Don't Be Fooled
Thursday, June 4, 2009, by Stathis

The SEC has formally charged Angelo Mozilo, former CEO of Countrywide Financial, with fraud related to the mortgage debacle. 
 
 
 
 
The official court document can be read here
 
 
Let me just say this. First of all, you should not take this case too seriously because the SEC should have charged dozens of other mortgage and banking executives with fraud, from Washington Mutual, Fannie and Freddie, to Bear Stearns, Bank of America, Lehman, and Bear Stearns.  The list goes on and on. But this simply isn't going to happen.
 
As I have stated several times in the past, there will be a few scapegoats but the big guys will go free.
 
Let's not forget, Countrywide served merely as a front door participant to the massive mortgage and real estate fraud that led to this catastrophe. Without the eager participation of Fannie, Freddie and the Wall Street banks involved, the mortgage fraud would have been contained. 
 
In fact, in my opinion, Fannie, Freddie, Lehman and Bear Stearns are much more responsible for this mess than Countrywide, given their central role in packaging and selling off mortgage-backed securities. And we cannot forget the credit-rating agencies, which intentionally signed off AAA ratings on junk. 
 
But even Mozilo faces a good chance of escaping the charges. At best, he might serve a few years. When you have hundreds of millions of dollars, you can hire the best legal team available to weasel around the facts.  As I have stated many times in the past, the only possible way these guys will face true justice is to have all assets they have accumulated as a result of this fraud (easily since 2003) frozen, so they are not able to use extorted funds to buy their way out of a prison sentence.
 
You cannot charge Countrywide without charging the other villains. It's a mockery.
  
 
 

 

 

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