Mozilogate?
Leave it to Diana Olick, CNBC’s real estate reporter, to come up with another doozie. This time, she’s unearthed some skeletons that belong to a few U.S. Senators regarding their dealings with Countrywide Financial. Earlier today, Olick wrote:
Apparently, Countrywide has a VIP program, known as “Friends of Angelo,” where the lender gives certain people better deals, maybe shaves a point or something, simply due to who those certain people are, basically saving them all thousands of dollars.
Now how about Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, who has been spearheading the Senate’s housing rescue plan? Or Senator Kent Conrad, who is a member of the Senate Finance Committee? They got the deals. Conrad put out a statement saying, “Although I did not ask for or know that I was receiving a discount, and even though I was offered a competitive loan from another lender, I do not want to have received preferential treatment.” Conrad now says he’ll donate $10,500 to charity (Habitat for Humanity) and refi his loan (good luck with today’s mortgage market!).
I thought penance only worked for the Catholics. The CNBC reporter continued:
Senator Dodd’s statement reads: “As a United States Senator, I would never ask or expect to be treated differently than anyone else refinancing their home.”
I’m pretty sure there a number of Senators who would be upset if they weren’t treated differently. Their staff could vouch for that. Olick concluded:
So am I to believe that these high-ranking Senators, and a former Fannie CEO, didn’t read their loan documents to figure out that they were getting a special deal?? Did they not know enough about how mortgages work to figure it out? And why would Mozilo give these folks a special deal if he didn’t expect them to at least know about it??
The Senators are claiming they had no idea. Come on. I realize I’m supposed to accept that all those subprime borrowers didn’t understand their loans, but to accept that these well-educated leaders of our government didn’t–well that insults my intelligence, and every borrower’s out there.
I wonder if the next time we hear about Conrad, Dodd, and the Countrywide issue, they’ll be pleading the Fifth…
Source:
“Senators As Confused Borrowers? Don’t Insult Our Intelligence”
Diana Olick
CNBC, June 16, 2008
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