Did Powerful House Dem Get "VIP" Mortgage?
Information in documents for the mortgage of Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, suggest he may have received favorable loans via Countrywide's "VIP" program — the same program in which Democratic Sens. Christopher Dodd and Kent Conrad obtained loans, along with some Republican officals, reports the Journal.
The Senate Ethics committee is investigating Dodd's and Conrad's loans; both men deny they asked for special treatment from Countrywide.
As for Towns, a House member for 26 years, he has turned away efforts by his Republican counterpart on the committee, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to subpoena mortgage records of individuals participating in the VIP program, which was operated by the company's former CEO Angelo Mozila, the Journal reports.
A spokeswoman for Towns told the Journal that if his mortgages came through the VIP program, "it was without his knowledge," and that Towns does not believe he got special treatment from Countrywide, she said. "As far as he knew, he was just getting a loan as a regular person."
At the time of the alleged loans, Towns was not the House committee's chairman.
As the Journal reports: "Public records show Mr. Towns took out a Countrywide loan in 1997 to purchase a home in Lutz, Fla., and then refinanced the property in September 2003 with a mortgage of more than $180,000 from the lender. Also in September 2003, the Townses took out a Countrywide loan of roughly $190,000 on their Brooklyn home, the records show. This loan was paid off in 2005 when the couple obtained a $411,000 loan through another company."