Angelo Mozilo

Angelo Mozilo, co-founder of Countrywide Financial Corporation 1978 until July 1, 2008

Mozilo's compensation during the United States housing bubble of 2001–06 has come under scrutiny. During that period, his total compensation (including salary, bonuses, options and restricted stock) approached $470 million.[Over many years, Mozilo sold hundreds of millions of dollars in stock personally[9], even while publicly touting the stock and using shareholder funds to buy back stock to support the share price.sold 140 million of his stock before the collapse. On June 4, 2009, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged former CEO Angelo Mozilo with insider trading and securities fraud[10][11]. On June 4, 2009, Mozilo, Sambol and Sieracki were charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with securities fraud. They are accused of deliberately misleading investors while participating in insider trading. Mozilo knew Countrywide Financial Corporation was falling apart as early as August 2006, yet he profited by selling $140 million in personal stock holding without informing investors of Countrywide’s financial troubles. Mozilo and company were also accused of offering exotic mortgages to borrowers who had little ability to repay them, and steering consumers away from lower-cost loans to those that were more expensive. A company filing shows that 25 percent of subprime loans issued by Countrywide services are now delinquent, and 45 percent of the loans issued by Countrywide carried potentially financially devastating adjustable rates.

“This will be great for Countrywide, because at the end of the day, all of the irrational competitors will be gone.” said Mozilo of the spreading mortgage lending crisis.

“In terms of being unresponsive to what was happening, to sticking it out the longest, and continuing to justify the garbage they were selling, Countrywide was the worst lender,” said Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates.