From the Associated Press:
WASHINGTON – Federal regulators on Thursday charged Angelo Mozilo, the former chief executive of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp., and two other company executives with civil fraud.
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s civil lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Los Angeles, also accuses Mozilo of illegal insider trading.
Countrywide was a major player in the subprime mortgage market, the collapse of which in 2007 touched off the financial crisis that has gripped the U.S. and global economies.
Mozilo, 70, is the most high-profile individual to face formal charges from the federal government in the aftermath of the crisis.
Civil fraud charges also were filed against Countrywide’s former chief operating officer David Sambol, 49, and ex-chief financial officer Eric Sieracki, 52.
The trio “deliberately misled” Countrywide shareholders, SEC enforcement director Robert Khuzami said at a news conference at agency headquarters. While they painted a picture of robust performance, the real Countrywide was “buckling under the weight” of soured mortgage loans, he added.
Mozilo “was actively taking his own chips off the table” by selling his shares to reap nearly $140 million in illicit profits, Khuzami said.
Link to full article:
I understand George Hamilton will be playing him in the upcoming movie, Meltdown.
Just kidding, but it sounds plausible, doesn’t it? 🙂
About frikkin time.
SEC needed a scapegoat. This is civil court and getting a conviction in civil court will be much easier than criminal.
It’s about time… Jeez!
This turd burglar used to come on CNBC everyday during 2005-2006 and pump Countrywide and brag about how strong the RE market was. During this whole time he was dumping MILLIONS of Countrywide shares. CNBC needs to be investigated too, but of course they won’t because they’re all apart of the same club.
They also need to investigate Dodd and Cox for their “conflict of interest” loans that they took from this criminal.
He will pay a fine and be off to the riviera once again.there is no justice if you have money.Are they still looking for the people who killed ron goldman?
This is simply a charge of insider trading, which although a serious charge is ironically nothing compared to the damage he dealt through his more legal actions.
I doubt they’ll try him for his outright political bribes, seeing as how the people who received them were all politicians and the benefits were in lowered mortgage interest payments. The perfect bribe is one that’s mixed in with legitimate cash flow.
“SEC needed a scapegoat.”
Kinda…
This guy deliberately lied on CNBC about his companies position. And upped the amount of stock he was selling when he knew Countrywide was screwed. A textbook case of using inside information to make money by selling stocks.
finally, the tanorexic ex-CEO of Countrywide is being strung up to dry eh? Why don’t get the CEOs of AIG et al? They probably did more damage to the global economy (credit default swaps!).
Some people are ‘easier’ to get hence the scapegoat. What, it only took a bad economy to unravel the Maddox ponzi scheme, but yet the SEC couldn’t find squat the past 3 years they were investigating him? More people ought to be going to jail. More people should be losing their homes – where is due process and right to speedy foreclosure when you need it?
http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/top-5/2008/06/12/Countrywide-Loan-Scandal
I guess Dodd, et. al. stopped taking his phone calls. It’s hard not to feel like a doormat for living within your means.
I’m not excusing what the guy may have done, but man how many a CEO goes to an audience and bends the truth. There does seem to be a scapegoat angle here.
I tell you who you’d want to be a fly on the wall around and that is Goldman. There are some people in Government extremely unhappy with deciding entire companies who win and entire companies who lose. Much worse than anything this guy has done.
The orange midget we all think of
I hope he gets some prison love
Hopefully this will be just the tip of a very large iceberg…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Skilling
If you have a problem with the inefficiencies inherent to presumption of innocence, there are a lot of other countries you’ll be happier in. And the idea that if you can’t catch a lot of criminals, you should prosecute none of hem, that’s just even dumber.
OT: Don’t look at the ten-year yield today!
“OT: Don’t look at the ten-year yield today!”
Why? Big deal, it’s off 15 ticks.