Dirty Dealings at Countrywide

Now this is quite an expose on the excesses of Countrywide Mortgage. Some of their risky mortgage schemes and such may be worthy of an Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room style book depending on how bad this subprime crisis gets. One black flag if you were a shareholder is how many shares that Angelo R. Mozilo the Chairman and CEO was selling. He cashed out $129 million in the last 12 months. When the CEO starts to bail its time to sell/go short the stock.

Mr. Mozilo has ridden this remarkable wave to immense riches, thanks to
generous annual stock option grants. Rarely a buyer of Countrywide shares — he
has not bought a share since 1987, according to Securities and Exchange
Commission filings — he has been a huge seller in recent years. Since the
company listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange in 1984, he has reaped $406 million selling Countrywide stock.

As the subprime mortgage debacle began to unfold this year, Mr.
Mozilo’s selling accelerated. Filings show that he made $129 million from stock
sales during the last 12 months, or almost one-third of the entire amount he has
reaped over the last 23 years. He still holds 1.4 million shares in Countrywide,
a 0.24 percent stake that is worth $29.4 million.