An eighty-two year old Tampa Bay man has lost everything he owns, including pictures of his dead wife, after a clean-out crew hired by Bank of America mistook his house for the foreclosure next door. [More]
countrywide home loans
SEC: Countrywide CEO Called Mortgages "Toxic" Three Freaking Years Ago
By 6.5.09
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.
Lawsuits: Countrywide Ex-CEO To Feel Wrath Of SEC
By 6.4.09
His extreme orangeness, former CEO and founder of Countrywide Home Loans Angelo Mozilo, is about to be slapped with civil fraud charges, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Former Countrywide Employee Arrested For Stealing, Selling Customer Identities
By 8.4.08
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.
Golden Poo Award For Worst Company In America Unveiled
By 7.18.08
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.
Ex Countrywide Manager Exposes Its Lies
By 6.30.08
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:
Countrywide Says "Our Investors Require" Us To Rip You Off
By 2.13.08
3. PMI [Ed. A type of insurance a borrower pays to the lender to protect the lender in case the borrower defaults. It is typically required when putting down less than 20%]. Because this was our first home loan, and it was considered a “jumbo” (I hate that term), they required us to have PMI (despite having put down 20%). During the summer of 2005, we were nearing the magic 80/20 Loan-to-Value ratio, which I believed to be sufficient to have them remove our PMI…
Countrywide Made Racist Sub-Prime Loans?
By 2.5.08
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.”
