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
Reader Comments (52)
http://dailybail.com/home/bailout-revenge-florida-ag-suing-angelo-mozilo-for-fraud-vid.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_countrywide_mozilo
coverage from the AP...
He asks: "What's wrong with this picture?" Three months later, bailout comedy ensues. It's a good question.
And money can buy you the best justice on this planet. So did you really expect a different outcome?
Mozilo (tan man) suit could have paid my bills for the entire year. So you can imagine the money spent on a defense.
Besides, he's got a big chip in the game. He's got information that could be damaging if he were to use it.
But it seems its just a negotiation process. I keep quiet and you ensure that I get cleared.
If he knows too much, I wouldn't be surprised to see him in a coma like Mubarak, or faux his death like Ken Lay.
We really know nothing about what really goes on in the world. Watch the Truman Story by Jim Carrey. That's the best explanation of how we are kept in the dark. I wouldn't be surprised if the movie was produced with the intent to subliminally explain to us what our situation really is. Movies work that way...ya know.
Face it....most Americans don't have a clue nor do they care. Just visit a mall on any weekend and look at where (and for what) money is being spent. I went to the mall today to get my wifes glasses fixed. The largest crowds were at Build-A-Bear and a saloon that shapes your eyebrows using fishing line (?). America's a circus....get used to it.
...DB-
I hear ya. Still waiting for the orange/striped one-piece suits on ANYONE (Madoff/Stanford are different animals)...
Months ago, I wrote a college buddy who works at WSJ (jon hilsenrath), and covers The Fed mostly, but also other aspects of the financial crisis: Where are the civil and criminal proceedings? Where are DOJ and the SEC? WTF is going on here? Why aren't you guys (Greta M at NYT is starting to ask Qs) covering the lack of enforcement? This is a joke. Response: nothing is happening and probably nothing of substance will. Why? $$$ and the revolving door of Wall St and government. Nobody wants to start the shit storm--apathy, complacency (I've got mine $$, let somebody else do it), conflicts abound...
...makes you sick, doesn't it?
...
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/02/angelo-agent-orange-mozilo-off-the-hook-for-now/
First Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, then Cassano, now Mozilo...DOJ must have a bunch of lightweight lawyers. Does Eric Holder wear panties?..."it can be worse losing a case than not bringing one at all..." Huh?
To the State AGs. Bring somethin' against these crooks...
Absolutely Ill !! The only thing that nauseates me more is the bullshit the MSM is pushing as news while they ignore the crimes of the corporate elite and government.
What the hell happened to the Rule of Law in this country? I guess if you can keep serious crimes covered up long enough and bury the truth under a mountain of lies they go away and never happened.
Best to be moving on.
@ Cheyenne.... I meant are 'you' a lawyer? guess my oversight needs oversight. (grin)
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/MortgageFra
UK Uncut mounts direct action against 50 branches as Barclays admits it paid 1% corporation tax in 2009
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/02/19-0
Comment: didn't I post something recently about Barclays using a loophole here?
oh... here it is.....
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657704576150443241518166.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Let me ask you. Would you watch a movie illustrating the perils of moral hazard (e.g., bailouts) if the first two minutes of this song showed up early on?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjy9hJb-CDk
Me too.
“Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons and gendarmes at the service of the plunderers, and treats the victim - when he defends himself - as a criminal.”
Frederic Bastiat
Third time in my life I have witnessed all this.
I am truly fed up.
http://www.wsbtv.com/video/25764282/index.html
("Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.")
Cheyenne and Gomp, I also am truly fed up and I think it's time to reform, alter, and totally change what has become a pathetic excuse for a Democratic Government. Our protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness absolutely require it.
How does it get done?
2nd time was the S&L scandal which was the biggest scandal in the financial market till this one.
First was Reagan's war on the American farmer and the legitimized high jacking of hard working men and women's lives.
Congratulate yourself for at least seeing there is a problem, many have not made it that far (look at Gobie, it is all Obama's fault).
http://www.cyberclass.net/genocide.htm
http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id395.htm
Many more atrocities were committed in this time.
I lived through them all, in the S&L scandal it took me 6 months to get back my legal assets as the S&L had declared me dead. Nothing ever changes, just the degree of finesse in executing the frauds. And of course the grandness of the rewards...
One thing that would bring the government to heel: homeowners stop paying their mortgages en masse.
The banks have defrauded the courts and wrongfully evicted homeowners where the banks simply do not have the promissory note and thus lacked the legal right to foreclose. The banks have taken advantage of under-funded defendants and over-worked courts to ramrod their fraud through.
For far too long, the banks have wrongfully enjoyed the legal presumption that their foreclosure actions are proper. By not making your mortgage payment after requesting to see your promissory note, that presumption gets reversed: now it is the bank that must first produce the promissory note or face dismissal. Possession of the PN becomes the front-and-center issue--exactly where the banks are weakest.
When you think about the (number of months it'll take to sort out such a mass mess in court) times the (number of mortgage missed mortgage payments) times the (number of potential mortgage challenge) times the (average mortgage payment), you'll see that such an act of defiance would do to the many-times-over failed banks what the American people wanted done in the first place.
Two years ago, I would've said something like that was impossible. Now I don't know. People from the biggest cities to the most rural farms are steadily waking up to the scam, and many of the ones I talk to are knee-walking pissed off. And unlike two years ago, they know the government regularly lies through its teeth when it says, for example, there is no inflation. No one believes the unemployment data either.
