Whoa. It’s looking like Sen. Chris Dodd’s involvement with a sub prime-lending company warrants far more than a mere Senate Ethics Committee look-see.
Or so suggests closed-door committee testimony from a fomer executive of the firm in question.
Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota both got sweetheart mortgage deals a few years back from Angelo Mozilo, CEO of subprime-mortgage giant Countrywide Financial.
Both senators have long claimed that they were unaware that, as so-called “Friends of Angelo,” they got preferential terms.
But former Countrywide exec Robert Feinberg says otherwise.
In secret testimony last month, he said both men were told at the time, “Who you know is basically how you’re coming in here.” Asked if Dodd was told explicitly about getting “special VIP treatment,” Feinberg replied, “Yes, yes.”
As part of its VIP treatment for Dodd, Countrywide allegedly counted both of his homes in Connecticut and Washington as primary owner-occupied — enabling it to give him two cut-rate mortgages of nearly $800,000.
One assumes Dodd isn’t exactly stupid.
Once hearing about the “VIP” treatment, how could he not have just walked away? (As he says he would have.)
Clearly, the price of poker has gone up here — dramatically.
A former Countrywide exec has testified that two senators were warned in advance that they were being proffered preferential treatment by a firm they regulated.
The Justice Department needs to assign a US attorney to open a probe of its own into the matter.
A criminal probe.
The rancid air needs to be cleared.