FRIENDS OF CHRIS

NY Post ^ | June 8, 2009 | Editorial

[Scanian]

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) seems to at tract friends who, in turn, attract scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Thursday, the SEC hit subprime-mortgage giant Countrywide Financial's ex-CEO Angelo Mozilo with a fraud suit for allegedly deceiving investors on the true condition of the company. He was also charged with insider trading.

In 2003, Dodd's role on the Banking Committee got him dubbed a "Friend of Angelo" by Countrywide -- and thus eligible for two sweetheart $800,000 loans.

The Senate Ethics Committee is -- at a glacial pace -- investigating the circumstances behind Dodd's Countrywide-refinanced mortgages.

But Mozilo isn't the first Dodd pal to run afoul of the SEC -- or to be connected to an overly favorable real-estate transaction with the senator.

In 2001, Dodd convinced President Bill Clinton -- just prior to his leaving office -- to pardon businessman Edward Downe, who had pled guilty to insider trading seven years before.

Around the same time as Downe's 1994 conviction, his business partner, William Kessinger, purchased a vacation cottage in Ireland with Dodd.

A year after Downe's presidential pardon, Kessinger sold his share of the cottage to Dodd -- at a mere fraction of its appraised value.

[Liz]

HOW DODD'S DEAL MIGHT HAVE GONE DOWN For nearly a year and a half, Countrywide failed (or declined) to secure its interest in Dodd's home by taking the ordinary and essential step of presenting the documents to the local town clerk and recording them in the land records. The escrow company that handles the transaction always does that once the monies are wired.

JUST WONDERING Why would someone instruct the escrow company not to record the Deed? Actually on a refi, the deed would be in Dodd's name and the recording would be a lien by Country Wide. (A) Was the mortgage non-existent? (B) Were wired monies a payoff "laundered" as a mortgage? (C) Were the monies diverted-----maybe wired to a Conn casino account?

RECAP The escrow company that handles mortgage transactions always records the deed once the monies are wired. Why would someone instruct the escrow company not to record the Deed? Was the mortgage perhaps non-existent? Were wired monies a payoff "laundered" as a mortgage? Wired monies could be a smoking gun. Were the monies diverted-----maybe wired to a Conn casino account?

NEED TO KNOW Dodd (and his wife and family) are probably enrolled in high-roller comp programs at Conn casinos (and/or in other gambling venues). These programs show every nickel high rollers bet---including wins on which high rollers may not have paid taxes.

Casinos are very tightly regulated. They are more than happy to cooperate with authorities---to protect their licenses. Casinos would also have records on the amount of untraceable casino chips Dodd (his wife and his family) received-----maybe gifts from his pal Angelo.

Authorities should also inquire if Dodd wire-transferred--- or if Angelo and other sub-prime lenders--- wire-transferred monies into Dodd's casino account........and if taxes were paid on these monies.

CONTACTS: Connecticut Division of Special Revenue (Gaming Control Board)
WEB SITE http://74.125.95.104/search?q=cache:EPdMRVRy8g8J:www.ct.gov/dosr/

Mailing Addresses:

Division of Special Revenue (casino control)
555 Russell Rd.
Newington 06111-1523

Division of Special Revenue (casino control)
P.O. Box 310424
Newington CT 06131-0424

Another possibility: Dodd, his family, and Angelo, may have used NETeller Plc to illegally convert monies that were then transferred offshore---to overseas gambling companies, for their personal use later. NETeller is an Isle of Man-based payment processor for gambling Web sites (suspected of having operations in the US Virgin Islands---a notorious money-laundering bank haven).

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Both Dodd and Mozilo should be breaking rocks at Levenworth.

[Man50D]

http://www.dumpchrisdodd.com/