Countrywide’s Mozilo gets money for nothing

Mozilo and others including Congress are the blame for the mortgage meltdown as business leaders write the legislationg that they want and Congress passes without any consideration for the hardship and pain it causes the masses (middle class) all while turning a deaf ear to the cries of pain and requests for help.

See blog below and wake up America, vote in November to remove the lackluster Congress that we have in office now.

http://affordableremodelingforhomeowners.blogspot.com/

Mr. & Mrs. George Mandell
135 Jones Street
West Haven, Ct. 06516
(203) 934-4232

Mozilo gives something back? To who? Could it be that maybe he feels bad for making his multi billion dollar company go down the drain and somehow he is the only one who is still rich after doing so? I know this because I worked for countrywide for years I’ve also lost my job at Countrywide due to all the horrible choices that were made by this man. So Mozillo can not and will not come out as a hero with his “giving back” report, you can’t be a hero Mozillo when not only did your gain cause so much loss within your companies employees alone but in millions and millions of homeowners that are now losing their homes so that you could live that outrageous life you live. Its about time someone called this man out, he’s the main reason this economy is in such turmoil. Good for you Hillary Clinton, thanks for calling out this man who has done nothing for anyone or anything but himself. What a example Mozillo is, building a multi billion dollar empire and lose it all within 5 short months, not sure you can call yourself a hero.

Mozillo should not be rewarded for his behavior and for what he has permitted in his company. I was a victim of ID theft through Countrywide, and the way that company treated me from the ground floor up was abominable! I’m quite sure I am not the only Countrywide victim whose identity was knowingly misused in 2006. After what he has engaged in and permitted, I believe he should be severely disciplined, if not imprisoned. Let him give all that money he essentially stole to the victims of ID theft that his company refused to acknowledge and honor.

When interest rates went down 4 years ago and I needed to refinance, I received a call from Countrywide informing me that because of my excellent payment record I could obtain a substantially lower rate than the one I had. I thought, how nice of Countrywide to offer me a lower rate. When all loan papers were signed and accepted I told them that I assumed that since I stayed with them my prepayment penalty would be eliminated. They said no. I asked the loan officer to go to his supervisor and correct their wrong. The supervisor said no. I asked the supervisor to go to his supervisor to correct the situation since I was not going to pay a $ 13,000 prepayment penalty if I stayed with them. The supervisor’s supervisor said no. Eventually, I decided to refinance thru another Company. My feeling is that Mozilo’s rule was “screw the consumer”.

I also worked in their bank. I have worked at a several banks, it was the crappiest system i have ever seen. Complete incompetence. You could not even get the simplest things done, like get a check sent. The “managers” were flunkies who were willing to work for next to nothing and often either had no experience in finance or were 23 and young and dumb. Good riddance to a crappy organization.

Attention: BOFA
Response to JH San Diego who wrote BOA -do yourself a favor and keep your management and get rid of Countrywide Management.

I’ve worked in the Wholesale Division of Countrywide. I was laid off late 2006, I felt so sad to leave Countrywide because I thought it was a great big company then except for their management. I am now an underwriter for an insurance company and thankful that I jumped out of the ship before it sank.

Countrywide Management is all but politics. I am a college graduate but I was brushed off with a statement ” Countrywide does not care whether you are a college graduate but it is who you know inside CW that will help you make your career”. I have seen how the branch I used to work for tolerates nepotism:
1) The Funding Manager had her son and daughter-in-law employed in the same branch she manages.
2) The Underwriting Manager cohabits an Account Executive (AE). The said AE was nicknamed “Prima Donna” because she gets her way with loan approvals and conditions.
3) An underwriter used to cohabit an AE. This AE and the underwriter (now an AE too) are the best friend of the said Branch Manager who became an RVP.
4) The Production Manager used to cohabit a Sr Underwriter but are now married and both are still working for the same branch.

The Underwriting Manager hired friends to make sure that his decision is followed. It was also rumored that this Manager approves loans with “grease money and gifts”. All the Sr. Underwriter in this branch is under the wings and tutelage of this Underwriting Manager and Branch Manager. The whole branch knows whats going on but no one would talked to higher management/ corporate office for fear of losing their job then. Inside the office their group was nicknamed “The CLIQUE”. They are are all friends of each other inside and outside of work. If you don’t go along with what they say then you do not belong to “the clique”. They all believe and think of themselves as the GODS and UNTOUCHABLE.

