Angelo Mozilo Defends Countrywide Stock Sales

Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of Countrywide Financial, was called to give testimony as to the legitimacy of his stock sales and other CEO compensation shenanigans before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Mr. Mozilo’s statement is more rhetoric and excuses including everything from the woes of the subprime meltdown to an “unforeseen” housing market crash, and very little on his mega-million dollar payday.

It was reported recently Mozilo decided a few months back he’d head-off any complaints about the nearly $150,000,000 he pocketed from his stock sales by announcing he’d “forgo” any retirement benefits the company still “owed” him

“Gee, that’s awfully big of you Mr. Mozilo”

“Are you sure you can safely retire on only $150,000,000?”

The main reason the House wanted to hear his testimony was to probe the timing of his stock windfall which was eerily close to an Enron like stockholder swindle since Countrywide stock price dropped 87% since the sales.

Mozilo once again blames the market for the stock price slide and noted he and the Board instituted a stock buy-back program to attempt to curb the slide (It didn’t work). This will probably placate the Committee Members…but not me.

I don’t buy it for a second!

Mozilo is smart….smarter than a bunch of politicians. And he’s just as slimy.

Bring in a “compensation consultant”, institute a buy-back program, forgo your retirement benefits (announce it to the press), and talk about how nobody could have predicted a credit crunch and a housing crisis at the same time…viola…you, my slimy friend, are off the hook!

You’ve got to hand it to him, he pulled the wool over the Committee’s eyes and unlike the Enron or WorldCom executives, he’ll ride off into the sun he likes so much with hundreds of millions leaving mutual funds and private shareholders holding the bag.

The little guy finishes last again…sadly, no real surprise there either.

Good Luck!

Author: Rob K. Blake
Published March 7, 2008
Modified March 7, 2008