House Report: Countrywide Issued 'Hundreds' of Discounts for Influence

We all remember that great mortgage company named Countrywide right?

Many suspicious activities have come to light since they went "out of business" in 2008 and were "taken over" by the Bank of America.

Now, The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has issued a report and even names some names of politicians that apparently got some kind of "VIP" loan discounts.

This looks like it goes all the way back to 1996.

Hmmm.

Seems like somebody knew something was a cook'in long before the financial "crisis" happened.

This seems to have started even before the banks were allowed by law to engage in speculative derivative trading.

A whole lot of those crazy derivatives were based on the Fannie and Freddie mortgage bonds (a.k.a. mortgage-backed securities).

The rabbits holes go deep with this corruption and bribery and backdoor lobbying.

story from NewsMax -- Thursday, 05 Jul 2012

The former Countrywide Financial Corp., whose subprime loans helped start the nation's foreclosure crisis, made hundreds of discount loans to buy influence with members of Congress, congressional staff, top government officials and executives of troubled mortgage giant Fannie Mae, according to a House report.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press, said that the discounts — from January 1996 to June 2008, were not only aimed at gaining influence for the company but to help mortgage giant Fannie Mae. Countrywide's business depended largely on Fannie, which at the time was trying to fend off more government regulation but eventually had to come under government control.

Fannie was responsible for purchasing a large volume of Countrywide's subprime mortgages. Countrywide was taken over by Bank of America in January 2008, relieving the financial services industry and regulators from the messy task of cleaning up the bankruptcy of a company that was servicing 9 million U.S. home loans worth $1.5 trillion at a time when the nation faced a widening credit crisis, massive foreclosures and an economic downturn.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee also named six current and former members of Congress who received discount loans, but all of their names had surfaced previously. Other previously mentioned names included former top executive branch officials and three chief executives of Fannie Mae........

Long informative article.
House Report: Countrywide Issued 'Hundreds' of Discounts for Influence


One major U.S. Senator, Former Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn was a "recipient". Dodd was famous for his efforts to pass the Dodd-Frank bill.

Does anyone still think the Dodd-Frank bill was really about the citizens' rights

Dodd is currently the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Motion Picture Association of America.

The ongoing Fannie and Freddie debacle has been a real expensive pain in the butt for taxpayers.

reply to post by xuenchen


Yep, not surprised.......not one bit.

I am sure that all people involved with get covering fire to hide their unlawful actions.

Originally posted by xuenchen
One major U.S. Senator, Former Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn was a "recipient". Dodd was famous for his efforts to pass the Dodd-Frank bill.

Appreciate the example, but lest folks get the idea this was a "D" scandal...

Mary Jane Collipriest, who was communications director for former Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, then a member of the Banking Committee.

_Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

_Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif.

_Former Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Calif.

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Influence peddling knows no political allegiance.

Originally posted by Indigo5

Originally posted by xuenchen
One major U.S. Senator, Former Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn was a "recipient". Dodd was famous for his efforts to pass the Dodd-Frank bill.

Appreciate the example, but lest folks get the idea this was a "D" scandal...

Mary Jane Collipriest, who was communications director for former Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, then a member of the Banking Committee.

_Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

_Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif.

_Former Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Calif.

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Influence peddling knows no political allegiance.

Absolutely.

I was focusing on Dodd because he was a higher ranking official, and well known to people.

From what I know, there are dozens of people involved aside from these mentioned in the story.

....many Fannie Mae employees

"Friends of Angelo (FOA)" VIP program

Originally posted by xuenchen

From what I know, there are dozens of people involved aside from these mentioned in the story.

....many Fannie Mae employees

"Friends of Angelo (FOA)" VIP program

In a perfect world "Friends of Angelo" would consist of fellow inmates, but I am not holding my breath.

So on to your other point...whereas you are looking to reachingly paint the Dodd-Frank bill in a similair corrupt light...do you have specific examples in the bill that trouble you.

It strikes me as an imperfect bill, it was compromised in areas to drive for bipartisan support, but a vast improvement on what we had pre-Dodd-Frank and the economic crisis.

I WOULD ALSO NOTE...JUST TODAY...


House committee to increase pressure for Dodd-Frank repeal in July

07/05/12 09:29 AM ET

The House Financial Services Committee plans to spend much of July focusing on the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and what committee Republicans say are the law's burdensome regulations on companies and consumers.

"With this month marking the second anniversary of passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, the Financial Services Committee is focusing attention throughout July on the burdens this law's 2,300 pages and more than 400 new rules layer on American companies, financial markets and consumers," committee Republicans said this week.

thehill.com...

Gee...Your posts are timely...right in-step.

Dodd-Frank....So the GOP wants to go back to 2008? Both with Healthcare Reform and Dodd-Frank...