Lawmakers Who Took Sweetheart Loans Also Benefited From Countrywide Campaign Cash
A long-brewing scandal surrounding special treatment given to elected officials and congressional staff by subprime mortgage lender Countrywide Financial logged another chapter this week, as the House Committee on Oversight released its report investigating Countrywide's VIP loan program.
The report accuses Countrywide of offering sweetheart loan deals to key members of Congress in an attempt to influence politics and policy in Congress. It also names names, implicating several members of Congress who represent both sides of the aisle.
One thing the report does not mention, however: that the members of congress named as beneficiaries of special mortgage deals also received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the mortgage giant.
Six lawmakers who are either currently serving in Congress or recently retired, and who took VIP loans from Countrywide according to the report, collectively received over $105,000 in donations from company's PAC and employees between the 1990 and 2008 election cycles, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis. Countrywide was bought out by Bank of America in 2008 during the housing crisis.
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2012/07/lawmakers-who-took-sweetheart-loans.html
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