by Paul Krugman

10 15 10NYTimes Mozilo Settles With SEC for $67.5 million Without Admiting or Denying Guilt

Angelo R. Mozilo, the founder and former chief canada goose uk black friday executive of Countrywide Financial, once the nations canada goose factory sale largest mortgage lender, agreed canada goose clearance to pay $67.5 million Friday to cheap canada goose uk settle a civil fraud case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission last uk canada goose outlet year.

The fees, which were billed as the cost of services like property inspections and lawn mowing, were cheap Canada Goose grossly inflated as Countrywide created new subsidiaries to hire vendors to supply Canada Goose Coats On Sale the services, allowing the company to canadian goose jacket increase fees in the process,

Countrywide Victimized Three Canada Goose Online Distinct GroupsIn his column this morning (10 1 07) Paul Krugman says that

«It appears that Mr. Mozilo (Countrywide’s CEO who paid himself $142 million last year) achieved the rare feat of buy canada goose jacket victimizing three distinct groups.

«First were the borrowers. As the uk canada goose Times’s Gretchen Morgenson reported in August, Countrywide often led customers to ‘high cost and sometimes unfavorable loans’ that, among other things, generated ‘outsize fees to canada goose coats on sale company affiliates providing services on the loans.’

«Then there are the investors who bought those canada goose uk shop Countrywide mortgages directly or indirectly, in the form of financial instruments created by slicing and dicing claims on borrowers.

«You can’t especially single out Countrywide for the failure of investors to realize how much risk they Canada Goose online were taking on that’s a failure with many fathers, canada goose including everyone from Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s, which were far too free with their AAA ratings, to Alan Greenspan, wh assured us that while there might be a bit of ‘froth,’ there was no national housing bubble.

«Last canada goose black friday sale but not least, since it may Canada Goose Parka be the key to the whole story, is the victimization of Countrywide’s own stockholders.

«Last year Mr. MOZILO’S HUGE COMPENSATION DREW A PROTEST FROM Canada goose down A GROUP OF SHAREHOLDERS INCLUDING THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE, COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES PENSION PLAN. BUT THE WORST WAS YET TO COME.

In late 2006, even as Countrywide began using buy canada goose jacket cheap shareholders’ money to buy canada goose uk outlet back its own stock at more than $40 a share it’s now worth only $19 Mr. Mozilo canada goose store wasw selling. Between November 2006 and August 2007 that is, during canada goose clearance sale the months before investors fully realized the extent to which his company would be hurt by the subprime mortgage crisis he unloaded $138 Canada Goose sale million worth of of Countrywide’s stock.»Joe Badtoe 7 years ago from UKit is a pleasure to read your informed hubs and once I can get those Canada Goose Outlet 5 neocons who keep getting me banned on the forum to read your stuff they just might get healed!

Great work. Deeds 7 years ago from Birmingham, Michigan

Angelo R. Mozilo, the founder and former chief executive of Countrywide Financial, once the nation largest mortgage lender, agreed to pay $67.5 million Friday to Canada Goose Jackets settle a civil fraud case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission last year. Deeds 7 years ago from Birmingham, Michigan

Countrywide Home Loans and its mortgage servicing canada goose coats unit, which are now part of Bank of America, agreed on thecanadagooseoutlet Monday to pay $108 million to settle federal charges that the company overcharged customers who were struggling to hang onto their homes.