potential voter.

Amen. Double Amen on your Congress rant.

There's PLENTY of blame to go around, Nu2. And I find NO FAULT with your characterization of loan officers, realtors, congress critters, (and I might add speculators to the list).

But the abuses of CW are exceedingly well documented. There was real, intentional wrong-doing there (and within a great number of their competitors) and heads are going to roll.

Unfortunately, it would seem Mozillo has amassed enough personal wealth and powerful friendships that he is unlikely to pay an appropriate price.

And, alas, it's looking more and more likely that you and I will pick up the entire tab for their corporate shenanigans. Surprise, surprise...

And the shareholders just get hosed...


Countrywide CEO Helped Many Get Loans
A Variety of People,
Not Just Senators,
Got Aid From Mozilo
By JAMES R. HAGERTY and GLENN R. SIMPSON
June 27, 2008; Page A3

More and more "Friends of Angelo" are surfacing.

As the mortgage market was wobbling a year ago, Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of Countrywide Financial Corp., intervened to help the daughter of a casino manager and her fiancé borrow to buy a home in Nevada. Countrywide gave them loans despite problems that ordinarily would have disqualified them, said a person familiar with the transaction.

Mr. Mozilo and his lieutenants also smoothed the way for mortgages for retired professional athletes, according to company insiders and property records, including former Indiana Pacers center Rik Smits and former San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman Harris Barton.
INTERNAL EMAILS

[Emails]
• How Countrywide Financial employees reacted to word that the company's CEO had given his advance blessing to a risky loan.

News of loans to prominent "Friends of Angelo" has appeared in The Wall Street Journal and other publications over the past three weeks. Borrowers have included two senators and two former CEOs of mortgage buyer Fannie Mae, one of whom, James A. Johnson, later stepped down as an adviser to the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama. But it is becoming clear Mr. Mozilo and his aides shepherded loans for a wide variety of people. While there is nothing illegal about a mortgage firm treating some borrowers better than others, it isn't necessarily in shareholders' best interests.

Mr. Mozilo regularly lined up loans for people he met, according to several current and former Countrywide executives. Said one: "Angelo would call in and say, literally, 'My maid needs a loan.'"

Officials of Countrywide, whose shareholders this week approved a takeover by Bank of America Corp., didn't respond to requests for comment.

In the Nevada loans, the prospective borrowers were Lindy Morian and Chris Cooksey. Ms. Morian's father is David Buckles, a casino marketing manager who, an internal Countrywide email said, is a friend of a Southern California car dealer named Leo Bunnin.

Mr. Bunnin, in turn, is a friend of Mr. Mozilo and was treated as a VIP borrower at Countrywide, according to a former Countrywide loan officer. Public records show Mr. Bunnin has received a number of mortgage loans from Countrywide in recent years, including a $4.7 million refinancing in 2004.

Ms. Morian and Mr. Cooksey wanted to buy a $353,000 home in Henderson, Nev., south of Las Vegas. "Tell them I have approved the loan," Mr. Mozilo wrote in a June 8, 2007, email telling a colleague which office should handle the lending.

An employee working on it emailed his supervisor, "I WILL handle this one with 'kid gloves,' and this will be a HUGE win for us!" The supervisor then emailed to another colleague: "WOW! We have a referral from Angelo Mozilo." The supervisor said she had told the person working on the loan "to handle it like it's his mom's loan and his life depends on it."
[Mozilo]
Associated Press
Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo intervened on loans to prominent friends as the mortgage mess deepened.

However, another internal Countrywide email identified "two big problems" with the application: Ms. Morian was on a leave of absence from work to pursue her education, and the couple already had "spent their down-payment funds." Ms. Morian's father, Mr. Buckles, was "gifting" the 5% down payment.

The loans were to be a first and a second mortgage, totaling about 95% of the purchase price, of a sort that didn't require the borrowers to fully document their finances. The borrowers' total debt obligations equaled about 49% of their pretax income, exceeding the usual ceiling of 45%.

A person familiar with the loan discussions says that at the time, June 2007, lenders were scaling way back on subprime lending, and Countrywide wouldn't have allowed such exceptions without Mr. Mozilo's approval. The borrowers not only received the loans but got preferential interest rates and fees, this person adds. The first-lien mortgage was an interest-only loan, with no payment on principal due for several years.
WHAT'S FAIR WHEN GRANTING FAVORS?

Ms. Morian and Mr. Cooksey did nothing wrong in accepting these loans. They didn't respond to a letter sent to their address asking for comment.

Nor is there any suggestion of anything improper by Ms. Morian's father, Mr. Buckles, or his auto-dealer acquaintance, Mr. Bunnin. Mr. Buckles declined to comment through his employer, MGM Mirage. Mr. Bunnin couldn't be reached for comment.

The couple may now owe more on the home than it is worth. Home-value tracker Zillow.com estimates its value at $299,500, or 15% less than they paid. There is no indication the loan isn't current.

Mr. Barton, the former San Francisco 49er, obtained a $5.1 million Countrywide loan on a house in Palo Alto, Calif., in January 2007, property records show. A person familiar with it said it was a Friend-of-Angelo loan that Countrywide granted even though the borrower couldn't sufficiently document his income. Mr. Barton didn't respond to a request for comment. He is a founding partner of HRJ Capital, a private-equity firm whose partners include retired 49ers quarterback Joe Montana.

Mr. Smits received a $2.4 million Friend-of-Angelo loan for a home in Naples, Fla., in March 2006. Public documents don't provide enough data to know whether either he or Mr. Barton got preferential terms. Mr. Smits couldn't be reached for comment.

Mr. Mozilo helped arrange a multimillion-dollar loan to the buyer of a home being sold by former ice-hockey star Wayne Gretzky in 2002, according to a former Countrywide executive. The official said the buyer, an auto dealer who has since died, otherwise might have had trouble getting the loan.

A spokesman for Mr. Gretzky, coach of the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team, said the hall-of-famer knows Mr. Mozilo from a golf club where they have played, adding that Mr. Gretzky "was not involved in the loan process."

"It was impossible to anticipate the credit crisis we've seen on a worldwide basis"- Countrywide's Angelo Mozilo, after dumping $425M worth of company stock.

yup. Unbelievable gall.

I think these idiots go to the same "CEO" school. Sounds like Kenneth Lay doesn't it?

We need to see more of these clowns fitted for prison jumpsuits!