These CEO’s made a killing to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. They are living lavish lifestyles of the rich and famous that was bought on the backs of mostly lower and middle class American homeowners.
While millions of these homeowners/people suffer, the 3 CEO’s are living large without a care in the world. They do not have to worry about their mortgage or losing their home. Unlike the millions of struggling Americans of our nation that they got rich off of.
Three CEOs who made millions of dollars off the housing market — even as homeowners and their companies started to suffer — are expected to testify before Congress Friday about why they deserved such large compensation packages.
Countrywide Financial Corp. chairman and chief executive officer Angelo Mozilo, former Merrill Lynch CEO E. Stanley O’Neal and Charles Prince, former chairman and CEO of Citigroup, have all been asked to tell Congress whether they believe their pay was justified.
So, the big question of the day is “was their pay justified?”
Well, it was justified if you consider selling what was essentially “snake oil” to the American people, to the tunes of billions of dollars. It is justified if you think swindling millions of hard working Americans out of their money and damaging them credit wise, emotionally and sometimes physically. Then yes, it is justified.
Let’s take a look at Angelo Mozilo’s Pay Compensation:
- Will make millions if Bank of America’s proposed $4 billion acquisition of his company goes through.
- $44 million in various retirement benefits and deferred compensation
- Sold more than $127 million in stock options early on in 2007. Those sales came before he announced a $388 million write-down on profits and Countrywide’s growing problems became apparent. As the company’s troubles continued, Mozilo kept selling shares, cashing out an additional $30 million in options.
Mozilo has made close to $200 million dollars in the last 2 years, as the mortgage and housing crisis had spiralled out of control and as the nations #1 lender, Countrywide played a huge role in this crisis that is now suffocating our nation.
ABC:
As the mortgage market has collapsed, Countrywide has foreclosed on 90,000 loans, has laid off more than 11,400 people and has reported a loss of $704 million in 2007, its first annual loss in more than 30 years.
“According to recent press reports, if Bank of America completes its proposed purchase of Countrywide Financial, you stand to collect tens of millions of dollars in severance payments and other compensation,” Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wrote to Mozilo when asking him to testify.
Who will testify at Friday’s hearing:
- Angelo Mozilo – CEO of Countrywide Financial
- Stanley O’Neal – Ex-CEO of Merrill Lynch
- Charles Prince – Ex-CEO of Citigroup
- Various board members who approved these compensation packages
- Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin, Massachusetts’ top securities regulator
Galvin has used his office to investigate the role that some of the nation’s largest investment banks had in selling subprime mortgages to investors and how much information about the risk was disclosed.
“The nature of the financial instruments is artificial. They were contrived. They don’t make a lot of sense,” Galvin said. “The risk that they engendered was far more excessive than was explained in many instances to the investors, whether they be municipalities or individuals.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself Mr. Galvin. But let’s not sugar coat things. What you call artificial, I call “snake oil” and nothing short of a world wide “ponzi scheme” that went terribly wrong.
They knew what they were doing and this is just another history lesson in “greed”.
Greed in the selfish) desire for or pursuit of money, wealth, power, food, or other possessions, especially when this denies the same goods to others. It is generally considered a vice, and is one of the seven deadly sins in Catholicism.
Greedy CEO Hall of Shame:
On July 7, 2004, Lay was indicted by a grand jury on 11 counts of securities fraud and related charges.[1] On January 31, 2006, following four and a half years of preparation by government prosecutors, Lay’s and Skilling’s trial began in Houston. Lay was found guilty on May 25, 2006, of 10 counts against him; the judge dismissed the 11th. Because each count carried a maximum 5- to 10-year sentence, legal experts said Lay could have faced 20 to 30 years in prison.[2] However, he died while vacationing in Snowmass, Colorado on July 5, 2006, about three and a half months before his scheduled October 23 sentencing.[3] Preliminary autopsy reports state that he died of a heart attack caused by coronary artery disease. As a result of his death, on October 17, 2006 the federal district court judge who presided over the case vacated Lay’s conviction.