To make the long story short, this branch did another huge lay-off last quarter of 2007. This time they laid off employee from this branch with 3-16 yrs of service with CW. Believe it or not, All that was left was friends and family of “the CLIQUE”

This kind of management made Countrywide fall. I hope somebody with authority from BOFA will read all these comments about the Countrywide Management. BofA must get rid of this clique system which is a widespread infuence in the Countrywide Management

I’ve worked in the servicing department at Countrywide over 7 years, and the comments about the consumers seems to be all negative, and it’s all their faults. Yes it is true that a lot of these people got in trouble on their own, and a lot more got in trouble with the help of aggressive loan officers. But I have to ask one thing-
Do YOU read EVERYTHING on a document BEFORE you sign it, and did YOU read everything and UNDERSTAND the document before you signed it?
I guarantee you, more people than will admit to anyone, did NOT do this on their own mortgage (or lease for those renting.)
I guess you’re no smarter than the consumers you’re ragging on!

Response to James O Brane Hillsboro Oh.: Sorry to burst your bubble on this one, but Mozillo is a DEMOCRAT!!!
All of his political contributions went to them. (By the way Greenspan is a Democrat too.)
Mozillo can be called a lot of things, but he started the company from scratch so he can’t be stupid. Greedy maybe, but that is an evil byproduct of capitalism (and happens to be one of communism as well!)
Until a company goes down, the practices of all execs, including MCI, Enron, Tyco, etc. are GREAT! But everyone has a great armchair quarterback hindsight into how bad they are only AFTER it goes down!

I’ve known Angelo personally since 1999. He’s a Democrat, what did you expect?

I was a manager at Countywide. I worked for the banking side. I never was so embarrassed to work for an organization like I was for Countrywide. You have managers that are giving you direction when they can’t even spell or write their own name. They are are all friends of each other and if you don’t go along with what they say then you are out. I had to deal with managers that allowed employees to be harassed and verbally abused. When it was reported to their so called HR Department they grabbed at every single occurrence to get you out of the company. One of the most respected and admired mangers at Countrywide who was a SVP lost their job because a managing director did not like him, talk about being ridiculous and shallow. I couldn’t be happier with the news, I hope all who have lived in their very expensive ivory towers go down with the acquisition, then they all can run to the unemployment line together. Thanks BOA! do yourself a favor and keep your management and get rid of Countrywide Management.

I’ll throw my two cents in to the ring… I have read the comments posted and in my opinion the mortgage decline, slump, whatever you want to coin it is the result of many factors.

In regards to the Corporation’s (not just the mortgage lending business) but take the energy deregulation several years back and Enron fleecing California all the while the Energy brokers laughing at the constant brown outs and how they felt empowered by pulling the strings. I think Oliver Stone opened pandora’s box with Gordan Gecko’s “greed is good”.

I am a red blooded capitalist myself but I conduct myself and my company with integrity and honesty.

There will always be sharks in the water but when the market is teeming with them it’s a bloodbath.

The consumers need to share some of the blame not just in respect to lengthy disclosure forms that perhaps left some feeling “dupped”; but I feel more importantly in regards to the instant gratification mentality I see in America today. From people buying houses that are too big to furnish to car loans that get stretched out seven years so that person gets that car of their dreams, but in a year or two find another car they have to have.

I think this current President of the United States and his administration has set a bad example in spending that my children’s children will be paying for with this Iraqi war (and no this is not me going off on a tangent about pros and cons of this war) my point is there was no real plan with the end in mind; the result more begging and jockying for more BILLIONs to keep everything afloat.

In closing the waters are rough out there and will be for some time. For new home buyers out there beware; B of A is one of the heaviest hitters when it comes to fees for personal and commercial banking. In my opinion get a real estate attorney to make sure what you have been told is what is your signing.

Cry me A river… Idiots. BOO HOO.. CW this CW that. There was so many companies that did illegitimate loans and then CW helped you Sub-Prime fools out and all you could do is fail your payment plans and then just blame CW for your foreclosure. Trust me I know, it’s the borrowers fault, you lucky you even got the loan.

