Angelo Mozilo

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Prosecutors are at least several months away from deciding whether to bring a criminal case against Countrywide Financial Corp founder Angelo Mozilo, the home loan entrepreneur expected to be hit soon by regulators with civil charges of insider trading. Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have been examining Mozilo's activities for more than a year but have yet to find proof he intended to defraud investors through his trading activities, two people familiar with the probe said. The people were granted anonymity because the probe is not public. "They are not close (to an indictment)," one source said. That does not ... Read Full Story

NEW YORK (Reuters) - John P. McMurray made it clear to his Countrywide Financial Corp bosses that they were playing a dangerous game with risk. But they didn't listen. Even so, he is being called a hero. Warnings from McMurray are cited often in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against Countrywide's co-founder Angelo Mozilo and two lieutenants. McMurray was chief risk officer of the lender that became a symbol of some of the worst excesses of the subprime mortgage crisis. Mozilo, now the most prominent defendant in investigations into the U.S. housing bust and subsequent financial crisis, was charged ... Read Full Story

NEW YORK (Reuters) - John P. McMurray made it clear to his Countrywide Financial Corp bosses that they were playing a dangerous game with risk. But they didn't listen. Even so, he is being called a hero. Warnings from McMurray are cited often in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against Countrywide's co-founder Angelo Mozilo and two lieutenants. McMurray was chief risk officer of the lender that became a symbol of some of the worst excesses of the subprime mortgage crisis. Mozilo, now the most prominent defendant in investigations into the U.S. housing bust and subsequent financial crisis, was charged ... Read Full Story

News from Los Angeles that a federal judge has refused to dismiss civil fraud charges against Angelo Mozilo, the former CEO of Countrywide Financial Corp., and two of his associates means that regulators are still pursuing the fabulously wealthy wheeler-dealers whose recklessness helped cause the collapse of world financial markets and sparked a global recession. Of course, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed only civil charges against Mozilo and fellow top Countrywide officers David Sambol and Eric Sieracki, so any penalties assessed against them, assuming they're found guilty, will be financial. Hopefully, criminal charges against scores of financial roughriders responsible for the massive ... Read Full Story

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Countrywide Financial Corp co-founder Angelo Mozilo and two other former executives at the once-largest U.S. mortgage lender were sued by U.S. stock regulators on Thursday, a Securities and Exchange Commission official said. The civil lawsuit also names former Countrywide President David Sambol and former Chief Financial Officer Eric Sieracki, the official said. The SEC was expected to disclose details of the case at a news conference on Thursday. The case is expected to include insider trading claims against Mozilo and accusations that Sambol and Sieracki failed to disclose risks to investors in securities filings, a second person familiar with the ... Read Full Story