Report: Countrywide CEO Cashed Out

LA Times: Angelo Mozilo Cashed In $138 Million In Options Before Crash

(AP)  Countrywide Financial Corp. Chairman and CEO Angelo Mozilo cashed in $138 million in stock options over the last year, switching his trading plans as the mortgage company went into a tailspin, it was reported Saturday.

Between November 2006 and August, Mozilo changed the plans outlining how many of his shares would be sold monthly, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Mozilo unloaded 4.9 million Countrywide shares, most of which he bought through exercising options.

Hundreds of executives use similar trading plans, approved by federal regulators in 2000 as a way to defend against insider trading allegations. While not illegal, it is highly unusual for the plans to be changed so often in a short period, experts said.

"If a guy is changing his plan around, I would think that would send up a red flag. I wouldn't allow my clients to do it," said Thom F. Carroll, a financial planner with the Baltimore wealth management firm Carroll, Frank & Plotkin.

Mozilo adopted a new trading plan, added a second one and then revised it while the housing and mortgage industry slumped, the Times reported, citing regulatory findings.

The changes allowed him to sell hundreds of thousands of additional shares before Countrywide stock plunged.

Sandy Samuels, Countrywide's chief legal officer, said Mozilo's stock sales were all "in accordance with company policy."

"The (trading) plans were put into place in consultation with Mr. Mozilo's financial adviser, without regard to any non-public or market information," Samuels said in a prepared statement to the Times.

Calabasas-based Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender in terms of volume, faces a lawsuit claiming it failed to warn employees about the depth of its financial troubles, resulting in heavy stock losses in their 401k retirement accounts.

The company recently said it will eliminate as many as 12,000 jobs in the coming months. Its stock, meanwhile, is off more than 50 percent from its $45.03 high on Feb. 2.

[peterzest-2009]

What a criminal!
He has caused great human suffering for:
Employees who invested in 401K
Stockholders who saw their portfolio values cut in half.
And above all for millions of homeowners facing imminent foreclosures.
In China they shoot them!

[worldpeace99]

GetLoud1 - You are so right Ron Paul is the last person that can save this country. I went to youtube.com and searched for Ron Paul and he is AWESOME! The media cannot black him out forever soon people will see the truth. Go Ron Paul 2008!!!

[mitch0927]

GetLoud1, this is CBS you moron, not NBC..take your Ron Paul junk somewhere else..

[lastdance2]

RE : GetLoud1

Take your Political - Spam - elsewhere

Lastdance

[jeffmugsy]

Another story about the rich stealing from the poor. Another story of the demise of the American empire at the hands of the Republican party. Why... all that stuff about less government? They have succeeded! And the result of less regulation is the biggest boondoggle of lying, cheating and stealing in our history. The sums are astronomical, the reverberations will last a generation. And the worst is yet to come. Thank you thieves! Thank you mainstream corporate media! Your deception (or lack of regard to your responsibilities to inform the public) have been nearly perfect! Firing Dan Rather was a perfect touch! Keep up the good work!

[getloud1]

***** Stop The War & Corporate Corruption *****

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The corporate media will not give Ron Paul any Exposure. Because, NBC is owned by GE. GE is one of the world''s largest war-makers. They make things that go boom. They make $Billions on war. A Ron Paul administration would be bad for business. CNN is owned by AOL. Majority share holder is Saudi Royal Talal who is also partners with GHWBush in The Carlyle Group. Another major warmaker. And on and on. You get the picture. This is why they are doing a Media Blackout on him. Because they don''t WANT YOU TO KNOW THE TRUTH!!!!!

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[j_flood]

Divide all employees into labor scales (including white collar) set up a 17% separation rule between labor scales. CEO is part and parcel of the rule. Bonus'' based on profit incentives only. It is immoral to pay outrageous salaries to people that take companies into bankruptcy or sustain poor performance.