I used to work for Countrywide as a Senior Loan Specialist and underwriter.
I worked 15 hour days just so I could make sure all the work was done. I loved what I did and wanted to help people achieve their dreams of home ownership.
It was at the end of 2002 and throughout 2003 and the rates were very low.
I enjoyed the work, however, I started to see the corruption pretty quickly.
I would see things that I felt were wrong, or against guidelines and was told they would look into it. Of course, they didn’t, and after getting nowhere with management in the state I tried to reach someone in the national offices.
I think they sensed this and suddenly I was told, it wasn’t working out and that I was fired!
I could have fought it, but it was just to daunting to think about and just walked away.
When I was employed there, they said they wanted help to make sure that everything was in compliance etc, however, that was just a cover.
It was very disheartening and took my a long time to recover from it.
I had worked in the industry for 10 years by then, and had never seen this kind of corruption and naively didn’t think it actually existed.
I knew all the things that are happening were bound to happen. They gave loans to anyone without any consideration with what would happen in the future.
As an underwriter, if I expressed any concerns about this fact, I was told that they “met guidelines” so it was ok.
After a few years more in the business I left last year.
I loved underwriting loans because I felt I was helping people achieve their dreams, however, in the end, I felt I was part of helping many of them achieve a nightmare.
Countrywide was the worst experience of my career, but I learned a lot about the real world of corporate America.
Unfortunately, those same people will continue to work because they can.
It is just pure greed…they make a lot of money and it makes people do terrible things.
Someone mentioned the “Junk Fees”. Those fees always upset me. I was the underwriter and the processor and the doc drawer! Did I get those fees? Nope. The loan agent and Countrywide did. It is just another way to hide the fees that go to the company.
Seeing all this happening to Countrywide gives me a sad feeling that even though I am glad someone is going to pay more attention to their behavior, the fact is that a lot of good people will lose their jobs.
It was all just so unnecessary.

Angelo looks in the same league as Ken Lay, Bernie Ebbers, and the other guys who took poor shareholders for a ride. What a shame.

Like others, I worked for CHL for two years. I was a contractor in their Corporate Finance group and it was very clear that the ‘higher ups’ had no clue what they were doing and the only way up was to politic and backstab. I feel sorry for the ‘worker-bees’ in Corporate because many of them are quite talented at what they do and of course they’ll be the ones with the smallest severances.

I currently work for Countrywide, and want to begin by saying that the idea that our company has somehow talked “EVERYONE” into purchsing a house they cannot afford and moreover, overcharging them to do is deluded and irresponsible thinking. My branch is extremely profitable, and the most we charge is a $285 processing fee. No doc prep, underwriting, application fees, etc. Most fees associated with our loans are third party fees that are beyond our control.

At some point, borrowers that accept ARM loans, or interest only loans have to accept that they got themselves into this situation. In America we want the most we can get for the cheapest amount. There have been hundreds of times Loan Officers (we are NOT a BROKER), have shown borrowers several payment options, what their payments are at various fixed rates, interest only payments, arm rates- and what does the borrower choose? The lowest payment shown.

Every company has bad sheep, but please be intelligent enough to know that there MOST of Countrywide is dedicated to helping our borrowers, and communities. Every business has a need to make money, but to categorize a company because of those few bad sheep is irresponsible and untrue.

I have also worked at banks, credit unions, Wells Fargo and have seen nothing at Countrywide, that I have not seen any other employer. Countrywide just happens to the number 1 Lender in the country, which is why our faults are becoming news. Please know that nothing happens at our company that doesn’t happen at every other Lender in the USA (excluding Brokers)

To Ex1stVP - FYI - CW did not conjure up the Reverse Mortgage. It’s an FHA product.

RE: Brokers/Wholesalers - I personally know of brokers who fraudulently copy/pasted paystubs and even signatures, using the notaries in their office to put their stamp on the documents. They are currently under investigation by our Atty General AND the FBI.
I have worked for Norwest/Wells Fargo for over ten years. We have a very close-knit “family” in our mortgage branches. I know some will call me naive, but this company awards integrity and gets rid of loan officers who try to gouge their customers. Some may get away with it at first, but they are found out. I’ve seen it happen. Any CFC employee with integrity who wants to get out is welcome to come over to WFHM and be rewarded for honesty and true customer service.

