lawsuits
Today, as expected, is a crappy day for former Countrywide CEO and co-founder Angelo "Orangey Orangerton" Mozilo. The SEC is suing Mr. Mozilo along with several of his colleagues, claiming that they profited from stock sales while hiding information from investors.
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worst company in america
The FBI has announced that a former
Countrywide employee and his accomplice were arrested on charges related to "illegal access of computers containing personal information," and "illegal sale of the data." A criminal complaint filed last Friday alleges that one of the men, Rene L. Rebollo Jr., a senior financial analyst for Countrywide Home Loan's subprime mortgage division (who was let go in July), had been harvesting data from Countrywide's computers for the past two years — downloading and storing the information on personal flash drives.
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worst company in america
The box we teased you about contained a glistening golden poo statue. That's right, the award for Worst Company In America is here. That can mean only one thing... On Monday we host our final deathmatch between
Comcast and Countrywide Home Loans. It's going to be a brutal bloodbath full of chills and spills. Only one will walk away champion, and then we will mail them their justly deserved prize. Stay tuned to Consumerist.com for all the hot crappy-company-on-crappy-company action.
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confessions
A former regional manager for
Countrywide Home Loans, the mega mortgage company whose shady mortgage mill came to epitomize the subprime meltdown, went on The Today Show camera to detail some of the company's questionable practices. Here's some of the tricks he warned upper management about during his 6-month stint before he was fired for refusing to give loans to unqualified buyers:
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leaks
Countrywide Home Loans was racist and automatically put African-Americans into exotic and expensive sub-prime loans they didn't want or need, and couldn't afford, according to a former employee. This employee worked there for two years up until the sub-prime meltdown. They write:
"...a customer would be qualified for a loan because their credit score and other factors based on the written product description, however, when I went in to put their (this only happened to African-Americans) - they were not qualified for the loan product and had to be referred to Countrywide's subprime mortgage company Full Spectrum. Full Spectrum offered higher rates and fees. I got wise one day and started not inputing the race so the computer could give me "approval."
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Consumerist
mortgage meltdown
complaints
