tagged w/ Countrywide
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Man, 99, Divorcing Wife Over 60-Year-Old Affair
Appeals court revives Countrywide homeowner case
‘Synthetic’ marijuana is problem for US militaryMan, 99, Divorcing Wife Over 60-Year-Old Affair
Appeals court revives Countrywide... more
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"Dodd's cozy relations with Countrywide and A.I.G. could subject his nomination to a messy confirmation battle."
This is just the criminal behavior in Washington that we need to stop if we want our country back."Dodd's cozy relations with Countrywide and A.I.G. could subject his... more
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The resignation of Dan Sontag from his position as the head of the brokerage unit at Bank of America gives lie to a months long disinformation campaign waged by the bank against its own employees. It may well take years–and further personnel changes–before the “thundering herd” will trust its corporate parent again.The resignation of Dan Sontag from his position as the head of the brokerage unit at... more
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WASHINGTON -- The government is charging Angelo R. Mozilo, the former chief executive of the mortgage lender Countrywide Financial, and two other company executives with civil fraud.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday afternoon that its case also accused Mr. 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.
Mr. Mozilo is the highest-profile person to face formal charges from the federal government in the wake of the crisis.
Mr. Mozilo has denied any wrongdoing. His lawyer did not immediately return an e-mail message for comment Thursday afternoon.
Civil fraud charges were also filed against Countrywide’s former chief operating officer, David Sambol, and ex-chief financial officer, Eric Sieracki.
Paul Kranhold, a spokesman for Mr. Sambol, declined to comment because he had not seen the charges yet. An e-mail message to Mr. Sieracki’s lawyer, Shirli Fabbri Weiss, was not immediately returned.
The S.E.C. and federal prosecutors have undertaken wide-ranging investigations of companies across the financial services industry, touching on mortgage lenders, the Wall Street investment banks that bundled home mortgages into securities sold to investors, and other market players.
The S.E.C.’s scrutiny of Mr. Mozilo’s stock sales began in the fall of 2007 with an informal inquiry.
The filing of the agency’s civil lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles is a striking turn for Mr. Mozilo, the man who 40 years ago co-founded what grew into the nation’s largest mortgage lender. He moved the company in 1969 from New York to suburban Los Angeles, guiding Countrywide through numerous boom-and-bust housing cycles.
After the mortgage crisis hit, the Calabasas, Calif.-based Countrywide was forced to cut thousands of jobs and saw its shares plummet. Its downward spiral ended in it being bought by Bank of America last July for about $2.5 billion. Countrywide itself is the target of multiple lawsuits related to the mortgage meltdown.
Mr. Mozilo’s influence stretched from the California real estate market through the corridors of power in Washington.
The Democrats were roiled a year ago by revelations that Senator Christopher J. Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Senator Kent Conrad, the North Dakota Democrat who is chairman of the Budget Committee, obtained mortgages at favorable rates through a V.I.P. program dispensed by Countrywide for so-called "friends of Angelo."
Mr. Dodd insisted that the controversy over the two loans he received did not compromise his ability to lead Congress’s efforts to address the effects of the subprime mortgage meltdown.
Mr. Mozilo sold about $130 million in Countrywide stock in the first half of 2007 through a prearranged 10b5-1 trading plan. These plans, popular among corporate executives, allow a company insider to set up a program in advance for such transactions and proceed with them even if he or she comes into possession of significant nonpublic information.
North Carolina’s state treasurer, who asked the S.E.C. in 2007 to investigate Mr. Mozilo’s stock sales, raised questions about changes made to Mr. Mozilo’s plan in the months before the company’s stock plunged, which allowed Mr. Mozilo to significantly increase his sales of Countrywide shares.
Mr. Mozilo had sold company shares through prior arrangements since 2004; the pace of his sales began to quicken in October 2006 when he put a new plan into effect. Mr. Mozilo has said that he did so to reduce his stake in Countrywide and diversify his personal investments in an orderly fashion before his retirement, which was slated for December 2009.WASHINGTON -- The government is charging Angelo R. Mozilo, the former chief executive... more
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Nettle
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added this
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2 years ago
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“I have been trying to get countrywide to adhere to this new program with zero results. I have made call after call on the HOPE FOR HOMEOWNERS program and keep getting the “run around” from them. They keep saying that they “have not heard about this program from upper management” so they cannot “process the paperwork on it yet”…meanwhile, each day that goes by, we wait and hope that we will not be thrown out on the streets. I know for a fact that they simply just don’t want to write down the differences….they are the worst culprits in this mess, I know….I used to underwrite mortgage loans for them until the “laid me off”, leaving us with no way to pay them the mortgage. I am since reemployed and have the capability to pay our mortgage after a 12 month mess. I firmly believe they will never use this program… they are too damn greedy.” - Matt“I have been trying to get countrywide to adhere to this new program with zero... more
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Nearly 400,000 homeowners will be able to get more affordable loans after Bank of America (BAC) agreed Monday to modify mortgages that originated with its Countrywide Financial unit. The move could be worth more than $8.6 billion and mark the largest predatory lending settlement in history.
Monday's deal settles claims brought by attorneys general in 11 states that accused Countrywide — acquired in July by BofA — of misrepresenting loan terms, loan payment increases and borrowers' ability to afford loans.
Bank of America says it will restructure loans for Countrywide customers holding subprime mortgages and option adjustable-rate loans that permit borrowers to pay only a small portion of interest and principal owed each month. Some might wind up in new fixed-rate loans; others might not.