I also was a Manager at the famous”Countrywide”. The good old boys who ran CW were HEE man woman haters. They did not show respect for women, the company and for the public. One of the RVPs were sexually harrassing an employee and nothing happened to him. HR ignored the whole thing and the sad part is the slob is still doing it still to other women.
If you were’nt in the “Circle of Execellence” you did’nt get a chance to speak with good old Angie. It was more like a cult then a company. He only want to recognize you if you were making him money.
They passed out large paychecks to anyone who was rumored to be a top producer. After $200K of payout they realized that the person was a flake and fired them just to payout another big check. All the manager’s were ripping off the clients and no one ever did anything about it. They were more concerned with making a large profit who cared if they were screwing the customer. Manager’s encouraged to charge up the fees. Bigger profits for the branches. Hopefully Bank of America will clean house Real quick because there is alot of “Cancer” hanging around Countrywide. They need to cut out the bad and then they can start off on a healthier foot.

I agree with Ex 1st VP comments. I’m a former CHL call center mgr. A lot of the decision makers of CHL were all inbreeds and folks with very little talent. This is exactely what happens when you empower your friends into positions they are not qualified for. Mozilio hired a bunch of YES folks…

I wonder will IndyMac keep Mozilio on the board of directors.

There’s much to comment here. First, let me say that I’ve been in the biz awhile. I worked for Wells, B of A (funny enough), E-Loan, a smaller broker office, and I now work for Indymac Bank. I’m personally licensed in CA, I have my MBA, and have been certified by so many organizations that I won’t even bore anyone with all the certificates I have. Needless to say, I know this business, and market pretty well.

Consumers are somewhat to blame. They should read disclosures, only use trusted loan advisers who truthfully explain everything, and make sure they understand what they are getting themselves into.

Not just brokers, but many out of all loan professionals jumped on the band wagon to quick riches through improper lending practices. This does allow for some forgiveness to trusting borrowers. They are calling on these people or being sold by these people to be trusted advisers, not to be more worried about stuffing their pockets, and steering customers into not backing out or being stuck into a situation. Many customers get laws broken in their loan transactions all the time, but are too ignorant to know, and once it’s over they just let it go. I won’t say who, but I’ve closed down small crooked operations.

Banks are to blame too, but limited to only some blame as well. The fancy financing options are great tools to any consumer or investor who knows what type of financing they are getting themselves into. It’s actually a shame that they are gone, as they were great tools when used responsibly, and it took banks forever to get those types of financing options for buyers and owners alike.

Fraud, where to begin or end with this topic. So many people committed fraud in this industry that it is amazing the market is still standing. Consumers, brokers, loan agents, real estate agents, appraisers, inspectors, etc. Sometimes by themselves and many times co-conspiring to commit massive fraud.

The media has fueled this market frenzy to the absolute worst limits of what is right. Media control would go against a very loved right I agree with, but sometimes I think that they cause more harm then good. If the media concentrated on people now being able to afford all the great housing deals that are 50% of the original prices two years ago, we might have had massive consumer confidence levels to help take care of the over supply of homes.

Builders along with city politicians have made huge profits and many bad decisions building so much. They supply they created together was asking for problems, but like I somewhat stated before, it created cheaper housing.

My opinion is that the housing market will correct itself. Albeit a negative impact first as we are seeing, but eventually people buys homes whether houses are less available or more, less expensive or more, lower rates or 20%, etc. Real estate and mortgages will go on. You’ll just see a more conservative side to lending practices, not only on the banks’ side, but also maybe some more federal regulation. Federal regulation could have stopped some of this, but not all of it. Rates will remain low for some time and housing prices will continue to fall. This is good for some, like areas in the bay area where I live and buying a house used to be out of the question for most. Now prices have come back down to earth a little making financing for a home easier for the middle and lower class worker not making Angie Salaries or bonuses. Conservative lending will mean
almost always documenting income, assets, employment, having some assets, money down, good credit, etc. Lending was this way before all the crazy product options if any old timers like me remember.
CEOs do get ridiculous pay, but this is corporate America people. I don’t side with them, but when you got a bunch of politicians running the country and not people running the country, big corporations get away with these kinds of things. This won’t go away anytime soon. The same types of actions will happen with medical and other types of companies in the future.

To note, my CEO buys stock when it’s down, is right in the middle of the mess continuing to help anyway possible, has a federal thrift system that is keeping us the strongest company out there with plenty of liquidity, has cut corporate bonuses for upper management this last year in midst of the turmoil because it was fair practice (I’m sure it just plain looks good too), and has done many other things that a responsible CEO should do.

TO: Ex1stVP, Simi Valley, CA

You noted that it was “arrogance, greed and incompetence that led to Countrywide’s demise” — and you mentioned some intriguing facts about Countrywide’s faulty operations leading to its recent problems.

