“Not only are former Countrywide execs back in business, but they are making money off of the current housing crisis, they helped create. All this makes me wonder if Countrywide’s business model was just a sick massive mortgage ponzi scheme that makes ponzi-poster child, Bernie Madoff look like .25 cent lollipop bandit and Stanford Kurland his Daddy?“

Last year I was a killer.

Really, I was nothing more than a cold blooded, serial killer. But that was last year and my old life. My goal now is to help all the families that I have killed in cold blood and give them some hope. I really want to change my ways and help them clean up the blood and carnage from my crime scenes. This way, these families that I care so much about can live another day without all that blood and stuff around.

I know this sounds like pretty illogical scenario above and no, I am not a serial killer. I just wrote the above paragraph to make a point about the people and story below. Sometimes, I use a little  shock blogging to get my point across. Hopefully, you will see my point?

What if I really was not a killer, but I was just a hamburger CEO/chef at your favorite burger restaurant? Let’s say that I was accused in your town of feeding thousands of people poisonous hamburgers and it is actually being “reported” that thousands of people were dying from the poisonous burgers I had served.  Actually, you know several people who died painful deaths from eating my All American  “TOXIC” Burger.

Don’t worry people of Main Street.

I stopped killing people in the neighborhood with my poisonous burgers I served you last month. I am done preying on the American people with my toxic burgers and I am a good man now. All I want to do now is save these people who are dying and have only ate half my burger. I will give them a new burger, poison free. Come one, come ALL!

Would you take a big ole bite of my new burger? I am a changed man. Trust me……….

Hell, I wouldn’t even eat that burger or any other food item at at my burger joint. And if you do order off my menu, I will laugh all the way to the bank as you?????….

Let me introduce you to Stanford L. Kurland, Countrywide’s former president and Angleo Mozilo’s ole right hand homeboy from the lending hood.

Not only are former Countrywide execs back in business, but they are making money off of the current housing crisis, they helped create

From the The New York Times, “Ex-Leaders of Countrywide Profit From Bad Loans”

Opening statement from Margot Saunders of the National Consumer Law Center.: “It is sort of like the arsonist who sets fire to the house and then buys up the charred remains and resells it,”

Stanford L. Kurland, Countrywide’s former president, and his team have been buying up delinquent home mortgages that the government took over from other failed banks, sometimes for pennies on the dollar. They get a piece of what they can collect.

But to some, it is disturbing to see former Countrywide executives in the industry again. “It is sort of like the arsonist who sets fire to the house and then buys up the charred remains and resells it,” said Margot Saunders, a lawyer with the National Consumer Law Center, which for years has sought to place limits on what it calls abusive lending practices by Countrywide and other companies.

More than any other major lending institution, Countrywide has become synonymous with the excesses that led to the housing bubble. The firm’s reputation has been so tarnished that Bank of America, which bought it last year at a bargain price, announced that the name and logo of Countrywide, once the biggest mortgage lender in the nation, would soon disappear.

Mr. Kurland acknowledges pushing Countrywide into the type of higher-risk loans that have since, in large numbers, gone into default. But he said that he always insisted that the loans go only to borrowers who could afford to repay them. He also said that Countrywide’s riskiest lending took place after he left the company, in late 2006, after what he said was an internal conflict with Mr. Mozilo and other executives, whom he blames for loosening loan standards.

Moe- This is just flat out lies and BS. Anyone from the lending industry will testify to the fact that the riskiest lending done by Countrywide was from 2004- March of 2007. Mr. Kurland bailed the Countrywide sinking ship  in late 2006 and he KNEW EXACTLY what was going on. As did his partner in toxic loans hell, Angelo Mozilo.

Risky /predatory lending was going on full steam ahead on the Countrywide ship as Kurland was the Captain directing the boat. Actually, I feel he was one of the many founding fathers of predatory lending and I would consider him one of the master chefs that orchestrated Countrywide’s highly toxic line of mortgage products. Along with fellow master toxic loan chef, Angelo Mozilo.

More BS from Kurland and good reporting from the NY Times:

In retrospect, Mr. Kurland said, he regrets what happened at Countrywide and in the mortgage industry nationwide, but does not believe he deserves blame. “It is horrible what transpired in the industry,” said Mr. Kurland, who has never been subject to any regulatory actions.

But lawsuits against Countrywide raise questions about Mr. Kurland’s portrayal of his role. They accuse him of being at the center of a culture shift at Countrywide that started in 2003, as the company popularized a type of loan that often came with low “teaser” interest rates and that, for some, became unaffordable when the low rate expired.

The lawsuits, including one filed by New York State’s comptroller, say Mr. Kurland was well aware of the risks, and even misled Countrywide’s investors about the precariousness of the company’s portfolio, which grew to $463 billion in loans, from $62 billion, three times faster than the market nationwide, during the final six years of his tenure.

“Kurland is seeking to capitalize on a situation that was a product of his own creation,” said Blair A. Nicholas, a lawyer representing retired Arkansas teachers who are also suing Mr. Kurland and other former Countrywide executives. “It is tragic and ironic. But then again, greed is a growth industry.”

More facts about PennyMac:

PennyMac, whose full legal name is the Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, also received backing from BlackRock and Highfields Capital, a hedge fund based in Boston. It makes its money by buying loans from struggling or failed financial institutions at such a huge discount that it stands to profit enormously even if it offers to slash interest rates or make other loan modifications to entice borrowers into resuming payments.

Its biggest deal has been with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which it paid $43.2 million for $560 million worth of mostly delinquent residential loans left over after the failure last year of the First National Bank of Nevada. Many of these loans resemble the kind that Countrywide once offered, with interest rates that can suddenly balloon. PennyMac’s payment was the equivalent of 38 cents on the dollar, according to the full terms of the agreement.

Under the initial terms of the F.D.I.C. deal, PennyMac is entitled to keep 20 cents on every dollar it can collect, with the government receiving the rest. Eventually that will rise to 40 cents.

Let’s get this straight. Countrywide was one of, if not the largest lender of toxic loans over the last several years and they helped trigger the financial crisis by making millions of risky loans to borrowers who could not possibly ever repay their mortgages. Now we have these same executives that are acting like they are saviors and geniuses with a this new “sham” company that buys the same toxic mortgages for pennies on the dollar (Oh, their called PennyMac!) it originated in the past mortgages from the government at a reduced rate, then offer loan modifications so these loans are now performing and actually are good loans.

One would think that if they really cared about the American homeowner or were as smart as they appear, then maybe they would have made good loans that people could repay in the first place. Imagine that?

All this makes me wonder if Countrywide’s business model was just a sick massive mortgage ponzi scheme that makes Madoff look like .25 cent lollipop bandit and Stanford Kurland his Daddy!”

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