Key Lawmaker Received Countrywide Loans

Source: Wall Street Journal

Democratic Panel Chief Resists Move to Subpoena 'VIP' Records; Documents Suggest He May Have Benefited From Program

AUGUST 7, 2009

A powerful House Democrat who has turned down a Republican's call to subpoena records of a mortgage program at Countrywide Financial Corp. received two home loans from the lender.

Some information in the lawmaker's mortgage documents raises the possibility they were made through the program, which provided loans to public figures and other favored borrowers often at lower interest rates or with lower origination fees than were available to the general public.

The loans were made to Rep. Edolphus Towns of New York, who heads the House Oversight and Government Reform committee. The panel's ranking Republican, California Rep. Darrell Issa, has been pushing to have the committee subpoena mortgage records showing who received loans through Countrywide's VIP program -- operated under former Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo and known within the company as "Friends of Angelo."

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Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Towns said there were other government investigations of Countrywide under way, including a Justice Department criminal probe. The Senate Ethics committee is also investigating because two Democratic senators, Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Kent Conrad of North Dakota, received loans through the VIP program. Both men have denied wrongdoing and said they never asked for favorable loan terms from Countrywide. Some Republican government figures also received VIP loans from Countrywide.

<snip>

The spokeswoman for Mr. Towns, a 26-year congressional veteran, said his decision not to subpoena the VIP records "has nothing to do with his mortgages." If the mortgages came through the VIP program, "it was without his knowledge," and he doesn't believe he received any special benefits from Countrywide, she said. "As far as he knew, he was just getting a loan as a regular person." The congressman, who wasn't a committee chairman when he received the Countrywide loans, first heard of the VIP program last year from press reports, she said.



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124960476129713019.html

...Headline News has just received word that many politicians, on both sides of the aisle, are greedy, crooked bastards.

More at 11.....

...that they gave everyone and their dog a no-doc loan?

...I think it'd be news if it was just this one guy. Statistically, I'd think it would be a LOT of congresscritters. :shrug:

Like Robb, I would be very surprised if there weren't many others. :hi:

when a large number of Repugs get caught, usually they are in a mad, desperate rush to find a Dem who also fell in ...

Look, they got William Jefferson to be the corrupt Dem so that the media could claim it wasn't just the Republicans!

due to the large sums of cash in his freezer. Just a hunch.

but what about the 14 or so Republicans who were caught? That's sNewzzzz ....

I am a life long Dem since I was 18 years old and could vote. BTW I was one of the first generations of 18 year olds to BE allowed to vote, it used to be you had to be 21. When I went to register at the local fire station, they tried to tell me I could not register there, which was a lie because they did not WANT me to vote. If anything alerted me to the importance of voices from We The People, it was in 1972 when I tried to register.

After seeing these people bought off for so many years, I could care less which person of which party it is. This being bought off is decimating people I love simply because some schmuck is not thinking of their constituents, but what is going to line his/her pocket. If they are being influenced by the "bling" well then it looks to me like their "open secrets" should be revealed. After all, We The People deserve to know what their agendas are.

I happen to agree with this Republican as far as making it public as to this mortgage company's practices and what it is doing. It is important to shine the sunshine on what is going on esepcially if we are expected to bail out the ones who are making idiotic decisions. It could be that whatever is happening makes this congressperson innocent ~ but on the other hand it could show the other way. Then we would know.

This is the important question: who is being rewarded by corporate money in such a way that they are making decisions for themselves instead of what is best for our country and why.

My 2 cents

Cat in Seattle