Posted on 03/24/2009 6:57:55 AM PDT by gartrell bibberts
An Oversight and Government Reform Committee Republican report Countrywide Financial Corporation’s infamous VIP and Friends of Angelo Program offers new insight into the inner workings of Countrywide’s efforts to buy friends in critical government and industry positions affecting the company’s business interests.
“This investigation finds that Countrywide embarked in a determined and calculated effort to buy influence – employees openly weighed the political influence of targeted officials when deciding what perks to offer,” said Issa. “Countrywide VIPs in positions of key responsibility didn’t innocently stumble into loans with reduced rates and waived fees – they were recruited into the program personally by high-ranking company officials including former CEO Angelo Mozilo.”
(Excerpt) Read more at republicans.oversight.house.gov ...
“This investigation finds that Countrywide embarked in a determined and calculated effort to buy influence – employees openly weighed the political influence of targeted officials when deciding what perks to offer,” said Issa. “Countrywide VIPs in positions of key responsibility didn’t innocently stumble into loans with reduced rates and waived fees – they were recruited into the program personally by high-ranking company officials including former CEO Angelo Mozilo.”
“VIPs weren’t just offered good service. Company policies were thrown in the trash in a rush to offer preferential treatment to VIPs such as Senator Kent Conrad and Senator Chris Dodd. Those who were supposed to oversee the lending practices and relationship between Countrywide and Fannie Mae were actually in bed with them.”
“I have asked Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns to join me in requesting all Countrywide VIP and lobbying documents from Bank of America so that the full extent of this influence buying operation program can be investigated. Despite our work, questions remain about the ‘Friends of Angelo’ program and the identities of others who likely received improper benefits.”
Highlights of the report include:
* Documents explain that access to Countrywide’s VIP program was not based on good credit or exceptionally large loans, but on personal referrals from those at the highest levels of Countrywide. Those whose referrals to the VIP program that came from former CEO Angelo Mozilo were known internally as “Friends of Angelo (FOA).” * Countrywide’s VIP loan program was a tool with which Countrywide built its relationship with Congress and protected its relationship with Fannie Mae. Senior Countrywide officials and lobbyists openly and explicitly weighed the value of relationships with potentially influential borrowers against the cost to Countrywide in terms of forfeited fees and payments. * Countrywide’s internal software calculated rates for borrowers based on established industry criteria, including loan-to-value ratio, debt-to-income ratio, and credit history. Manual overrides were necessary to breach company policy in order to accommodate VIP borrowers including Senator Kent Conrad, Senator Christopher Dodd, Former Fannie Mae CEO James Johnson, Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, and House Staff member Clinton Jones. * Countrywide VIP account executive Robert Feinberg testified it was the practice of VIP loan officers to communicate to “Friends of Angelo” they were receiving special pricing and preferential treatment. Documents obtained by the Committee confirm this. VIP borrowers were informed Angelo Mozilo personally priced their loans and they relied on their status as “Friends of Angelo” to guarantee preferential treatment for themselves and others. Borrowers previously processed through the VIP department expected discounts on subsequent refinances. In case a borrower had any doubt about which department was processing a loan, Countrywide loan officers attached business cards to loan documents clearly indicating the officers processing the loan worked in the VIP unit. * Names of previously undisclosed VIPs include including lobbyists, trade association employees, senior Fannie Mae employees, other industry insiders, and individuals working in and employed by the media. * Rebuts arguments by former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines, who testified under oath that he did not receive preferential treatment.
Democrat Culture of Corruption ping!
Holy crap bump!!!
These two Senators are CRIMINALS and should be removed from office.
Coulda used a few breaks in front of the bullet points.
Did any of these people ever do an honest day's work?
Naturally, given the financial difficulties of the day, these senators are far too important to be singled out and prosecuted at this time.
A cabal of DEMOCRATS involved in Corruption. Who’d a thunk it.
Read fast, folks. This is the last you will EVER hear about it.
I hope Rahm is in there somewhere. If he goes, so does this administration. And that would be ‘change’ I could look forward to.
“Names of previously undisclosed VIPs include including lobbyists, trade association employees, senior Fannie Mae employees, other industry insiders,
********and individuals working in and employed by the media.*********”
THIS is why you aren’t hearing very much about this, folks....
I agree. There are other dems that should be ‘frogmarched’ out of DC as well.
“THIS is why you aren’t hearing very much about this, folks....”
PAY OFFS FOR LIBERAL BIAS REPORTING!
The American media is corrupt beyond repair now.
Oh the shame. This can not be. Oh my...... Hey wasn’t Obama’s mortgage from Country Wide?
BTTT
They should be prosecuted, but nothing will happen. The King Obama and his RATS will see to it. Our Country is being ruled like a communist Country and their powers are real and stronger than the people. Only hope on removing Conrad and/or Dodd is at the ballot box and the box will be stuffed with RAT votes.
Countrywide’s Washington lobbyist Jimmie Williams identified influential borrowers for VIP treatment. Williams justified his referrals to the director of the VIP program by explaining the borrower’s position and how he or she could be valuable. Among others, Williams referred the Chief Counsel to the House Financial Services Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee Clinton Jones, HUD SecretaryAlphonso Jackson’s daughter Annette Watkins, U.S. Rep. Melvin Watt’s Chief of Staff Joyce Brayboy, and former Democratic National Committee official and Director of White House Political Affairs under President Clinton Minyon Moore.
For Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Mozilo instructed Perry not to charge any points despite the calculations made by Countrywide underwriter Gene Soda. Mozilo’s waiver of 1.25 points on Holbrooke’s $1.1 million dollar loan represented a discount of $13,750.227.
Jim Lehrer NewsHour Correspondent Margaret Warner According to the documents, borrowers relied on their status as an “FOA” to get preferential treatment. In the case of Margaret Warner, on-air correspondent for PBS’s Jim Lehrer NewsHour, she was aware Mozilo himself had referred her loan to the VIP department and she made sure to notify Feinberg. Warner and Feinberg had previously discussed the terms of a loan, while Warner was also getting quotes from another lender. After suspending or cancelling the loan process with Countrywide, she returned to Feinberg to re-open discussion of the terms of a refinance.
Alphonso Jackson received two loans through the VIP program, and whose daughter was referred to the VIP program by a Countrywide lobbyist; James “Jim” Johnson, former Fannie Mae CEO and adviser to the presidential campaigns of John Kerry and Barack Obama, whose loans were priced personally by Mozilo at discounted rates. Clinton Jones III, senior counsel of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, who was referred for “specialized handling” to the “Friends of Angelo” program by a Countrywide lobbyist, resulting in “.5 off and no garbage fees”; and, Franklin D. Raines, CEO of Fannie Mae, for whom Countrywide’s VIP loan division applied a discount of “1 point off, no junk” to a $1 million refinance in response to a phone call from his secretary stating “per Angelo, Frank needs to refi.”
Andrew Bunnin, Manager of the Los Angeles Times, received preferential treatment from Countrywide, as did Jeffrey Young, the National Advertising Director.
“This investigation finds that Countrywide embarked in a determined and calculated effort to buy influence,and it worked see Dodd’s new house?
Looks alot like his house in Ireland (that we paid for too)!
Perfect! Maxine Waters needs to be on this pic list too.
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