In 2005, he was convicted of fraud and conspiracy in the largest (to date) accounting scandal in United Stateshistory, as a result of WorldCom’s false financial reporting, and subsequent $11-billion loss to investors. He is currently serving a 25-year prison term at Oakdale Federal Correctional Complex in Louisiana.
- Who’s next?
{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey, does anybody go to jail for fraud?
Please, you are talking about Congress that vote themselves raises every year!
When things were going up for the housing market nobody complained because apparently everybody was ‘feeling’ richer. Now that things started going south we need to blame someone, right? This is the classic American culture: We always blame somebody else for our mishaps.
Check the former heads of new Century, and I bet they can still make their mortgage payments.
Mozillo would be doing the lecture circuit and writing best sellers if the price of real estate hadn’t corrected itself. The prices where inflated, everyone TRIED to get a piece of the wealth that COULD be made and MANY sadly got stuck. It is aweful, but the truth of it is, if times were good, we would think Mozillo was simply a very shrewd business man, which he is. His senior people all thought he was god like, they made a ton of money with him.
good luck finding a crime to charge them with. you can hate the players all you want, but you can blame congress for the game – aren’t they the ones that made up the rules the players played by?
What has Congress given up on Roger Clemmens???
Just another bunch of wasted tax dollars…They should worry about lowering taxes…Oh, that would mean that they (Politicians) would need to work and maybe take a pay-cut!
I believe the greed from all Mortgage Lending sources need to reckoned with. Also, I feel their should not be Goverment bailout dueto our economy/subprime mess. The borrower know what they were signing. There is no one bailing me out becaise of market value decline. I am all for case by case situations for families to convert to fix rate ok….No Mortgage debt reduction for bailout. Let it ride its course out.
Goyim “Fall guys”
Federal Reserve created a bubble, now bursted bubble.
What I don’t understand is that they are not investigating the worst of all of the mortgage executives. Roland Edward Arnell the founder and greatest ripoff artist this country has ever seen. It is his efforts and greed that lead us into the deep trouble we are in. Our president and congress has rewarded him with an ambassardorship to the Netherlands.
need to follow the big money—-they really should get to the derivative traders. These are the guys who came up with methodology and created the appetite for all the toxic mortgage backed sandwich’s that has the financial system in failure now.
Also it is key to know that it is not just mortgage securities that were packaged and sold but credit card instruments, car loan instruments, and almost any other type of securitized and un-securitized debt obligation you can imagine….we just happened to start choking on the most substantial sandwich the system gobbeled up.
America is dead
So, what’s your point?
I’d say it’s time to start scouting out places to move outside the country; your boy George has run this country into the ground. By the time all the damage he’s done has surfaced, the US will make Mexico look like Rodeo Drive.
Wow way to generalize. Not everyone is out to scam people. There are a lot of honest people in all those industries. I suppose you think all mexicans are lazy or all jewish people are penny pinchers. Yes people should be aware of what products they are buying, but not everyone is out to scam them out of there hard earned dollars. Maybe it is time you start creating solutions instead of scaring people.
Yes, according to you ALL Americans are too stupid and helpless to tie our own shoes. We are ALL victimns and everyone is out to get us. The reason we are were we are is because America has the one of the lowest, if not THE lowest savings rates in the world. Too many of us trying to keep up with the Jones’s! And credit was all too easy to get. From credit cards, new cars, home equity loans being used as ATM’s, and the “lifestyle” refinance. Now, we have negative home price appreciation and we are all seeing the effects. What about the poeple (like me) that took out a mortgage within the last two years that are actually making thier payment on time. People that READ their documents so they knew what they were getting. Not all the knuckleheads that thought they were buying a car and looking for the lowest payment and went for those teaser (sucker) interest rate option arms. Those loans are riddled with disclosures that I’m curious how many of those borrowers actually read.
