Lay off my brother: Mozilo's sister blogs in his defense

No sooner had I taken another shot at Countrywide Financial than I saw this -- a defense of former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo on the Huffington Post, written by his sister, Lori.

The full title Lori Mozilo's post is "Vilified: What you don't know about my brother, Angelo Mozilo."

The gist is: My brother was in the mortgage business to help hard-working, middle-class people get loans to buy houses, and he's not a crook, and shame on Congress for treating him like one.

The newsiest part, to my eyes anyway, was her description of the "Friends of Angelo" program. She writes that the program was real and hardly scandalous:  "Will all FOA's please stand up? They will include: strangers, Senators, neighbors, cab drivers, doormen, nannies, even a sister or two. FOA was the name given to Angelo's personal pipeline of loans because he didn't work out of a branch office. And yes, he did give deals. Not illegal, shady deals, just plain old American, good deals. ... I know, it's not sinister or interesting, but it's the truth."

Posted by Peter Viles
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: Getty Images

Comments

[Jack]

Poor Angelo. After all, he only sold $406 million in Countrywide stock when he knew the company was heading for the shoals. I suppose he divvied up that haul with the cab drivers, doormen, and nannies, too.

[Todd in WeHo]

Lori Mozilo's letter is nice, but I'm floored by her comments about people not seeing the mortgage meltdown coming:

"I've heard, 'Mozilo had to have seen it coming and didn't say anything.' Please. I'm no genius, particularly in financial matters. But I do own a home and I knew it wasn't worth what people were leaving notes on my porch telling me they'd pay me for it. I knew the real estate bubble had to burst one day.... The Committee ignored much evidence that my brother was actually quite optimistic about the future of his industry. That he, in fact, did not see it coming.... Sure, Angelo and others in the mortgage banking industry should have seen it coming -- and the politicians, the borrowers, Alan Greenspan, and all the financial experts should have, too."

I get that many borrowers are negligent and ill-informed followers of a herd mentality, but I hold higher expecations of executives like Angelo Mozilo and Alan Greenspan.

[sheila]

But lest we forget to feed the dittoheads:

Mozilo is a Republican.

Maybe that's why he felt ok exploiting the poor, ripping off shareholders, leaving a complete shambles for taxpayers to clean up, while collecting an unconscionable golden parachute?

Business as usual for that crowd.

[xtine]

Looks like she's defending her brother, then you realize she's defending.....herself.

[the problwmwithcaring]

I've heard, "Mozilo had to have seen it coming and didn't say anything." Please. I'm no genius, particularly in financial matters. But I do own a home and I knew it wasn't worth what people were leaving notes on my porch telling me they'd pay me for it. I knew the real estate bubble had to burst one day, just as I knew a decade earlier that paying people a million dollars for the name of a website that didn't exist was probably not going to turn out that great, either. The Committee ignored much evidence that my brother was actually quite optimistic about the future of his industry. That he, in fact, did not see it coming, because if they had presented that evidence, perhaps they wouldn't have been able to facilitate a public catharsis for our collective frustration.

Whaaaaaat??

Ugh. This woman is delsuional. So, while her clueless a$$ managed to figure out tech bubble and the housing bubble, in the very next sentence (same breath) she derisively dismisses those wishing to hold acccountable the very experts put in charge in prevent such bubbles from happening?

It's like, dude, stop talking...

[ya sure you betcha]

It's not the republican's fault. It's the dumba$$ fill in theblank

[Nick]

Although Countrywide certainly contributed to the housing bubble, I kinda agree it's not fair for Congress to vilify Mozilo, that's kinda like the enormous black hole calling the kettle black. Congress did nothing while the banking regulators allowed all the bad "creative" loans to flourish. Congress is still allowing the FHA to insure new bad loans. Congress is trying to expand the FHA's ability to offload mortgage losses onto the taxpayers. Congress created the Fed, and Congress is allowing the Fed to backdoor bailout investment banks and GSE's at taxpayer expanse. Congress may soon pump billions more taxpayer dollars into the GSE's to offset their losses which they accumulated making billions for their executives and stockholders, under regulations drafted and updated by, you guessed it, Congress.

It might be justifiable to blame Countrywide for the mess, but that's kinda like blaming a fully automatic assault rifle for killing people. It's not really the assault rifle's fault, blame should be accurately ascribed to the hurricane destructive force of Congress which is destroying our currency, robbing our savings, rewarding the bubble purveyors, and gunning down our economy in the street.

