What a great country. Only in America, land of corporate fascism, can a CEO bribe multiple members of Congress in both parties and ABSOLUTELY NO ONE GOES TO JAIL. Angelo Mozilo is still a multi-millionaire working on his tan, sitting by one of his 6 pools at one of his 6 mansions. He still flies by private jet and he probably has his buddy Chris Dodd over for drinks so they can reminisce about the good old days. The various corrupt Congress critters listed below are still toiling away on behalf of corporations and bankers. The corruption and decay is rampant. The people are asleep. The powerful flaunt their wealth and control. When will it end?
Report: Countrywide won influence with discounts
FILE – This June 25, 2008, file photo, shows the Countrywide Financial Corp. office in Bev…
By LARRY MARGASAK, AP
Thu Jul 5, 1:28 PM UTC
The former Countrywide Financial Corp., whose subprime loans helped start the nation’s foreclosure crisis, made hundreds of discount loans to buy influence with members of Congress, congressional staff, top government officials and executives of troubled mortgage giant Fannie Mae, according to a House report.
The report, obtained by The Associated Press, said the discounts — from January 1996 to June 2008 — were not only aimed at gaining influence for the company but to help mortgage giant Fannie Mae. Countrywide’s business depended largely on Fannie, which at the time was trying to fend off more government regulation but eventually had to come under government control.
Fannie Mae was responsible for purchasing a large volume of Countrywide’s subprime mortgages. Countrywide was taken over by Bank of America in January 2008, relieving the financial services industry and regulators from the messy task of cleaning up the bankruptcy of a company that was servicing 9 million U.S. home loans worth $1.5 trillion at a time when the nation faced a widening credit crisis, massive foreclosures and an economic downturn.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee also named six current and former members of Congress who received discount loans, but all of their names had surfaced previously. Other previously mentioned names included former top executive branch officials and three chief executives of Fannie Mae.
“Documents and testimony obtained by the committee show the VIP loan program was a tool used by Countrywide to build goodwill with lawmakers and other individuals positioned to benefit the company,” the report said. “In the years that led up to the 2007 housing market decline, Countrywide VIPs were positioned to affect dozens of pieces of legislation that would have reformed Fannie” and its rival Freddie Mac, the committee said.
Some of the discounts were ordered personally by former Countrywide chief executive Angelo Mozilo. Those recipients were known as “Friends of Angelo.”
The Justice Department has not prosecuted any Countrywide official, but the House committee’s report said documents and testimony show that Mozilo and company lobbyists “may have skirted the federal bribery statute by keeping conversations about discounts and other forms of preferential treatment internal. Rather than making quid pro quo arrangements with lawmakers and staff, Countrywide used the VIP loan program to cast a wide net of influence.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission in October 2010 slapped Mozilo with a $22.5 million penalty to settle charges that he and two other former Countrywide executives misled investors as the subprime mortgage crisis began. Mozilo also was banned from ever again serving as an officer or director of a publicly traded company.
He also agreed to pay another $45 million to settle other violations for a total settlement of $67.5 million that was to be returned to investors who were harmed.
The report said that until the housing market became swamped with foreclosures, “Countrywide’s effort to build goodwill on Capitol Hill worked.”
The company became a trusted adviser in Congress and was consulted when the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee considered reform of Fannie and Freddie and unfair lending practices.
“If Countrywide’s lobbyists, and Mozilo himself, were more strictly prohibited from arranging preferential treatment for members of Congress and congressional staff, it is possible that efforts to reform (Fannie and Freddie) would have been met with less resistance,” the report said.
The report said Fannie Mae assigned as many as 70 lobbyists to the Financial Services Committee while it considered legislation to overhaul the company from 2000 to 2005. Four reform bills were introduced in the House during the period, and none made it out of the committee.
Hit with staggering losses, Fannie and Freddie came under government control in September 2008. As of Dec. 31, 2011, the Treasury Department had committed more than $183 billion to support the two companies — and there’s no end in sight.
Among those who received loan discounts from Countrywide, the report said, were:
_Former Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.
_Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
_Mary Jane Collipriest, who was communications director for former Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, then a member of the Banking Committee. The report said Dodd referred Collipriest to Countrywide’s VIP unit. Dodd, when commenting on his own loans, has said he was unaware of the discount program.
_Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
_Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., former chairman of the Oversight Committee. Towns issued the first subpoena to Bank of America for Countrywide documents, and current Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., subpoenaed more documents. The committee said that in responding to the Towns subpoena, Bank of America left out documents related to Towns’ loan.
_Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif.
_Top staff members of the House Financial Services Committee.
_A staff member of Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, a member of the Financial Services Committee.
_Former Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Calif.
_Former Housing and Urban Development Secretaries Alphonso Jackson and Henry Cisneros; and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala. The VIP unit processed Cisneros’ loan after he joined Fannie’s board of directors.
_Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, was an exception. He told the VIP unit not to give him a discount, and he did not receive one.
_Former Fannie Mae heads James Johnson, Daniel Mudd and Franklin Raines. Countrywide took a loss on Mudd’s loan. Fannie employees were the most frequent recipients of VIP loans. Johnson received a discount after Mozilo waived problems with his credit rating.
The report said Mozilo “ordered the loan approved, and gave Johnson a break. He instructed the VIP unit: `Charge him 1/2 under prime. Don’t worry about (the credit score). He is constantly on the road and therefore pays his bills on an irregular basis but he ultimately pays them.’”
