"People Say You're On A Witch Hunt Congressman, I Say More Power To You": Countrywide VIP Subpoenas
Where are the Wall Street handcuffs.
Video - Ratigan with Darrell Issa, Chairman of House Oversight, discussing his first committee subpoena: Countrywide's VIP loan program for friends of CEO Angelo Mozilo - Feb. 17, 2011
Full story from the Washington Post inside. According to Issa, besides Senators Chris Dodd, Kent Conrad and likely others still unnamed, more than 150 fannie, freddie employees got sweetheart loans.
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New subpoena seeks records on sweetheart loans
WASHINGTON -- A House committee chairman renewed efforts Wednesday to obtain names of current and former federal, state and local policymakers - including congressional colleagues - who received sweetheart mortgage deals from the former Countrywide Financial Corp.
The subpoena by Rep. Darrell Issa of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee makes it more likely that the records could be made public.
A subpoena in 2009, when Democrats controlled the committee, specified that information on discounted loans to members of Congress and their spouses go only to the House Ethics Committee - with all names deleted. The ethics committee has never revealed the information it obtained.
Issa did not favor the restrictions but agreed to them as a compromise so that the committee's former chairman, Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., would issue the subpoena.
"Countrywide orchestrated a deliberate and calculated effort to use relationships with people in high places in order to manipulate public policy and further their bottom line to the detriment of the American taxpayers even at the expense of its own lending standards," said Issa.
"This subpoena will allow us to obtain the information needed to answer the outstanding public interest questions regarding the full size and scope of the VIP program," he said. "The American people have a right to know the totality of who participated in the Countrywide's VIP program and what they did in return for access to it."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/16/AR2011021604808.html
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Feb 22, 2011 at 12:24 AM
Reader Comments (17)
"Countrywide orchestrated a deliberate and calculated effort to use relationships with people in high places in order to manipulate public policy and further their bottom line to the detriment of the American taxpayers even at the expense of its own lending standards," said Issa.
"This subpoena will allow us to obtain the information needed to answer the outstanding public interest questions regarding the full size and scope of the VIP program," he said. "The American people have a right to know the totality of who participated in the Countrywide's VIP program and what they did in return for access to it."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/16/AR2011021604808.html
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/02/for-us-more-at-stake-in-bahrain-than.html
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/166231.html
http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFLDE71J0PP20110220?sp=true
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AF_LIBYA_PROTESTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-02-20-18-31-25
The Louisiana Secretary of State reported on its website Saturday night that Perry received 52 percent of the vote to 48 percent for Granger, with all 106 precincts reporting. Election officials said the results still must be certified and they can be contested until Feb. 28.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/02/20/gop-candidate-wins-lousiana-senate-special-election-shifting-majority/#ixzz1EZ8M6PrI
Where did you live, what did you care about last decades ?
Ah, you earned lots of Dollars, everything was easy, fine and prosperous!!
Sorry, you are late!
ALL FAKE and FRAUD.
The American Dream had become turned off by the system.
All you still see on TV is an afterglow - will soon disapear.
BTW, these things run all around the globe - you are not alone.
Most of what they did and do was legitim - who worried about in fat times ?
Barack Hussein Messiah Obama : CHANGE - YES WE CAN. Most of the world, not only americans fell in extacy.
Voila, here it comes - CHANGE.
I know i'm a bit off-topic. But it's all that absurd.
Some brave US attorney must bring a case. Haul one or some of these crooks into Federal Court and see what these guys "have under their fingernails"...there was no criminal fraud anywhere? Most of the players are fiduciaries to somebody, which opens them to breach of their duties at the least, right?
And where is Treasury and The Fed here? Don't they have warehouses of info re: what happened before and during the bailouts? Don't they have an obligation to report to DOJ re: irregularities. Is there any cooperation between the agencies here? Do the the right hand know what the left is doing? WTF!!??
It's not that they are incompetent, they knew all along what is taking place. They aren't stupid, look at history of how they got into power, look at who they represent, the history goes back a long ways all the way to Europe....
I always tell the people that there are two possibilities:
1) They don't know what they are doing
2) They know what they are doing and have a different agenda
Looking at history I have to come to the conclusion that they are all but clueless....
Jesse
http://www.wtffinance.com
I will not dispute that the DOJ and SEC have some folks who are not stupid. But, stupid and incompetent (and/or cowardice) are not the same. One word: Madoff. According to Markopolous, the SEC lawyers just did not understand finance and the financial modeling, which proved Madoff was a ponzi scheme...if, of course, Markopolous is wrong and the SEC lawyers knew, but did nothing due to their own "agenda," then the SEC (and maybe DOJ) needs to be burned and rebuilt...
I think you assume that the agenda is to protect the public. I see Government as a legalized mob and the various entities are there for the benefit of the industries that lobbied or paid for them to be there to begin with. I don't see the SEC, FDA, etc. to be there to protect me, I see them as a entity that eliminates the competition of many companies that benefit from their presence. And they have done a great job at marketing to the point where people blindly trust a product or service because of the government's stamp of approval.
"needs to be burned and rebuilt..."
I agree and personally think that 99% of all government agencies need to be eliminated. People that even consider that those agencies need to be "rebuilt" obviously haven't learned the lessons of greed yet. Rebuilding them will just lead to more of the same.
People need to learn that Government is not the answer but the problem.
Cannot argue with that...Enjoy:
http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202482672629&Did_the_SEC_Drop_the_Ball_in_Backdating_Fraud_Probe_of_a_Former_General_Counsel=&src=EMC-Email&et=editorial&bu=Corporate%20Counsel&pt=Corporate%20Counsel%20Daily%20Alerts&cn=cc20110222&kw=Whoops%21%20Did%20the%20SEC%20Drop%20the%20Ball%20in%20Backdating%20Fraud%20Probe%20of%20Ex-GC%3F
More SEC nonsense brought to you by the people who run the SEC...
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2011/02/22/2011-02-22_irving_picard_cites_family_ties_to_bernie_madoff_for_securities_and_exchange_com.html
http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202482672629&Did_the_SEC_Drop_the_Ball_in_Backdating_Fraud_Probe_of_a_Former_General_Counsel=&src=EMC-Email&et=editorial&bu=Corporate%20Counsel&pt=Corporate%20Counsel%20Daily%20Alerts&cn=cc20110222&kw=Whoops%21%20Did%20the%20SEC%20Drop%20the%20Ball%20in%20Backdating%20Fraud%20Probe%20of%20Ex-GC%3F
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Now compare that to Brocade CEO greg reyes who served in prison for the same transgression...