Angelo Walks: Feds Drop Criminal Probe Against Mozilo
Mozilo will not go to prison.
According to Los Angeles Times' sources, Angelo Mozilo has been the subject of a secret federal criminal investigation since 2008, and the 3-year investigation has now been officially closed with no indictments.
First Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin in the Bear Stearns case, then Cassano, now Agent Orange. Perps are walking free.
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U.S. drops criminal probe of former Countrywide chief Angelo Mozilo
by E. Scott Reckard
Federal prosecutors have shelved a criminal investigation of Angelo R. Mozilo after determining that his actions in the mortgage meltdown — which led to $67.5-million settlement against him — did not amount to criminal wrongdoing.
As the former chairman of Countrywide Financial Corp., Mozilo helped fuel the boom in risky subprime loans that led to the crippling of the banking industry and the near-collapse of the financial system.
A federal grand jury in Los Angeles began probing Mozilo in 2008, and four months ago he agreed to pay a $22.5-million fine and to repay $45 million in what the government said were ill-gotten gains to former Countrywide shareholders. The payments settled a civil action by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
But the criminal investigation has wound down without indictments of Mozilo or others at his Calabasas company, according to people familiar with both the prosecution and the defense teams, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
"Sometimes the public thinks all you have to do is to indict someone and that's it," one of the federal sources said. "But you have to be able to prove your case, and it can be worse losing a case than not bringing one at all."
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Campaign Obama on Countrywide and Mozilo...
Obama talks about Countrywide.
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Further reading...
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Jul 24, 2011 at 6:34 PM
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