As a journalist, it struck me that you may have a compelling story to tell. If you’d like to explore this further, please leave some way to contact you at this blog. Thanks…

YOU WROTE:

“As a former 1st VP at Countrywide (I resigned last year before the Market crash), I can tell you it was arrogance, greed, and imcompetence that led to Countrywides demise.
Arrogance - After 5 years of riding the subprime wave, every executive at Countrywide to include Angelo Mozillo were arrogant enough to think that they were immune to making subprime loans because they felt that it would be the investors problem (the secondary investor market they sold the loans to). You see Countrywide originates the loans, sells them to the investor pool, but services the loan as part of the deal when they sell the loans.

Greed - Sitting in on meetings thinking of ways to get make more money of the “stupid borrowers”. Incidentally, I left when they were conjuring up the “Reverse Mortgage” which will take advantage of the elderly by essentially lending them money based off the equity in their homes, then kicking them out of their homes when the “loan is due” unless they pay it in full (unlikely) or they die before they use up all the liquidable equity (which CW benefits greater from). Protect your parents and don’t let them sign on for a Reverse Mortgage. Finally, look at what Angelo Mozillo is taking home, he had a salary of over 25 million per year when I was not allowed to give even great employees higher than a 3% increase on their annual reviews.

Incompetence - 90% of the Executives at Countrywide have only a high school education. And out of the 10% that do have a college degree, the majority of them are of the “city college” or “Phoenix University” type. Yet these are the strategy, and decision makers.

That’s why I left and that’s why I think this takeover certainly cannot hurt the housing market, but may possibly help in a year or two once its complete.”

Posted By Ex1stVP, Simi Valley, CA : January 11, 2008 3:43 pm

Anyone that chooses to sign something without reading what they are signing or considering the consequences deserves to lose their home. Without those loans, all of those people would still be renting, and 85% of the people that took those loans have handled the payments responsibly and are now living happily in their homes. Just because a small percentage of people choose to point fingers everywhere except in the mirror because they are irresponsible, the banks get blamed. A lot of these people are defaulting even before the rate adjusts. Nobody’s fault but their own.

Everyone was at fault, but the real blame should be allocated like this:

**** Borrowers. How stupid are you? You sign a note that clearly shows the payment will become a variable rate in two years. If you asked the Broker what’s up with that, they probably said something like “Don’t worry about it. In two years we’ll refinance you again at a lower rate.” You should have run out of their office. If you didn’t think to ask, then you’re too stupid to live. If you can’t afford a 30 yr mortgage payment, you can’t afford the house. period.

*** Brokers Come on, guys. Yeah, the banks begged you for the loans, but you sat across from that borrower and put them in a 2/28 even though you knew in your heart that they would be better served with a 30 yr fixed rate. Don’t tell me you didn’t have that product. You liked the ability to dial for dollars every 2 years - to hell with the borrower’s best interest.

**Bankers. You should know better - you’re supposed to be experts in assessing risk. After the prime boom ended, you chose to chase subprime paper rather than downsize. Lemmings.

** Regulators. You could have intervened and stopped this.

* Investors. Stupid sheep. Did you actually do any due diligence on what you were buying?

Aggravated NC: If you only made 3k a month and your were producing 2,000,000 there is a serious problem. You should have been making close to 15,000 a month. What were you doing?

That’s America! The neauty is that you too, could turn into a new Mozilo, depending upon your rolodex.
I love it.

Corporate malfesance at its best, digusting. If ever there was a time to sue this is the case. Mozilo and his minions knew a long time ago they were on a bubble that was about to burst, and just kept piling it on becoming the the co-posterchild with Merrill Lynch for this economy killer. These companies and their execs show blatant disregard for the welfare of the shareholders. And why should they when they receive such disgusting payouts! Shareholders need to wake up and get a good law firm and sue. Illustrate to the BOD as well as HR and Exec hiring team that we DON’T pay people to run both the company and share price into the ground! Perform or go collect unemployment like the rest of us!!!

In addition to taxpayer eating of the CFC losses to help fund the BAC takeover, CFC would have long since been insolvent except for $50B+ lending from federal home loan bank system.

Compare to Eroupean counterparts: CEO’s salaries is 20X’tms subalterns, Plus bonus based on performance,Overdue changes are comming for USA mANAGENENT.