[o-f-g]

It appears to me that a very high percentage of the companies in financial trouble are run by excessively paid CEOs. Perhaps this is not pure chance. Perhaps the stockholders will start to notice this and take serious action. If qualified American executives are so rare and costly and tend to be criminals, perhaps we should begin to import executives from overseas. Europeans execs are paid less than half, Asians less than 10%. If it makes economic sense to ship factory jobs overseas and import low wage illegal aliens it also makes a lot more sense to import qualified foreign CEOs who will put in an honest days''s work for a million dollars a year. Perhaps we only have to wait a while since the Chinese will own all our large corporations in a decade or two anyway, when they start throwing around all the money we''ve shipped over there to pay for 99% of the items on the shelf in Walmart, Target etc.. The Chinese own so much of our National debt that I also wonder how long it will be before they have more control over our monetary policy that the Federal Reserve. Trickle down, tax cut, 7 trillion national debt, 500 million per year hedge fund managers, Neocon foreign policy "thinking", I''m really sick of the whole thing.

[lastdance2]

Re : l8c6 - is a Loyal Republican (Nazi) Party Member

Auto Workers make - $17.95 -
Auto Manufactures Maganagement Branches - Give themselves over 400 Million Dollars a Year.

l8c6 - If your going to - Lie - On a subject - Least make it worth - Ling about ! ! !

The IRS - W2 - Corporate Income forms - Are free for the asking - Public Record ! !

Do the Math

l8c6 - Get a life - ! !

Lastdance

[l8c6]

How many rednecks and middle managers like barbarians want to attack the auto workers because of their 70 dollars an hour. Hmm, who will take the time to do the math and calculate how many annual blue collar wages this 138 million, only a portion of this pigs wealth would supply? Do the math people.

[jetranger7]

EXPOSE THE FRAUD AND CORRUPTION !!!! No wonder they''re Fees are so High, its nothing to do with the actual cost of a mortage, its about the CEOs EXCESSIVE Pay and Benefits Package you all are paying for and they''re many, many other PERKS that you end up paying for !! Nice Huh,But, was he really worth the money is the Question ??? I think NOT !!!!!!

[brianbwb-2009]

"Hundreds of executives use similar trading plans, approved by federal regulators in 2000 as a way to defend against insider trading allegations."

As I knew back when they did it in the wake of Enron, the federal regulators end corruption by declaring it legal. So much for Reagan''s "trickle down" BS...

[incog-nito]

When will people wake up and realize that this is not just one or a few crooked CEOs? It''s the whole system. CEOs should be paid a salary, and a cash bonus depending on their performance. Instead they''re given stock options, so that they''re more focused on short-term quarterly performance which affect stock prices rather than the long-term health of the company. And what happens when things go bad? They cash out before the stock tanks, make a boatload of money, get out and leave the company to crash and burn.

[ssm9451]

Only in America..........

[jsilver2th]

my my my said the spider to the fly...

Don''t worry- it''s trickling down to the common folk:

Angelo Mozilo Donated:

ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT INC. $2,300 03/23/07


RUDY GIULIANI PRESIDENTIAL COMMITTEE INC. $2,300 06/19/2007

[donbl1]

The question is whether the BOD knew and asked why he was changing the plan so often.

The entire management probably knew for a year that there were serious problems and that their personal compensation plans were going to come to an end.

He made his. Anyone invested in them (most of us with mutual funds) lost.

[tomtraubert-2009]

I sure hate to see that. Mozilo was one CEO for whom I had some admiration. He built that company from a little storefront and guided it though the 1980''s-era S&L crisis. He was committed to home ownership for the middle class. I''d sure hate it if this proves to be his downfall.

[standlee5]

Use Michael Vick''s dogs to track him down.

[standlee5]

Once again companies and consumers get taken to the cleaner by greeeeedy CEOs. What a scumbag.

[gracchus1]

lastdance2, afmca, walt1944,

Great posts!