Do I believe there were some borrowers that got duped into unsuitable mortgages? Of course. But, a very small minority. Certainly, not all the people who are coming out of the woodwork looking for a handout. I pay my mortgage on time and I’ve taken an equity/home value hit due to the housing market. What is the government going to do for me?
You really need to be more responsible in your articles and not play the “we-are-all-victimns” card. Very, very tired. Preach a little about personal responsibility and common sense.
First and Foremost, I am proud to say that I am a Mortgage Broker. I find it funny how it is stated that we are now, as quoted, “They are now loan modification specialists and for $3 grand they can save your home.”
I have yet to hear anyone in my profession call themselves this, better yet it is the Home Loan Collectors that my customers have to deal with that state they can do this. For those of my customers that were miss-treated by an arm, or balloon, or for that matter a higher rate so someone could make the bigger buck in the end, I have to work with them, and might I say, I enjoy it. To actually go through there original HUD with them, and show them where the back-end fees were placed.
I love the fact that someone who does not know this side of loans, claims that the Mortgage Brokers are out to get them. Are you aware that the local Banks that you do your loans through DO NOT have to disclose what is called Yield Spread. However because some customers feel they can walk in and sign one piece of paper and get a rate… in general of 6.250% they are getting the best deal. How is that when most times with a Broker I could have gotten you a rate of only 5.875% and you only paid 1% of your loan for that, or less. May I point out that with the local bank that with that 6.250%, you just paid the back 2 sometimes 2.5% for them to do your loan. But you were not aware of that, because they do not have to disclose it to you.
As far as BK Attorneys, is that a given of your responce to what you were told, because I dont know of that many Attorneys who would agree with you.
Investment Brokers- Now this one not only I laughed at, but so did a good friend who works for a well known Company, and has been for over 20 years. He said right now to sit tight, and not to do anything crazy, because… NO ONE knows what this market is doing from Day to Day.
Yes you are right in one aspect, people have been hurt in this, but not everyone is out to get rich quick… At least I am not…And I know many others that are not.
I am sorry that it sounds as if you have been mislead throughout some process or another, but there are good people out there.
Just remember that.
As far as my First Amendment rights, well… it has allowed my to voice my oppinion back to you, as well as others.
How America Works Now:
- Wall Street perpetrates the largest financial scam of all time on the America people =EQUALS= The Fed/Treasury pump hundreds of billions of dollars into their hands because it’s “For the good of the economy and American people”. If you think for one second they are going to pay one cent of our tax dollars back then the American tax payers are bigger suckers than even I thought.
- Home owner loses 50% of their home’s value, gets their home they put so much of their life into, loses their job, loses every dime of their savings trying to keep afloat, and then loses 90% of their pension the yhave to borrow against to buy fod because of the largest crime ever perpetrated =EQUALS= Whoops, sorry about that, but it would be a “Moral Delima” for the government to help you out. A “Moral Delima”….sorry, I just had to write that one more time to soak in how much total bull$#@! that really is. Wait, wait who has morals again?????
What’s even more shocking is that the American people just continue to take it. WAKE UP TO WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED TO YOU PEOPLE!!!!
PS: You’re right Moe (author of the article), if I hear one more CNBC piece of crap commentator tell us that this is a great time to buy and everything looks great “except the financials”, I WILL GO NUCLEAR!!!!
The new American mantra “Moral Delima”
Just plain stupid remarks written by someone who probabaly works in the auto industry.
Suggestion – Russia is welcoming all comers, feel free to try your rants over there. Here, in a democratic, capatalistic country, we sell stuff and make profits.
If you paid sticker for a car, don’t blame me for negotiating my price down. You really want to see things get bad, put the government in charge.
Wow! Sounds to me like you got swindled hard. I know that a lot of people got into homes/mortgages they couldn’t afford but ALL of them are NOT victims and ALL of the people you mentioned are NOT swindlers. They’re people working just like you. Do you work for free? Is anyone expected to work for free? Borrowers need to educate themselves and deal with ethical people when it comes to purchasing or refinancing a home. Responsibility lies on both sides.