If the U.S. isn't exactly yet a tinderbox waiting for a flame, it's certainly headed in the right direction. That's the trouble with printing all this money. You just don't know where or how it's going to rear its head next.
I don't remember the Reagan-farmer episode at all, probably due to my age.
I do recall the S&L crisis, and remember people going to jail. I'm surprised now, in retrospect, that so many (nearly 4000) paid for their crimes that way.
So I'll stipulate that crimes were committed in each prior case. Wouldn't you agree that the 2007-present financial crisis dwarfs, in real money terms, both of the prior episodes combined? I mean damn near the entire GDP of the U.S. was stolen. Now divide that magnitude by the number of prosecutions that have put people in jail.
I get #DIV/0! on my spreadsheet.
To me that reveals a government at war with its people.
And on our southern border you have the fans being flamed by Los Zetas with the combined goal of drug profits and the reconquest of Aztlan. Los Zetas received their training at Fort Benning Georgia.before defecting to the cartels. In the last ten years there has been unprecedented immigration from Countries that fundamentally hate us and protections put in place to further harbor their illegal activities like Sanctuary City Ordinances, etc. as in the case of Chicago where you are from.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_city
Coincidence? Hmmmmmmmm.
But you will not convince anyone of any of this, hell, Gobie even proudly boasted of them putting the roof on his house. We are looking at a globally architected destabilization getting ready to play out. Create the "problem" to make your "solution" more palatable to the masses.
Two choices, will it be global peace and freedom, or global slavery? your call.
"josie...i'm going to post a line from your commentary..."
Post away...
http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/2011/02/20/judges-accused-of-predetermining-foreclosure-cases-lvrj/
[snip]
A lawyer accuses District Judge Donald Mosley and other judges of “predetermining” the outcome in foreclosure disputes in favor of the lenders, according to an appeal filed with the Nevada Supreme Court.
flashback from 2 days ago:
http://www.pressherald.com/news/in-foreclosure-suit-two-counts-against-gmac-thrown-out-_2011-02-18.html
That stopforeclosure blog piece shows promise, strongly suggesting that the appellant to the NV Supreme Court has filed a brief naming names. Is there any way you can provide a link to the appeal brief? Alternatively, if you give me a docket no., eg., 10-CV-0546 and a party name (e.g., Smith or Deutsche) I can probably get it from PACER.
http://ftp.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/827/827.F2d.480.86-2182.html
http://media.lasvegassun.com/media/pdfs/blogs/documents/2010/10/11/Mosley_Recusal_Request.100810.pdf
That's a 1989 case from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (pre-Kozinski, I believe). What I'm looking for isn't a case, it's a brief to the NV Supreme Court. If that blog entry is right, it should've been filed quite recently.
What caught my nose was the suggestion that an attorney is calling out judges before whom he practices. That's a huge fucking no-no unless your evidence is absolutely rock solid or you are truly desperate.
So don't worry about it, john. If it is what it looks like, I'll be running into it via other channels soon enough. If not, I probably don't care.
Jesus H. Christ. That second link is unbelievable. That attorney is kicking the shit out of a judge in public, suggesting that a good part of the bar is behind him, adumbrating that there is collusion on the High Nevada Bench, and requesting recusal. In short, he has declared war on this judge and indeed the system itself.
That's the most incredible fucking letter I've ever read from a member of the bar to his court, by far.
P.S. Note that the lawyer here is licensed before the U.S. PTO. Chances are he's got a background in science or engineering.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/judges-accused-of-predetermining-foreclosure-cases-116525958.html?mobile=y
Apparently no word yet on any outcome on Hafter's two motions for recusal. Hafter threw down the gauntlet in October 2010. That's a LONG time ago for a recusal motion.
http://www.utexas.edu/law/journals/tlr/assets/archive/v83/issue2/miller.pdf
http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/JudicialMisconduct.aspx
[snip]
Judicial Misconduct Rules
Congress has created a procedure that permits any person to file a complaint in the courts about the behavior of federal judges—but not about the decisions federal judges make in deciding cases. Below is a link to the rules that explain what may be complained about, who may be complained about, where to file a complaint, and how the complaint will be processed.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703822404575019370305029334.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
[snip]
More states are responding to a longstanding concern that elected judges risk the appearance of bias when they hear cases involving their campaign contributors. But recent examples from Wisconsin and Nevada show that some states are reluctant to force judges to disqualify themselves from cases solely because they have received large contributions.
Don't worry about elected judges, the eggheads be... eggheads.
Worry far more about bias in an Article III jurist. They (approx. 750) are our last branch. So far they've been solid, but keep your eyes open.
http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/2011/02/21/no-excuse-why-mers-shouldve-been-stopped-long-time-ago/
This has known cases of the issues plaguing MERS since 2004. Same players different dates.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/02/6_of_the_biggest_mortgage_lend.html
[snip]
State attorneys general around the country have increased pressure on lenders over the past year, but New Jersey is believed to be the first state whose Supreme Court has stepped into the fray so boldly.
Too boldly, according to the banks' court filings. With the court hearing looming next month, the banks say they'd already begun remedial action months before New Jersey's court order and that suspending their operations would damage already shaky housing markets and lead to further deterioration of hard-hit neighborhoods.
http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/2011/02/22/o%e2%80%99brien-calls-on-mers-to-come-clean-and-pay-up-says-essex-county-owed-22-million-dollars/
Essex County Registrar of Deeds says taxpayers have been defrauded out of 22 million.
http://democraticactionteam.org/redstatesocialism/index.html