As a former 1st VP at Countrywide (I resigned last year before the Market crash), I can tell you it was arrogance, greed, and imcompetence that led to Countrywides demise.
Arrogance - After 5 years of riding the subprime wave, every executive at Countrywide to include Angelo Mozillo were arrogant enough to think that they were immune to making subprime loans because they felt that it would be the investors problem (the secondary investor market they sold the loans to). You see Countrywide originates the loans, sells them to the investor pool, but services the loan as part of the deal when they sell the loans.

Greed - Sitting in on meetings thinking of ways to get make more money of the “stupid borrowers”. Incidentally, I left when they were conjuring up the “Reverse Mortgage” which will take advantage of the elderly by essentially lending them money based off the equity in their homes, then kicking them out of their homes when the “loan is due” unless they pay it in full (unlikely) or they die before they use up all the liquidable equity (which CW benefits greater from). Protect your parents and don’t let them sign on for a Reverse Mortgage. Finally, look at what Angelo Mozillo is taking home, he had a salary of over 25 million per year when I was not allowed to give even great employees higher than a 3% increase on their annual reviews.

Incompetence - 90% of the Executives at Countrywide have only a high school education. And out of the 10% that do have a college degree, the majority of them are of the “city college” or “Phoenix University” type. Yet these are the strategy, and decision makers.

That’s why I left and that’s why I think this takeover certainly cannot hurt the housing market, but may possibly help in a year or two once its complete.

Mozilo’s package is corporate molestation and rape. It is despicable, immoral, and unethical. It is this type of abuse, sanctioned by the “good ol’ boys” club, that carries ramifications to the middle class workers of America who ultimately pay for this. With 12,000 people who recently lost their jobs at Countrywide to the thousands facing foreclosure and default, certainly these golf playing, cigar smoking, C-type imbeciles could find something more humane to do with their $115 million. From my perspective, BofA would be far better served to kick Mozilo out on his keester with a $0 package and spend the money on those whose shoulders the company rests.

A-MEN MR. ZIMMERMAN!

CRY ME A RIVER! BENJAMIN IN BROOKLYN- ITS ONLY CUT THROAT BECAUSE YOU MAKE IT CUT THROAT.

MORTGAGE BROKERS ARE THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SOLUTION.

The brokers have no one leaning over their shoulder watching over their every move. That girl with the scanner in her office had it made in the shade. WHAT About all the unnecessary fees and junk points she mentioned? All that whine goes along with all that money they make for just packaging the loan for origination. Give me a break- $695 as a processing fee, $750 doc prep, $500 underwriting. You know this is just junk. It all basically falls on the uneducated consumer. Educate your client, and do the right thing, and they’ll come back to you.

I hear a lot of whining about the CW employees not getting their fair share out of this deal. Do like I did and work for yourself and make yourself wealthy, not someone else. At least when you retire, you wont have any employees blogging comments on how much they feel they deserve from you or how unhappy they are with your retirment package.

Think “tip-of-the-iceberg”. Gold approaching $900/oz;exchange rate of $ vs. euro @ 1.50; credit card debt at an all-time high; savings @ an all-time low. Consumer: If it sounds too good to be true–it probably is. Source of the dysfunctional housing market woes? Look in the mirror.

I was just let go from the Countrywide near the Holidays and I can tell you all that it’s not all Angelo’s fault it’s the stupid VP and SVP that he has running his buisness they are the onces that should let go with out a pension and bonus and let me tell you they make money how many SVP do you know that have a bodyguard?

As the gap rapidly grows between the uber-wealthy and the rest of us, more and more anger is coming up even in the most civil settings. I asked a co-worker who’s husband previously worked for Countrywide, and she says he was happy to leave considering some of the “acting out” he was seeing from not just the one’s who were stupid enough to sign a bad note, but EVERYONE he ran into. People are just fed up with the over-indulgence and jaded attitudes of the rich. Seems to me the French had a good way of resolving their disputes with the arrogant rich a number of years ago. Hm-m-m-m-m…..

what sarah is saying is pure loan fraud, which represents a tiny tiny part of the whole broker system, most brokers just followed the guildines, if the guildines called for a stated loan at the same price of full doc what was wrong with that, as long as the borrwer qualified, i dont know about youi but everyday there was another seminar from another lender out there entitle “how to qualify more borrwers” i.e. how to give us more lonas that might not make it past the first few payemtns, so please dont blame the brokers, most of them are just trying to make a living in this cut throat business.

