Hi. I'm Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide. I duped homedebtors into signing up for toxic loans and then I dumped hundreds of millions in CFC stock.

Any questions? Good. Oh, I also had my company buy back stock with shareholder money to prop up the price as I dumped it. Any questions? Good. Oh, I also laid off thousands of Countrywide employees as I was enriching myself. Any questions? Good.

(note - just like Angelo I'm still short CFC)

Some executives might be tempted to establish plans to sell stock when they anticipate the stock price might fall in a coming quarter, perhaps because a big customer has warned it intends to renegotiate a contract. And erratic trading also looks suspicious, even though that could occur because the stock misses a target price for months at a time.

But the suspicions are especially keen, the panelists said, when executives modify, suspend or terminate their plans. For example, a pension is suing Countrywide Financial after CEO Angelo Mozilo sold more than $50 million of stock through a 10b5-1 plan he had modified about the time when regulators were scrutinizing subprime loans.

"I think it's dangerous to terminate or modify a plan," said Alan Dye, a partner with Hogan & Hartson in Washington D.C.

"It's better to just go ahead and live with the plan."

Countrywide Mortgage Death Pool - Anyone want to guess how many billions of losses CFC will pre-announce next week (after Angelo dumps more shares)?

How big will the write-down be?
When will it be announced?

Note - Orangelo Mozilo is going to be dumping more shares on the open market this week. So look for the horrific news to be delayed until week after next. And note - similar to Angelo, I'm short on CFC stock - but via Oct puts.

Countrywide's Mozilo Selling More Stock

Countrywide Chairman and CEO Angelo Mozilo will unload an unspecified number of his struggling company's shares next week as part of a pre-arranged trading plan.


Countrywide, the nation's largest lender, has been slammed as a spike in defaults of subprime mortgages left investors scared of buying its loans on the secondary market. Its stock has been cut by more than half since reaching a 52-week high of $45.26 in late January.