Countrywide Financial Corp. gave 'Friends of Angelo' loans with preferential terms to roughly three dozen employees of Fannie Mae, according to newly released documents.
Overall, Countrywide's controversial FoA program — named after founder and CEO Angelo Mozilo — made 153 loans to employees of Fannie. The new information was disclosed by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., a frequent Congressional critic of both Countrywide and the FoA program.
Another 20 such VIP loans, which often provided mortgages on terms more favorable than those available to the general public, went to Freddie Mac employees. CFC had a "strategic partnership" agreement with Fannie whereby most of its conventional production was sold to the GSE but not all. So far, both GSEs have not commented on the matter.
The new revelations are the latest salvo in a two-year-old investigation Rep. Issa has been heading into the Countrywide program.
The FoA program was shut down sometime in 2008. At mid-year 2008 CFC was sold to Bank of America with Mozilo retiring at the time of transfer. The former CFC founder, CEO and chairman is a defendant in an insider trading case bought against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The allegations involve his sale of Countrywide stock.
