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Thursday, July 05, 2012

Countrywide Made Discount Loans to Buy Influence With Members of Congress

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.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny thing is...I worked for MetLife Home Mortgages here in Salisbury. They hired one of Countrywides big executives to lead them to the promise land. MetLife Home Mortgages closed their doors for good back in March! Talking about stupid! Hundreds of millions lost down the drain....

Anonymous said...

Chris Dodd's name should be prominent in this investigation.

Anonymous said...

And none of them will see jail time!

Anonymous said...

This is why the buying of politicans by special interest must be stopped.

Anonymous said...

712, it won't be. Largely because the partisan ideologues turn a blind eye to their own side while going on witch hunts against the other

Anonymous said...

Who are these congressmen(women). Force their resignation. We're so sick of them getting away with everything. Why isn't something done ON THE SPOT. Boom! You're outta here!

Anonymous said...

Special interests aren't the culprits, Congress is. Clean house in November.

Anonymous said...

And every liberal will emphatically deny that this had anything to do with the collapse.

Just like Barney Frank said "all is well with Freddie and Fannie"