Posted on 08/06/2009 9:30:17 PM PDT by FromLori
A powerful House Democrat who has turned down a Republican's call to subpoena records of a mortgage program at Countrywide Financial Corp. received two home loans from the lender.
Some information in the lawmaker's mortgage documents raises the possibility they were made through the program, which provided loans to public figures and other favored borrowers often at lower interest rates or with lower origination fees than were available to the general public.
The loans were made to Rep. Edolphus Towns of New York, who heads the House Oversight and Government Reform committee. The panel's ranking Republican, California Rep. Darrell Issa, has been pushing to have the committee subpoena mortgage records showing who received loans through Countrywide's VIP program -- operated under former Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo and known within the company as "Friends of Angelo."
Rep. Edolphus Towns at a House panel hearing in May. The mortgage documents on the loans to Mr. Towns contain a Countrywide address and branch number that correspond to the VIP program.
A spokesman for Bank of America Corp., which last year purchased Countrywide after the mortgage lender suffered severe financial problems with the downturn in the real-estate market, said the bank couldn't comment on dealings with individual customers. Mr. Mozilo couldn't be reached for comment.
Mr. Issa said that based on his staff's investigation, he believes the names of many VIP loan recipients aren't publicly available. But Mr. Towns has turned down the Republican request to subpoena the records from Bank of America.
Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Towns said there were other government investigations of Countrywide under way, including a Justice Department criminal probe. The Senate Ethics committee is also investigating because two Democratic senators, Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Kent Conrad of North Dakota, received loans through the VIP program.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Rep. Issa is not backing down. We need more Repubs like him, Sarah, Michelle Bachmann, Tom Coburn, DeMint, etc.
New York?
Well then, I'm sure that the NYT will do a front page splash on this, followed by a thorough investigation of this apparent corruption.
.
I really like Rep. Issa I agree
Another NY Democrat crook.
Time for a major perp walk.
Most ethical Congress ever.
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