I’m surprised there was an obligation to repay.
Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty
bttt
Sue - PRAHZE, sue - PRAHZE, sue - PRAHZE!!!
- Gomer Pyle
Why is he not in jail ?
Mr. Feinberg’s department was charged with making sure those who could influence Fannie and Freddie’s appetite for risk were sufficiently buttered up. As a Banking Committee bigshot, Mr. Dodd was perfectly placed to be buttered.
******
As to Mr. Dodd, Mr. Feinberg says he spoke to the Senator once or twice and mostly to his wife and that like other FOAs Mr. Dodd got “a float down,” which means that even after he had a preferred rate, when the prevailing rate dropped just before the closing, his rate was reduced again. Regular borrowers would pay extra for a last-minute adjustment, but not FOAs. “They were aware of it because they were notified and when they went to the closing they would see it,” Mr. Feinberg says, adding that he “always let people in the program know that they were getting a very good deal because they were ‘Friends of Angelo.’” All of this matters because Mr. Dodd was one of those encouraging Fan and Fred to plunge into “affordable housing” loans made by companies like Countrywide.
Just another democrat pig at the trough. Nothing to see here.
And while Dodd has recently said that he was unaware of any special treatment, Feinberg told Congressional investigators that Dodd (as well as North Dakota’s Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad) was told “who you know is basically how you’re coming in here.”
The House committee staff report concludes, “Senior Countrywide officials and lobbyists openly and explicitly weighed the value of relationships with potentially influential borrowers against the cost to Countrywide in terms of forfeited fees and payments.” To put a finer point on it, the report shows an e-mail from a Countrywide Managing Director who says, “I’m usually in favor of settling on the side of the borrower with political influence.”
Bank of America has said that the bank has relevant Countrywide VIP documents and is ready to provide them to a Congressional committee if the committee will simply subpoena them. However, both House and Senate Democrats have so far refused to issue the subpoena.
Kurt Bardella, spokesman for Representative Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, offered HUMAN EVENTS these thoughts:
“We’ve been working for more than a year on this investigation. It’s not about one particular lawmaker or targeting lawmakers. It’s about uncovering a scheme which targeted lawmakers for the purposes of affecting public policy. The guilt or innocence of Senators Dodd or Conrad is not for us to say, and it’s not the focus of our investigation. You would think, however, knowing these documents do exist, that they would be among the first to want them to be released so that they can clear their names. We have at our disposal the ability to uncover the full scope of this program. For reasons I cannot explain, Democratic leaders in Congress refuse to get the proof that can answer all these questions — proof which is literally one subpoena away.”
Dodd’s dalliances with Countrywide were not his first stroke of good luck in real estate. In 1994, he also got a sweetheart deal buying an Irish cottage from Edward Downe, Jr., a friend of Dodd’s who had pled guilty to felony securities fraud and insider trading charges. Dodd’s cottage more than tripled in value in a few years. But Downe was probably not too upset about not owning such a rapidly appreciating asset because in 2001 Dodd bypassed the usual Justice Department procedures, going directly to then-President Bill Clinton, who, on his last day in office, gave Downe a full pardon.
As if these two examples weren’t enough to prove Dodd’s lack of fitness for his job, we also have his involvement in putting protection for the infamous AIG bonus payments in an amendment to the so-called “stimulus bill.”
On a Tuesday in March, as the Chicago Tribune noted, “Dodd had said he was not a member of the conference committee that crafted the compromise bill and said the exception had not been in the bill as he drafted it. But late Wednesday, Dodd admitted he had been involved in the change.” The bonuses, which included $165 million to the financial products unit which was primarily responsible for the company’s collapse, may have been protected by law in any case. But Dodd’s actions ensured they would be paid — with taxpayer money.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=33003
He’s a democrat. Corruption is a resume enhancer. He’ll rise rapidly within the ranks of the democrat party.
Good grief. Dodd and Barney Frank were trading influence at every turn.
Senate ethics panel takes new look at Countrywide loans
By Susan Crabtree - 08/12/10 06:00 AM ET
The Senate Ethics Committee is re-examining the participation of senators and staffers in a controversial VIP mortgage-lending program at Countrywide Financial Corp, according to a source familiar with the panel’s activities.
If new information is discovered about Dodd’s and Conrad’s loans, any potential ethics committee investigation would encompass the new material and also could ensnare other senators’ offices. Besides the loans listing Bennett’s office as their employer, 18 others identified “U.S. Senators” or “U.S. Senate” as their place of employment,according to Issa’s letter to the ethics committee.
“The pervasiveness of discounted loans and preferential treatment for Senate employees sheds new light on the purpose and policies of Countrywide’s VIP program,” Issa wrote. “Furthermore, a high concentration of VIP borrowers in specific Senate offices is prima facie evidence that Countrywide strategically targeted Members positioned to help the company during a critical period.”
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/113849-senate-ethics-panel-takes-new-look-at-countrywide-
Dodd’s a scumbag. Back in early seventies, he was involved in an accident with my then teenage gf. They exchanged info. When she called Dodd to tell him extent of damage, he denied knowing anything about an accident. Only when my gf said she had a witness, which she did, did he come clean.
Showed his true character.
He’s one of those that comes to mind when I read Vince Flynn’s “Term Limits”.
State Media covering the Senators back side!
Wow!
it only took them 3 years to count to 6
A BIG part of Nazi Pelizi’s most ethical Congress in history.