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Angelo Mozilo

October 16, 2010 by · Comments Off on Angelo Mozilo 

Angelo Mozilo, The former head of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial was once among the highest paid CEOs in the United States. But on Friday, agreed to settle fraud charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to see pay a record fine and 67.5 million – the highest for a public company executive.

The son of a Bronx butcher who embodied a rags to-riches success story, Mozilo became the burned face of the mortgage crisis in the subprime crisis emerged in 2007.

Mozilo was nicknamed “Tangelo” by the media business because of the rich. He also wore extravagant costumes and a reputation for aggressive risk-taking as he built lender Countrywide Financial in the U.S. start up.

A golf enthusiast, Mozilo Countrywide compensation package at one point included the payment of annual dues in three country clubs, including one near his home in the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California.

Born in 1938 to Italian immigrants and raised in the Bronx in New York, home owned Mozilo evangelized for everyone. His philosophy has paid off for himself and Countrywide.

In 2007, Mozilo took and 121.5 million from exercising stock options from Countrywide and was awarded 22.1 million and other compensation.

Forbes magazine in 2006 ranked 10 th Mozilo top executive pay, with total compensation of 68.95 million.

However, he lost his aura Mozilo of Countrywide Financial role in the subprime mortgage crisis was exposed.

In 2006, at the height of his success, Countrywide originated and 461 billion dollars in loans – and about 41 billion of which were high risk. Subprime poisoned the U.S. mortgage market and Countrywide’s own finances.

Last July, Bank of America bought Countrywide for $ 2.5 million and less than 10 percent of what the company was worth in early 2007. Ten months later, Bank of America eliminated the Countrywide name.

And U.S. regulators Mozilo accused of making more and 139 million in revenue in 2006 and 2007 through the exercise of stock options 5,100,000 Countrywide and selling the underlying shares.

Sales were under four years of trading Mozilo preset plans developed during the period, the SEC said in the lawsuit.

Last year, the business magazine Conde Nast Portfolio Mozilo called the second worst U.S. chief executive of all time, behind Dick Fuld, the former head of Lehman Brothers.

It was a stunning fall for a person who as recently as 2007 was among the best U.S. presidents the weekly financial newspaper Barron.

Mozilo also took heat for what was known within Countrywide as “friends of Angelo” loan program, which gave favorable mortgage and other political officials, including former chief executives of housing finance giants Fannie Mae.

But even at the height of the crisis, Mozilo did his best to deflect blame.

In 2008, with the housing market in ruins, told executives at a conference of mortgage bankers, “You have to be careful here about blaming ourselves too. ”

The real culprits, he said, were the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates for too long, crooked real estate speculators, falling housing prices and attacks by regulators of subprime mortgages and other interest-only risk.

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