Misleading article for the most part. As a licensed mortgage broker, I definitely agree with Valarie Russell. She speaks the truth that bank loan officers do not disclose the backend fees or even need to be licensed to do home loans and the rates they quote have huge profits built in. I don’t sell toxic loans; account reps from banks are in my office constantly trying to get me to use their products. Those are the sales people here! I must receive fifty rate sheet emails and new products available directly from the banks everyday. Without those of us on the wholesale side, banks will create monopolies and then the general public will have no choice, INCLUDING YOU!
My wholesale rates are ALWAYS lower and for much less in fees. The people I do loans for become friends and along with that come referrals. This is keeping me in business during this difficult time. I never promise to save anyone and let them know that they didn’t get in this situation overnight and it will take a while to resolve credit or other issues. Please also understand that there are credit repair companies that are NOT owned by credit card companies and they do dispute incorrect/outdated information on people’s credit reports to increase thier scores completely legally and permenantly! Most people don’t know that the credit bureaus receive monthly payments from account holders that are reporting to people’s credit reports whether their information is correct or not.
Unless you’ve been ten years in any of the above professions, it’s wise to stay quiet about them. It’s clear you are unaware of this industry!!
Good luck with that 6.5% rate at the bank! By the way, I have 5.5% today!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why is there advertising on this blog? Who’s scamming who?
Nice! Well not really.
This is the same attitude people have when they think they can buy everything at invoice and have everything at “cost” just because they have a gmail account and drive a Suburu.
Even Brokers and Bankers- (I am Both) agree that where most were knowledgable about loan products we were often “out-bid” by under educated people who were “selling” option ARMS.
I have done a total of one of those loans and refinanced MANY people out of them, who were “sold” the loan to begin with.
The pay option ARM is a powerful tool for the sophisticated borrower, and unfortunately were offered to unsophisticated borrowers through undereducated loan officers -and these aren’t even the problem…yet. I can appreciate the shock value generated by your article and the subsiquent traffic brought to this discussion you created. But I think that means I just bought your snake oil and jumped right in.
I should have known! It’s like most of these websites including mortgage implode that has all types of links and advertisements on it. They are all just trying to make a buck!
Jeepers! If I didn’t recognize ranting and raving
as the entertainment value the writer intended it to
be, I would be inclined to believe that the American
public needs to live in rubber rooms to protect
themselves! Seriously people, if so many were duped
in so many different ways, doesn’t it really say
just how stupid the masses are. Or, are they just
too lazy to use the many resources available and/or
take the time to “shop” their deal. Either way, I
guess a tatoo on the forehead of either “stupid” or
“lazy” or maybe even “stupid and lazy” could eliminate
the need for the rubber rooms. Such a tatoo would
identify a mandatory requirement such persons employ
their own attorney (at their own expense) or a consumer
advocate to negotiate on their behalf. This could be
one way to stop so many bad people taking advantage of
so many stupid and lazy people.
Well, maybe expecting an attorney to represent the
stupid and lazy masses in this way, wasn’t the best suggestion.
First of all I didn’t say all mortgage brokers but since you all have a gulity conscience, I guess you felt my post was directed at you. You might want to take a look at that because it’s a character defect.
Much like Proud Homeowner who is really PhillytheKid who is Paul_______. So, stop coming to my blog and get a life. Another lost opportunity because your ignorant and tight.
It’s nice to make a buck by truly helping consumers by informing them of their legal rights and encouraging them to take up the fight against all the fraud and predatory lending that the mortgage industry perpetuated for years. And what is nice is that the attorney pays me, not the homeowner who was swindled by a loan officer.
It’s quite obvious that they need help because they have to deal with many of you clowns still. It’s a shame that you guys are in business. Thanks for letting me know that I am still needed.
Nice to know how Moe makes his bucks!
So if the masses could be
prevented from being so stupid and/or
lazy, how would Moe be cha-chinging his
cash register now?