[Corntrollio]

Yeah, right, we're supposed to believe that Mozilo is a champion of the little people. Nothing to see here, move along. Shame on Huffington Post for publishing this crap.

[Tombstone Realty]

Um, unless they were lending out their own money, using favoritism in purchasing a home is called "nepotism" and is most definitely illegal, shady, etc., etc.,

I have a feeling Mozillo is probably already out of the country. Maybe in a nice Villa somewhere on the coast of Italy.

*sits and dreams*

[toby]

Oh yeah, I'm sure a lot of Cab drivers got a personal deal from Mozilo.

Yeah sure.

[I live in LA, too]

"Mozilo is a Republican.

Maybe that's why he felt ok exploiting the poor, ripping off shareholders, leaving a complete shambles for taxpayers to clean up, while collecting an unconscionable golden parachute?

Business as usual for that crowd."

According to Rasmussen poll, 41.0% of Americans considered themselves to be Democrats, 31.5% said they were Republicans and 27.5% were not affiliated with either major party. Sheila, I hope you understand that "Republicans" does not refer to an exclusive club only filled by executives who make millions of dollars a year and have ultra-tanned skin. I bet you even work with or are friends with one or two Republicans, but they might not want to tell you this, for fear you would cast them into the abyss.

Ironically, Barack Obama says he wants to do away with the old politics of division. In my conversations with some of his fans, though, I find the need for division is a very high priority.

[Duke of Moral Hazard]

On deck, we have Kathleen Brown defending her brother Jerry when we begin to question why the bad guys are not being punished severly.

And then Laura Richardson's sister defending Laura by telling us you gotta do whatcha gotta do to get it done.

Apropos Laura (who doesn't seem to be in court yet), a recent article in the Press Telegram mentions that she attended Immaculate Heart and UCSB. How come her congressional web page doesn't say anything about ucsb? Only that she graduated from UCLA?

Did you see how out of sorts her sponsor/protector Pelosi looked yesterday on cspan?

[Silver Laker]

Will the cabbies, doormen, nannies and mannies still be FOA when their option ARMs reset? And I wonder what the ratio of politicians to service workers is in this FOA club?

[Cal]

Just an OT comment to give attention to Jim the Realtors latest comment on bubbleinfo.com

"5. The biggest concern I have for the overall market is how ignorant the listing agents are to the current market conditions. If you are making an offer on a non-REO house, not only are the sellers dug in, so are the listing agents. They think their job is to protect their sellers from lowballing thieves. In the meantime, they aren't selling, and the market is slipping further away, squashing any chance they might have had. For those who don't need to move, no problem. But I feel for those who do, and the agent is getting in the way. I spoke with some sellers off the record who said they wanted to lower their price, and the agent refused - saying that somebody will come along someday. If you are selling, don't let your agent get in the way of you lowering your price!"

[CathyG]

"Lay off my brother"

Pity for all of us that her brother wasn't laid off about eight years ago.

[Vegas Baby]

"And yes, he did give deals. Not illegal, shady deals, just plain old American, good deals. ... I know, it's not sinister or interesting, but it's the truth."

Um, what's also true is that he had a fiduciary responsibility to NOT give somebody a "plain old American good deal" - because it wasn't in the best interest of shareholders to give someone a loan that didn't have a snowball's chance in h*** of making their payments, let alone dozens of "strangers, Senators, neighbors, cab drivers, doormen, nannies, even a sister or two."

[Steve]

There is a Golen rule in American business is you do not want to make too much money and that is where Angelo blew it. He will now be the target of law suits be every state in the union because of his deep pockets and these attorneys have to justify their existance. Anelo is going to have the retirement from hell.

[BottomFisher]

Don't taze me bro.....I promise to say nice things about you.

[Richard Wicks]

Oh the poor man!

I mean, all he did was help thousands of hard working people into bankruptcy.

How could he see troubles for the housing market? I mean, it's only his job to know it.

And so he pocketed a few hundred million dollars. I mean, that's the American Way (R)(TM) isn't it? I mean, if you run a company into the ground, YOU'RE not responsible for it? That's the whole point of the corporate shield, so you can do whatever advantages you, without you being responsible for any of the damage you cause - right?

I have a RADICAL idea though - get rid of the corporate shield - maybe that will make the people in charge of these companies a little less willing to take risks when they can be hurt by making really bad decisions?

Nah, that's crazy talk.

Instead, "become too big to fail", pocket all the money when times are good, then get the tax payer to bail you out when you've destroyed the company that was "too big to fail".

Oh wait, that's the fascist economic system - which is never taught in schools.

[singh1]

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