This Mozilo guy cares nothing about the company but himself. Selfish too much botox freak! Many ex CW employees are being screwed b/c part of their 401k is allocated to company stock. CW stocks are like paper airplanes now. If that Mozilo guy has some decency..he should refuse his exit package and give it to his ex-workers. The least he can do is try to earn an ounce of respect from his fellow workers. He definitely lost all his respects in the CA community. Be a man!!! Take responsibility for your poor business judgement and failure!

F-R-A-U-D! That’s loan fraud Sarah- Your broker should have been turned in to the Banking Commission. This broker probably made lots of money in the form of un-necessary points, junk fees, and not to mention yield spread premiums.

We all know that MORGAGE BROKERS are the ones that abused the system- we could all but BRAKE THE RULES. They even had an scanner in one office in my home town. I used to be a broker for 3 years for a non-cuontrywide company. I remember my processor scanning in tax returns and pay checks to alter them. Nearly everything we did was no doc, stated this-stated that, SIVA loan. If we could state it, we did. I know that we made some bad loans. Don’t blame the Countrywide people- they just collect the paymnts.

the problem here is that, the media and the banks are blaming alot of this on their wholesale business, what nobody realizes is that 4 yearsa go every bank out there was finding creative way to lure the wholesale business their way, they came up with these crazy loans and now when they realize that it aint all up they it would be they are blaming everyone but themselves, im not saying the entire wholesale system is pure angels but please, look at it this way they pushed everything and anything on the wholesale side and just begged you to do anything to send them a loan, now that it aint working they are blaming everyone but themselves, how corprate is that.

I was going to comment in depth on your brief article, but I see yourmother,Rich Boswell,and Matt have conveyed my sentiments perfectly.

Get a grip - we knew this was coming. Don’t fault Angie - he created a condiut for all those morgages - the rest of the banks followed. Look for Whamu to be the next.
What we need now is more good paying jobs, health care, alternative fuel and lower interest rates - the sooner the better. The fed - a bunch of buffoons eductated and who live in a very sterol invironment just don’t get it - neither do the politicians.

Lenders, whether wholesale or correspondent, only originate what the companies in the secondary market agree to buy, including Wall Street. They are not originating these crazy loans and then representing them to be something they are not to the secondary buyers. Most of these originating companies don’t even have the capital themselves to fund loans. Hence, that’s why they starting dropping like flies when the secondary market stopped buying the loans.

Here may be some of BofA’s motives: Countrywide Bank, whose portfolio of loans is decent and they have bank branches. LandSafe Title, which gives them vertical integration into the overall lending process, along with appraisal and property insurance.

Why is everyone attacking CW and not looking at Ken Lewis. He’s pulled this crap before to drive stock down and then buy out a company. BofA is turning into a monopoly, and that’s scary. Mozilo’s making off with a fortune, but remember he built that company from scratch in a relatively short time. He announced retirement several years ago, and stayed on when the market crash. So him retiring is nothing new. Hopefully the media will stop the real estate attack, and realize that if this fails, so will the economy. They’re that big.

Why do the homeowners get a pass? They are just as greedy as the CEO of Countrywide. I am one of them and I will be the first one to admit that the financial mess I got into was my fault and mine alone. I have loans with Countrywide and I don’t blame them one bit.

Anyone, and I mean ANYONE who is having their house foreclosed is doing so because of their own irresponsibility, period, end of story.

You should try to understand that it is not so much Countrywide, but the broker network of correspondent lenders that originated this “crap load” of bad mortgage paper. The option ARM and Interest Only ARM programs that brought about the rise in foreclosures were available to both the retail and wholesale sales forces. The broker/ correspondent wholesalers are suffering NO reprocussions and NO penalities for originating the junk and selling it to Countrywide. While I admit that Countrywide should have used better QC in buying this paper, it should be placing some of the blame on the wholesalers. In addition to this, the consumers placed their signature and initials on every recorded mortgage. They knew what they were signing up for as evidenced by their signatures. In this world you can buy things, and get sold things! Apparently the public facing foreclosure got SOLD! Here’s a word of advice for the general public- Grow Up! Read what you sign! This ain’t Kindergarten!

Since when is building a company up for 40 years and cashing out rich something to be ashamed of? The other comments on this article talk of Mozilo being a crook and ripping people off. You may find his wealth excesive, but like it or not people, America is based on CAPITALISM. If the posibility of getting rich wasn’t out there, nobody would ever strive to get ahead. Are you going to start bashing Bill Gates or Warren Buffet next?