Yes, cha-chinging on cleaning up from all of you taking advantage of the “stupid and lazy” as you call them Louise.
this country is fucked up! and the government too they are corrupt specially the bush administration spending billions of money in iraq for his own interest because there family business is oil oil now is $115 a barrel, foods, everything in this country is expensive now and all those pigs in wall street are fucked up! because they do some scheme that’s why this country economy is affected.
How does one ’shop a deal’ when all the commodities in the market are based upon phony values? 5.5 is great if you are at market price and happy. If you need to sell or refinance out of a bad loan that also happens to be 25-40% in the red, it ain’t so grand unless you hit the lotto in the same stroke.
Get a grip; this boils down to timing, and yes – some stupidity mixed with a bit of speculation and greed (from all sides) – and it garnered itself from the top-down. This wasn’t a bottom-up game of Risk.
No consumer shopping for a house brainstormed the idea of overpaying for their home, or buying a smaller home for the same price they could have bought a larger one for.
Yet, we (homeowners) see the ‘no bailouts campaign’ has now turned the corner to ‘well, only bailouts for the rich’ – we’ll throw them a lifeline if they need it; hell, we’ll even do it on a Sunday. You good consumers keep quiet, pay your inflated notes while we work to devalue your paychecks (assuming of course you’re lucky enough to keep your job) and we’ll make sure the banks are rolling in fresh currency to thereby stimulate the economy and extend new credit. And by the way; the banks are just hoarding the cash and not lending any as they are scared stiff and interest rates (costs to consumers) are going up – not down. Then we watch the dollar roll two more rungs down the ladder shortly thereafter.
Hopefully, things take a turn for the better soon. Thus far, this is how fiscal policy for the layman has played out as of late. Nonetheless, something is better than nothing I suppose. I’ve heard others say perhaps not – leave the market alone – and ordinarily I would agree with that statement (it goes back to 9th grade Free Enterprise/Business), but the tinkering of the fed funds rate is what got money so cheap to borrow to begin with, and began this roller coaster. So I’m not sure I really buy that argument anymore, not wholly anyway. Perhaps I’m 100% wrong, but hey I can live with that and quite frankly I hope that I am. Just maybe someone will show up at my door tomorrow and offer to buy my house for what I paid for it; but I’m not holding my breath on that one.
This is a complex problem with very divergent causes that has had far reaching effects on the entire economy; both national and global.
Moe has done his share to help educate those of us now trapped in these debt pools, and I commend him for doing so. His sites have BY FAR, been the most informative places during this crisis. His earlier post was spot on about loan modifications being a white elephant in the room a few months ago, at least now there is an effort – regardless of how ineffective it may be in some instances.
As for a website having a sponsor, that isn’t all that bazaar of a notion, most do. And after all this site is oriented towards homeowners feeling the pain of this game predominantly. The sponsor fits the bill in my book.
The reason we are in this mess is that americans do not want to take personal responsibility for thier actions. We expect the goverment to baby sit us. If people had take the time to read thier loan documents and disclosures and ask questions they would know what they were buying. If they had used common sense instead of greed they would not have done what they did. When we take responcibility for our actions we usually do not get riped off. The goverment can not protect us from ourselves, as much as we expect it to do so.
Moe, you can delete my posts all day long and it won’t change the fact that you ARE a subprime lender who is now looking to make a buck off of the mess you helped to put people in. Take your own advice and get a life that doesn’t involve taking advantage of people.
Hey, Tom, do yourself a favor and do a little research into your buddy Moe as well as the so called “sponsors” of his sites. Why does someone pay 50K for a domain name (iamfacingforclosure.com)? It’s a real “eye opener.” I have no doubt you won’t see this post because it will be deleted but that’s okay – it just proves my point. Once a snake, always a snake.
Our polititans have sold America out to the highest bidder. The NAR and all the other political action committies in this country have taken control of our economy and leading us to a huge problem not even manageable at this point.
