The Real Estate Bloggers

Mozilo Agrees To 67 Million Dollar Judgement Over Countrywide Scam

Posted: 16 Oct 2010 07:31 AM PDT

How to get ahead in business by Angelo Mozilo:

Create a company that writes mortgages.
Start writing mortgages to people who can not afford them and then sell the mortgages to others.
Get a little lucky as there is a long term housing boom, people take out even more mortgages and then refinance them.
Pay yourself 521.5 million dollars over 9 years (2000–2008).
Dump your stock in the company as you see the market turning down. Bank 140 million dollars.
Unload company on large bank that gets government handouts to clean up the mess. Retire.
Settle lawsuits for 67 million dollars. Get company to pay 20 million of it. This is the potential interest just on the earnings over the year.
Hire security team to keep all of the people whose lives you destroyed away from you.
Live happily ever after.

If you have followed the career of Angelo Mozilo and his company Countrywide Financial this will probably make you feel sick. The man fleeced millions of Americans, created an economic downturn, and yet will be able to live happily ever after.

The prosecutors who made this deal are patting themselves on their backs, but the reality is Mozilo played them for fools. I bet he was shaking his attorneys hand and sending over a case of scotch when all of this was done.

Angelo R. Mozilo, the former chief executive of Countrywide Financial, once the nation’s largest mortgage lender, agreed to pay $67.5 million on Friday to settle a civil fraud case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission last year.

Countrywide itself is paying $20 million of Mr. Mozilo’s $67.5 million payment as part of an indemnification agreement he has with the company.

As part of the settlement, Mr. Mozilo, 71, also agreed to be permanently banned from serving as an officer or a director at any public company. via The NY Times

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Mozilo Agrees To 67 Million Dollar Judgement Over Countrywide Scam