Posted on 02/16/2011 6:46:41 PM PST by Libloather
Issa demands details on Countrywide's VIP loan program
By Peter Schroeder - 02/16/11 06:31 PM ET
Bank of America will have to turn over all documents and records tied to Countrywide Financial's VIP lending program after House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) issued a subpoena for them Wednesday.
Issa announced the far-reaching subpoena, his first as chairman of the panel, and made clear that he wanted to know specifically what public employees or elected officials may have benefited from the program.
Issa is looking for all documents about the program, and is particularly interested in what "covered borrowers" were involved with the program.
That term refers to any borrower or borrower's spouse who was at the time the loan was issued a current or former employee of a government agency, member of Congress or employee of Congress, employee of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, or an employee of a state or local government.
"Countrywide orchestrated a deliberate and calculated effort to use relationships with people in high places in order to manipulate public policy and further their bottom line to the detriment of the American taxpayers even at the expense of its own lending standards,” said Issa. "The American people have a right to know the totality of who participated in the Countrywide’s VIP program and what they did in return for access to it.”
Bank of America purchased Countrywide, which was failing financially, in 2008.
This is not the first time Countrywide's lending practices have come under Congressional scrutiny. The Oversight Committee, then chaired by Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), probed the bank's "Friends of Angelo" program for government officials in the last Congress.
The Senate Ethics Committee examined and ultimately cleared retired Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) for receiving loans through the program. Both lawmakers denied any wrongdoing and said they did not ask for preferential treatment.
"Angelo" is a reference to Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide's former CEO.
Oh that would be an orgasm.
Wonder if Issa is getting anywhere with his requests?
They’ll try to beat him down every which way but loose.
Let’s hope he has fearless nads.
Stop the looting and start the prosecuting!
Deadbeat bankster ping!
YAY!
It should be pretty easy to find out who got a loan from Countrywide. Just search the public records.
Hmmm.....? Sen. Conrad isn’t seeking reelection. Could this be the reason? heh heh heh
I would rather hear a little more from The Hill, on Issa being rejected by the White House for health care hearings.
Good. Issa has the ability to find evidence of corruption and prosecute. Let the dems fire up their smear machine, those bastards had better be more than clean.
Or wait for the promised Wikileaks document dump on BoA.
Caught the end of a blurb on Rush today saying that some organization is digging through Issa’s background, desperate to get some dirt on him.
Taxes are a public record, as are purchase and sale price, but loans?
Mortgages are recorded in the public records.
Th issue is did those people get better terms than someone else? Same types of borrower, same credit scores, etc.
Did these people get a better rate, lower fees, etc than someone else who locked the same day.
That I think is the issue.
That won't be as cut and dried as one might think. You can go to two 2 loan officers at the same lender and get different terms even today.
Also, rates can sometimes change more than once per day, depending on what the bond market is doing.
Also lenders have programs with many companies today where discounts are offered to employees of a certain company. If someone works for say Target, they could get closing cost discounts.
It wouldn't have been out of the realm of possibility to have had a program like that for a government entity.
But if it was clear that just high ranking politicians received these preferable terms; that would make the difference I would think.
Dirty dodd got one of those loans and so did the james johnson who then quit zero’s campaign then townes blocked an investigation and they locked Republicans out of the room last time Issa tried, let’s hope he can do something about this.
ANGELO MOZILO Then-chairman and chief executive of Countrywide Financial. The biggest American sub-prime mortgage lender, was a step away from bankruptcy when Bank of America paid billions to settle investigations by various attorney generals for Countrywide's mis-selling of risky loans to thousands who could not afford them.
Mozilo ran a "VIP programme" that provided loans on favourable terms to influential figures including Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate banking committee, the heads of the federal-backed mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (that taxpayers were forced to bailout) , and former assistant secretary of state Richard Holbrooke (now in Obama's admin).
SEN CHRIS DODD Since June, Sen Chris Dodd (D-Conn) has faced an ethics inquiry over allegations that he received preferential treatment on two mortgages in 2003 from Countrywide Financial. And then came the dramatic financial meltdown last month, placing Dodd at the center of a controversial $700 billion financial rescue plan.
As a member and later chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Dodd shoulders a good deal of the blame for the collapse of the national housing market, the subprime-mortgage-market meltdown and the convulsions on Wall Street which is costing taxpayers billions.
MORE HERE-----
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/26/road-ruin-recession-individuals-economy
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