Hey idiot, I mean proud homeowner, I did not buy IamFacingforeclosure.com, Aaron Krowne did. My sites were built on sweat and blood equity. I am not a subprime lender and MHL Pro Inc is a website marketing company you doofus, hater. I am a SEO and webmaster that has sevearl websites and yes, some are mortgage marketing sites. And NO they are not subprime, they deal with manufactured home loans
What? I saw that loan modifications would be the solution to homeowners problems so I created website that help them for free and have saved over 40 homes? and when they have been scammed by people such as yourself because I am sure you are an Ml-Implode cronie and out of work loan officer that is acting like “proud homeowner”. Stop hating and get a real life you goon.
Tom, thanks for telling it like it is. I saw this coming and it was a white elephant when I sterted this blog 10 months ago and now it’s the hottest mortgage buzz term around. Over 40 homeowners have saved their home and have chronicled their stories at LoanSafe.org. This is the best thing and most rewarding thing I have ever done, by far!
Why did the fed take 30 billion in toxic paper that no investor on the planet will touch? Who do you think is going to be on the hook for that money?
The why first, if Bear Srerns went into recievership a whole lot of executives would have had to hand over the gigantic bonuses they got 6 weeks ago. Hmm for a company who was steering through rough times I wonder why those big wigs got bonuses anyway?
As to the who is going to be stuck picking up the tab for the 30 billion and who knows how much more since the fed has said bring us your bad debts come one come all just hand over those pesky CDOs. You and me!
Now why has the fed dropped the interest rates? To save Main Street? Or was it to save Wall Street? Lets look at what has happened to mortgage rates since the fed dropped rates, are they down? NOPE! Well what about the dollar, gee its trashed SURPRISE. Quess those edumacated boyz at the fed couldnt figure out that lowering the rates would trash the dollar and cause hyperinflation. Hmmm
Remember when the bankrupsy laws were changed? Wasnt the moral imparative RESPONSABILITY! I see that doesnt mean that the elite have to be responisable, just JQP. Anyone care to quess who lobbied hard for the change in Bankrupsy laws.
Our governmnet has been bought by big money, and yes the American citizens are being scroomed. This is news to you all?
the government or feds helping the banks not the people or homeowners.
The blame for this entire “Mortgage Meltdown” can be laid upon the shoulders of all the greedy mortgage loan industry executives and the investment bankers who designed a scheme calculated to make themselves rich. Under the guise of “helping people” to realize the American dream of owning a home, these white collar fraudsters were really only concerned with creating feigned profits by quickly churning mortgage loans into securitized investments which they in turn sold to investors.
Based upon these feigned profits these executives and their cronies were able to extract large bonuses and convert stock options into personal profts. While the investors got stuck holding the proverbial empty bag. Many investors were large national banks. Ironically these same banks would have never loan money to the borrowers who’s notes they were now holding indirectly through their investments in these “mortgage backed securities”. It is now estimated that the losses incurred by these banks may well surpass three hundred billion dollars.
There can be no argument these losses were the result of fraud from top to bottom of the mortgage industry. From mortgage lenders suchs as Countrywide, Washington Mutual, Fieldstone and Option One to secondary mortgage market makers, such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, Citicorp, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers etc.
This mortgage fraud created a false demand for housing in the U.S. This false demand caused an increase in home building. Now with the Mortgage Meltdown the U.S. has an over supply of new and existing homes. This over supply of homes has caused serious economic effects through every facet of the U.S. economy. Recovery will take years. The U.S. dollar has also suffered against other currencies. In April of 2003 a Euro could be purchased for $.85. Five years later in April of 2008 it takes $1.60 to purchase a Euro.
Rather than throwing themselves out of their executive office windows when their financial scandal was discovered and the billions in losses started to mount, these white collar crooks simply took early retirmenet or quietly resigned, taking with them the hundreds of millions they had EARNED for their part in the Largest financial scandal in U.S. history.
Americans should be outraged at how this went on unchecked by state or federal authorities.