Well said by the SEC’s enforcement director when he said it was a ‘tale of two companies.’ Apparently Angelo Mozilo was sending e-mail messages describing Countrywide loan products as “toxic” and “poison” at the same time as he was, guess what? Wait for it. Right, he was telling the public that Countrywide was underwriting mainly prime-quality mortgage and using strong underwriting protocols.
Countrywide did not reveal to shareholders that in fact it was, according to the SEC, “an increasingly reckless lender assuming greater and greater risk.”
But at least Mozilo did not make too much profit. Oh, wait, yes he did! He made a nice tidy little sum of $140 million in profits by selling stock in the company. At least that’s what the S.E.C. says, but what do they know? And other top Countrywide execs involved in the company at the relevant time are named in the allegations too.
I again ask the question – did any of these very well compensated executives do any of it legitimately? More evidence here that the answer is, emphatically, no.