HOUSE TESTIMONY: Rebecca Mairone, who ran Countrywide’s mortgage unit, now works in home lending at JPMorgan. (
)
This is the face that launched thousands of foreclosures, according to the feds, and billions in losses for Bank of America, but she still works on Wall Street.
Rebecca Mairone put the “Hustle” into motion as chief operating officer at Countrywide Financial’s lending unit that rammed faulty home mortgages through the underwriters in order to boost Angelo Mozilo’s mortgage-mill revenue, according to a $1 billion suit filed by US Attorney Preet Bharara.
“Hustle” was the internal name for the program that cranked out the toxic mortgages.
Mairone, along with Greg Lumsden, president of the lending division, were the only two individuals cited in the civil suit against Bank of America, which bought the troubled Countrywide in 2008.
According to Mairone’s social-media profile, she is currently an executive managing director with JPMorgan Chase in its home-lending unit here in New York, but her title could not be confirmed by JPMorgan, which had no comment on the BofA lawsuit.
The government’s suit marks the first time the Justice Department has civilly sued a bank on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in order to recoup lost taxpayer money.
This latest lawsuit brings BofA’s total exposure to mortgage-related litigation to $31 billion, much of that due to Countrywide’s rotten loans.
Bharara’s suit claims that Mairone was warned by other execs “that the Hustle would generate excessive quantities of fraudulent or otherwise seriously defective loans.”
After other execs reviewed these loans, they “confirmed that, as predicted, the quality of the loans originated under Hustle were exceptionally poor.”
Lumsden appears to be a mortgage-banking consultant, according to his LinkedIn profile, and runs a program for young golfers.
Neither Mairone or Lumsden have been charged personally.