Johnson in 2008 resigned as a leader of then-candidate Barack Obama’s vice presidential search committee after The Wall Street Journal reported he had received $7 million in Countrywide discounted loans.
The report said those who received the discounts knew the loans were handled by a special VIP unit.
“The documents produced by the bank show that VIP borrowers received paperwork from Countrywide that clearly identified the VIP unit as the point of contact,” the committee said.
The standard discount was 0.5 waived points. Countrywide also waived junk fees that usually ranged from $350 to $400.
AKAnon says:
It’s nice to see that both major parties were well represented in this corruption. Who holds the moral high ground? I guess that would be Pete Sessions this time.
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5th July 2012 at 10:35 am
Administrator says:
The Market Ticker ® Commentary on The Capital Markets Posted 2012-07-05 09:39
by Karl Denninger
in Corruption Is Influence Peddling Still Illegal? (Countrywide)
No, really?
WASHINGTON – The former Countrywide Financial Corp., whose subprime loans helped start the nation’s foreclosure crisis, made hundreds of discount loans to buy influence with members of Congress, congressional staff, top government officials and executives of troubled mortgage giant Fannie Mae, according to a House report.
Isn’t that pretty-much bribery?
The Justice Department has not prosecuted any Countrywide official, but the House committee’s report said documents and testimony show that Mozilo and company lobbyists “may have skirted the federal bribery statute by keeping conversations about discounts and other forms of preferential treatment internal. Rather than making quid pro quo arrangements with lawmakers and staff, Countrywide used the VIP loan program to cast a wide net of influence.”
Skirted eh? So all I have to do is make sure that there’s no record of anything I might want in return for such a thing, or simply shower Congressional offices with various “intangible” gifts, and if it happens to lead to benefit, well, that’s ok?
Yeah, right. It may be “legal” but that doesn’t make it right!
I have written much about Countrywide and the bankster actions in general during the 2000s. There were so many clear abuses that several States attempted to stop them with lawsuits and other enforcement action. The Bush Administration sued to block these enforcement actions, arguing that as banks and other firms doing business across state lines the businesses in question were subject to exclusive Federal Jurisdiction and could not be sued by The States.
In other words, at the explicit direction of the Bush White House, you got screwed.
And then under Obama you got more screwed as his White House has refused to bring charges and prosecute either.
What’s even worse is that even Gary Johnson, allegedly a Libertarian, has said “Nobody committed any crimes” and he has refused to demand that those responsible for these abusive practices face the music!
We have a Parliament of *****s with all of your choices for November being in fact Robbers in Chief, both real and prospective, and you, the common man, have been and will be in the future serially abused as a consequence — right up until you demand better politicians.
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5th July 2012 at 11:03 am
Persnickety says:
The quaint concept of “a nation of laws, not of men” has receded far into the distance.
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5th July 2012 at 11:17 am
AWD says:
Angelo Mozilo, John Corzine, Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, and all the rest. Arch criminals that are still walking the streets as free men when they should be swinging from lampposts. Someday, by the grace of God, and the laws of karma, they will be.
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5th July 2012 at 11:19 am
Ron says:
Admin. come on start a section where peoples names and there crimes can be listed,it should be recorded for historys sake.Ive never seen this done anywhere.
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5th July 2012 at 11:54 am
Administrator says:
“Decency, security and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen. In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example.
Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”
Louis D. Brandeis, US Supreme Court Justice, Olmstead v. United States, 1928
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5th July 2012 at 12:13 pm
Mary Malone says:
You know, the cronie crime spree is similar to what happened in NYC from 1970′s until 1994. It ended when Rudy and his police commissioner Bratton designed a crime fighting strategy based on a he “Broken Window” theory.
It was articulated by sociologists and published in The Atlantic Monthly.
Police traditionally ignored the petty lifestyle crimes and threw their resources at chasing down the murderers.
The Broken Window theory shows how small crimes committed by a few escalate and create an atmosphere of lawlessness. In neighborhoods with broken windows vagrants settled in flopped got high and started robbing anyone in their path. Soon, a full scale crime spree was underway.
So Rudy and the NYPD changed the entire philosophy and used computer stats that measured petty crime to target low level criminals. Resources were highly targeted. Local precinct captains were held accountable. All crimes – large and small dropped. That sense of lawlessness disappeared. People began to see how small their world became when they allowed criminals to take over their neighborhoods. They refused to go backwards and allow the criminals to resurface.
That’ s what we have here with cronies and TBTF. There will come a point when people will have had enough and they will demand the criminals arrest. We ‘re coming close to that time.
In the meantime, the criminals will escalate their crimes, appear bolder and as tho they are invincible.
They don’t realize just how little time they have left before the Broken Window crime fighting theory takes hold and ends their crime spree.
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5th July 2012 at 3:42 pm
Chris says:
Bribery? Is High Crimes and Treason. Hello!
Good ole Constitution
Business, the American Con Game
Absolutely astonishing
No accountability~ that’s why they keep doing it
Maybe the American
Populace is too busy with medication and Dancing with the Stars?
How’s Joey Buttafucco doing? Lindsay Lohan? Tom Cruise?
Jerry Jerry Jerry!
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5th July 2012 at 7:08 pm