As usual? This, supposed CEO almost bankrupted this business “of his”.
As I recall we stockholders own the business. Why are we paying Angie $115 million for losing 79% of OUR money? Reso this deal and make sure he gets nothing but a pat on the back as the door closes behind him, just like the 14000 employees he did that to this year!!

They should sell stock in Golden Parachutes, Inc. They could even include a multiplier by how clueless and incompetent the CEO leaving the company was.

Not to worry people. What is BofA buying? A huge servicing portfolio which is devaluating daily as the real estate prices drop. Also, thousands of originators all over the country making for a managerial nightmare. BofA pumped all that money into Countrywide a few months back. At the time, it was speculated that they were looking to buy out. But now that things have gotten worse, going through with the purchase could be more that just saving the initial investment. It could be suicide. Either BofA knows something we don’t or they are immensely stupid.

if i hear one more republican explain to me that free markets take care of themselves, i am going to knock them in their teeth. the first rule should be that greedy people do nasty things. then the free market can take care of itself. i.e. there should have been oversight by the fed first. then let the free markets go to work.

Last time I checked, this is the American dream. Angelo was an ambitious entrepreneur who took a chance in the early 70’s and built a successful company. He was extremely successful as well as the architecht of the mortgage industry and American dream. Lets stop blaming him for the housing industry meltdown and take a bit closer look at the greed on Wallstreet as well as the people who continuously refinanced their homes stripping all equity to purchase flatscreen televisions and H2 Hummers. It takes two to tango. Ask yourself - If you were 70 would you not look to sell your company and cash out as well? Any other answer than a “yes” is a lie.

I wonder how much cash Mozilo Has Given To The KING BUSH or Rep. Party??? This why all this stuff is allowed to go on and the whole country suffers.

Yet another incompetent CEO getting something they didn’t earn……when are we going to wake up and stop this nonsense? Shareholders need to make they’re discontent known. Start sending messages with your proxy material!

I worked for Countrywack for about a yr when I was informed that I was on a list to be let go even though I was second in my branch in sales for 8 months straight…..I’m glad that I made roughly $3K/month workin 50hrs/wk funding $2,000,000/month. They really know how to take care of their employees lol

Unfortunately, as all this may seem somewhat suspect, the Gov. will be more than glad to have a bank step up and bail out a potentially expensive tax payer situation of trying to sort out the mortgage mess.

It should be noted that banks have stepped in before to bail out market woes. They stepped up and helped in the thirties when the market took a dive and credit became scarce. Then too, the banks mad out ok and profited. But also helped the economy to get moving again and helped the Fedral Government out of a jam.

You could say it is a necessary evil.

Why are people like Mozilo allowed to get away with this stuff? Tangelo should be prosecuted for this underhanded double dealing. I will tell everyone I know to NEVER do business with Countrywide or any company associated with Mozilo. “go have some fun indeed”! While the rest of us pick up the tab and clean upo the mess. Wake up America!

I am 20 years in this industry and this Buy out has been rumored for over a year. how do you think 500 million shares changed hands in the last 3 days. BOA was buying trying to make a choice.

Rewarding A while hoping for B. Why are stockholders and taxpayers paying for this underperfoming crook?

This is not a new story…wake up America and take some action!

I used to work for Countrywide and I left in April of 2007 because I knew that everything was about to go down in flames. As for “Tangelo”, I guess he can get some more spray on tanning oil and more botox to his face with all that money he is raking in. Whats the total up to now? $235 million for the year. I wish I hit the lottery too.

What sucks is I just put 2 and 2 together last night, of course after I put in an after market trade. Rumors of bankruptcy force the share price down, so that BofA can “rescue” this company and $7 a share. It sickens me! Why else would a company wait so long to leak news of a buyout huh? Most companies in trouble scream it from the rooftops to show value. I figured at $7 either this company really is headed towards bankruptcy, or some executives were making out big on the deal. Turns out I was right. I will never invest in a company run by MOZO again.

what is wrong with this picture? evidently there is new math in business.

The government really needs to stop this rip off of the American public!!! I am a Republican in favor of returning to a more graduated income tax system!

Why isn’t Mozilo in jail? He instructed CFC to buy back shares as he was dumping them. He knew CFC was heading for a crash. It’s well past time for criminal charges to be filed against him.

As if Mozillo needs anymore sun….or money! I’m an ex employee who rode his wave and left in order to ‘protect MY house’…..but will keep the wrist band as a reminder…..!