Countrywide CEO, Mozilo, Helped Many Get Loans, many who wouldn't have otherwise qualified

[Liberal_in_LA]

(*** when not tanning himself orange, Mozilo was using countrywide like his own personal bank***)


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.

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.'"

[ben_meyers]

1. Countrywide also contibuted nearly $10,000 to McCain's campaign

And Wells Fargo has bought them out with help from the Fed! For the sake of purity I would expect that money to be returned!

[JDPriestly]

2. From . . . individuals associated with Countrywide

Please. If you worked in the mail room of Countrywide, you have to name your employer when you make a campaign contribution. A candidate like Obama may have received many small donations from low level Countrywide employees. You need to know whether the people who gave these donations were executives who gave the donations as part of company policy or low level employees who gave them without any knowledge or encouragement of the company. You can't just make assumptions from these lists.

[ben_meyers]

4. So you're saying McCain is off the hook? n/t

[JDPriestly]

5. No. I'm saying Obama is. I would have to see the size of the donations

and the roles of the donors at the company.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

3. In 2003, Chris Dodd received two mortgage loans from Countrywide with very

favorable rates, over the life of the loans, saves Dodd $75,000.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/post_6.php

Dodd Thought "VIP" Status was "Just A Courtesy"
By Andrew Tilghman - June 18, 2008, 12:39PM

Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) are still fending off questions about special-rate loans they received from Countrywide Financial.

Countrywide's been at the center of the mortgage meltdown, and the GOP is cranking up the pressure on the two Democratic lawmakers.

Dodd told reporters yesterday that a loan officer specifically told him and his wife they were getting "VIP" consideration in 2003 when they took out two loans on their Connecticut home and Capitol Hill townhouse.

But Dodd said he didn't think to ask precisely what that meant. Even though he is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the mortgage industry, Dodd said he "assumed" that "it was more of a courtesy thing."

Continued at above link