But the Bank of America deal represents only a fraction of the future defaults and foreclosures facing homeowners. There were more than 2.2 million foreclosure filings in the USA in 2007. Nearly 400,000 homeowners will be able to get more affordable loans after Bank of... more
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - As part of a settlement with state attorneys general that could be worth as much as $8.6 billion, Bank of America Corp (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Monday it would cut interest rates and principal on some troubled mortgages originated by Countrywide Financial Corp.
Bank of America, which bought Countrywide in July, reached a deal with attorneys general representing 11 states in which it will offer more affordable and sustainable mortgage payments for borrowers who had financed their homes with subprime loans or adjustable-rate mortgages serviced by Countrywide.
"This is good," said Christopher Whalen, managing director at Institutional Risk Analytics, a provider of analysis and ratings for banks. "I hate to say we'll need to see a lot more of this, but we will. Banks have no choice because the economy's getting so flat. They're going to become increasingly aggressive about keeping homeowners in their homes."
The Countrywide settlement will likely become the largest predatory lending settlement in history, the California attorney general's office said in a statement.
"With this settlement, homeowners will receive direct relief from the catastrophic damage caused by Countrywide," said California Attorney General Edmund Brown in a statement.
"Countrywide's lending practices turned the American dream into a nightmare for tens of thousands of families by putting them into loans they couldn't understand and ultimately couldn't afford," he said.
States including West Virginia, California, Connecticut and Illinois had sued Countrywide over its business practices, alleging that the mortgage lender had made risky and costly loans to consumers who could not afford them.
ONCE NO. 1
Countrywide was once the largest U.S. mortgage lender before being acquired for about $4 billion in stock by Bank of America as its risky subprime mortgage loans began to fail.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - As part of a settlement with state attorneys general that could... more
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UPDATE*** 4:50 P.M. 10/3/08
(CNN) -- Fannie Mae said it will set aside the loan of a woman who shot herself as sheriff's deputies tried to evict her from her foreclosed home.
On Friday, Fannie Mae spokesman Brian Faith said the mortgage association had decided to halt action against Polk and sign the property "outright" to her.
"We're going to forgive whatever outstanding balance she had on the loan and give her the house," Faith said. "Given the circumstances, we think it's appropriate."
(CNN) -- A 90-year-old Akron, Ohio, woman who shot herself as sheriff's deputies tried to evict her from her foreclosed home became a symbol of the nation's home mortgage crisis Friday.
Addie Polk is being treated at Akron General Medical Center after shooting herself at least twice in the upper body Wednesday afternoon, her city councilman said.UPDATE*** 4:50 P.M. 10/3/08
(CNN) -- Fannie Mae said it will set aside the loan of a... more
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The mortgage bail-out bill making its way through Congress falls far short, when it comes to holding lenders-- those primarily responsible for this mess-- accountable. Attorney Terry Smiljanich of the Consumer Warning Network recently appeared on the Tampa FOX affiliate’s “Your Turn” talk show to discuss the mortgage bail-out.
“I think there needs to be investigations and maybe some people need to go to jail,” Smiljanich said. For more info visit: http://www.consumerwarningnetwork.com/2008/07/25/mortgage-bail-out-bill-falls-short/
The mortgage bail-out bill making its way through Congress falls far short, when it... more
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Neither Honest Nor Trustworthy: The 10 Worst Corporations of 2007
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
The U.S. public holds Big Business in shockingly low regard.
A November 2007 Harris poll found that less than 15 percent of the population believes each of the following industries to be "generally honest and trustworthy:" tobacco companies (3 percent); oil companies (3 percent); managed care companies such as HMOs (5 percent); health insurance companies (7 percent); telephone companies (10 percent); life insurance companies (10 percent); online retailers (10 percent); pharmaceutical and drug companies (11 percent); car manufacturers (11 percent); airlines (11 percent); packaged food companies (12 percent); electric and gas utilities (15 percent). Only 32 percent of adults said they trusted the best-rated industry about which Harris surveyed, supermarkets.
With the 10 Worst Corporations of 2007, we aim to show - again - that Big Business is out of control and to connect comparable abuses to the failure of government overseers, regulators and enforcers.
Presented alphabetically, here are the 10 Worst Corporations of 2007:
http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/mm2007/112007/mokhiber.htmlNeither Honest Nor Trustworthy: The 10 Worst Corporations of 2007
by Russell... more
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The mortgage companies won't help. The government won't help. It's time for homeowners to fight back from the ground up. This is part of a nationwide, grassroots effort by the Consumer Warning Network to help people fight foreclosures. Borrowers, remember this at your foreclosure hearing: "Make 'em produce the note." Judges are proving sympathetic, and homeowners are beginning to prevail. The mortgage companies won't help. The government won't help. It's... more
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Federal authorities have opened a criminal inquiry into Countrywide Financial for suspected securities fraud as part of the continuing fallout over the mortgage crisis.
The Countrywide inquiry follows a broader investigation by the FBI into 14 companies as part of a review of the practices of the mortgage industry.
Countrywide already faces federal and state investigations of its lending practices, as well as several lawsuits by investors and mortgage holders.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting about three dozen civil investigations into how subprime loans were made and how securities were valued
Federal authorities have opened a criminal inquiry into Countrywide Financial for... more
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Mortgage companies, like Countrywide, are trying to make it appear as if they're helping families avoid foreclosure.. but the treatment this family received is the hard, cold, undeniable reality. This video documents how a family with a Countrywide Home Loan was evicted in Texas just days before Thanksgiving. As Ron said the night he moved his family into the Super 8 Motel-- "Here's your mortgage meltdown right here. It's self inflicted by the mortgage companies."
Mortgage companies, like Countrywide, are trying to make it appear as if... more
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