Countrywide CEO Poised to Walk Away With $40M

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=4409714&page=1

By DAN HARRIS
March 7, 2008

Angelo Mozilo, the once-celebrated CEO of Countrywide Financial, may well become the deeply tanned face of the mortgage mess.

The man who until recently was honored by charitable organizations and applauded by business magazines is now accused of predatory lending and rapacious greed, and was one of three executives called before a congressional committee today to answer questions about their compensation and about how much their roles in the mortgage crisis.


Countrywide Financial Corp. CEO Angelo Mozilo during a panel discussion on the subprime market fallout last October in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Ric Francis, file/AP Photo)


The criticism of Mozilo started before thousands of his customers went into foreclosure. His lavish compensation raised eyebrows.

Several years ago, when investor Rich Ferlauto raised questions about Mozilo's large pay package, Mozilo personally confronted him.

"We're nose to nose, and he's pointing his finger at me and says, 'Ferlauto, I want to see what you're made of,'" recalled Ferlauto, the director of corporate governance and pension investment at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

"He basically says it was his decision to make and the inference was that the board members, the shareholder or myself were not going to interfere with his own judgment of what he was worth," he said.

FULL story at link.

[Birthmark]

1. It's good work if you can get it...

...and you can stomach it.

[Hannah Bell]

2. Our best & brightest; the cream of our society. He deserves

whatever he can get for all his hard work.

[Iris]

5. Why are you jealous of the rich?

:sarcasm:

[Mike03]

3. Isn't it unspeakable???

I just went through years and years of litigation against ENRON. And there are many better examples than ENRON of CEOs and presidents of major corporations running away from catastrophe.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

4. and yet the banks turn in Spitzer

and you can bet this guy is not be wiretapped

[sanjiadem]

6. I watched this scumbag try to explain his whining about the

air tax or some such minor fee not being paid by the company for his wife when she took trips with him ... waa, spouses are important on these, waaa I had only bagged tens of millions right before through stock sales, waa you can relate right? And, the Pukes jumped right in to defend him and attacking anyone who questioned the 'America's American, R/W/B, God fearing, Apple Pie Loving, Capitalist society'

I wanted to vomit.

[Snarkoleptic]

7. Ole' leatherface is quite a piece of work.