Remember, back in ’08, when Angelo Mozilo cried while telling a bunch of Countrywide shareholders that Bank of America, which had just bought the place, would “reap the benefits of what we have sowed“? Obviously that was was Moz-Speak for “you’re about to find out what it’s like to be forcibly sodomized for all eternity,” but at the time, some people wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was leaving some neat stuff behind, like buried treasure or something. We now know that, actually, one of the things that the home lender had been “sowing” for a number of years was the basis of a Department of Justice investigation into the fact that the company made it a policy to dick over Hispanic and black people, one of the many gifts Brian Moynihan has been unwrapping since he took over.
Bank of America agreed to a record $335 million settlement of a U.S. Justice Department probe into fair-lending lapses at its Countrywide Financial Corp. mortgage unit. Countrywide discriminated from 2004 to 2008 by charging higher fees and interest rates to more than 200,000 black and Hispanic borrowers and steered minority borrowers into subprime mortgages, the DOJ said in a statement today. The accord is tied to an investigation into mortgages made by Countrywide, acquired in 2008 by Charlotte, North Carolina- based Bank of America. The second-biggest U.S. bank by deposits has spent billions of dollars to clean up liabilities inherited from Countrywide, which once ranked as the nation’s biggest home lender. Bank of America has committed about $40 billion for mortgage refunds, lawsuits and foreclosures since 2007, with most of the sum tied to alleged defects in the loans that affected investors, rather than discrimination against customers.
“We reached this settlement to resolve issues about Countrywide’s alleged historic practices that occurred before Bank of America acquired the company,” said Dan Frahm, a company spokesman. “We are committed to fair and equal treatment of all our customers, and will continue to focus on doing what’s right for our customers, clients and communities. We discontinued Countrywide products and practices that were not in keeping with our commitment.”
Now that that’s taken care, what else have we got on the list? The mortgage and foreclosure stuff, obviously, but there are probably a half a dozen or so other Moz items that need dealing with, no? Surely there must some love children Brian needs to make go away? This can’t be all there is.
BofA Agrees to $335M Lending Settlement [Bloomberg]
Related: “When he tans Angelo gets really dark. My mother told me that when he worked in Florida he was asked to sit in the back of the bus.”
Perfect! I've been looking for someone to be my HUD secretary pick!
- R Perry
Angelo,
Forget it, you do one little thing wrong (or two or three…) and everyone seems to forget "all the wonderful things you did for the industry" and all the awards you won.
-B. Madoff
In totally unrelated news, I just found out what its like to receive a restricted cash/stock bonus at the Jr level… let me tell you it FUCKING SUCKS! Boarding the train to Black Out City tonight.
Thanks, that is all.
countrywide is like the herpes of BofA
If Ang Moz and Lynne Tilton had a love child it would look like an Oomp Loompa with one of those vice/paint shaker things attached to its pelvis.
It’s Christmas time and that means bonus season. What will you do with a little extra money in the bank? Why not invest in your favorite hobbies–a new boat, a classic roadster or a down payment on a new vacation home?
I'm guessing we'll soon be treated to knowing how exactly this impacts WB's stake and how it could effect global demand for Boone's Farm.
Dude has a nice tan
Maybe they based your bonus on how you punctuate. Have fun going to Black Out City.
wait, the settlement comes to $1,675 per person. isn't the size of this settlement adding insult to injury for the victims in this case?
You just had to go your own way, didn't you?
-Harvard
It's Christmas time and that means bonus season 2011. What will you with a little (and we mean that literally) extra money in the bank? Why not invest in your favorite hobbies–a new toy boat, a model of a classic roadster, or a down payment on a week's rental of someone else's new vacation home?
Herpes is the Countrywide of my dick.
-DSK
My contribution to the topic: http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestor…
On a related note, I thought the rates at origination are based on the borrowers stats, rather than the loan officer's discretion. If the computer spits out higher rates for people with bad credit that happen to be latino/black, does BOFA really need to reexamine their motives?
It's unfortunate that the government didn't take into account Countrywide's ground-breaking work in advancing the rights of Orange Americans.
Regarding your linked previous article, there's no effing way this abortion could be called "Spanish styled" http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2011/12/angelo-m…
In other news, I'm a complete moron but I was horrified when BAC bought toxic Countrywide. WTF were they thinking? Even morons like me knew that Countrywide was an abomintation by 2008 and if the government pressured them into the deal (rumored at the time) as they did with the ML deal, why the fuck does the government keep going after BAC for Mozilo's shit? I can understand buying Merrill but I'll never understand buying Countrywide.
Angelo, go get your fucking shine box.
No matter how hard you try, you will never be able to scrub that Orange Glo off…
-Angelo