FLASH: Angelo Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide Toxic Mortgage, under SEC investigation for insider stock trading

Finally.

One step closer to jail for The Orange One.

One step closer to Enron and Worldcom for Countrywide.

My only question is - what took so long? This guy pumped up his earnings and stock by putting homedebtors into higher-commission toxic loans when they could have qualified for standard mortgages, then he had Countrywide do stock buybacks when he was dumping shares as fast as he could based on inside knowledge of their impending collapse.

Angelo Mozilo is a liar, a conman, a thief and the physical representation of unregulated greed run amok during the housing bubble and crash.

(yup, still short CFC via Oct puts)

SEC Probes Countrywide CEO's Stock Sales

SEC Reportedly Examining the Stock Sales of Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo R. Mozilo

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Securities and Exchange Commission is examining stock sales of the chief executive of Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest mortgage lender, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The informal SEC inquiry of stock sales by CEO Angelo R. Mozilo has been under way for a while, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the probe has not been made public.

State Treasurer Richard Moore, the trustee of a pension fund that holds about 500,000 shares of Countrywide stock worth about $8.6 million, said in a letter to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox that he was "shocked" to learn that Mozilo "apparently manipulated his trading plans to cash in" as the crisis involving high-risk mortgages was heating up.

"As one of many investors who have felt the painful losses in Countrywide stock, I am outraged at his manipulation of the system and this abuse of shareholders," wrote Moore, a Democrat who is running for governor. "The timing of these sales and the changes to the trading plans raise serious questions about whether this is mere coincidence."

Word of the SEC's inquiry "is good news for investors and sends a clear message that the questions raised are serious," Moore said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday.

Here's Countrywide Mortgage's Angelo Mozilo trying to defend why he sold $118 million in CFC stock before his company crashed

It's funny reading this on the same day that Qwest's former CEO Joe Nacchio was sentenced to six years in Federal prison and $52 million for insider trading and pumping up his numbers while he bailed out. Deja vu all over again? Hey, nobody saw it coming, right Angelo?

And for a CEO to be desperately selling as the company he runs is doing stock buybacks to prop up the price, man, that stinks to high heaven.

Ronald Redfield - Redfield, Blonsky & Co.: Were there any buybacks during the quarter? Do you find, Angelo, with all respect, you selling a material amount of shares into buybacks? You previously mentioned you own 10 million shares. How many shares do you currently own, not including options?

Angelo Mozilo: I don't know the answer to that question. I own -- including options, I think around -- I think it is around 11, 12 million, something like that. The sales of the stock had nothing to do with buybacks because that 10b5-1 agreement was made well over a year ago.

Ronald Redfield - Redfield, Blonsky & Co.: No, the legality is fine, but one can think that perhaps the price is being held up the buybacks creating a demand.

Angelo Mozilo: Yes, well, if you think like that it's -- I don't think like that. The buybacks were done because we thought it was in the best interest of shareholders. I have -- as somebody pointed out, I'm 68 years old, I own a lot of shares, and I have 10b5-1 that is in process right now. That is selling into this market when the buybacks are not holding it up.

So it is an independent issue that is not relevant to buybacks or not buybacks. It is a personal situation that I'm selling into a market no matter where the price of the stock is.

Angelo Mozilo: Okay, some final comments. One to the individual who asked about my sale of stock. The decision to buy back stock is a collective decision, really emanates from the financial operations of the Company as to what is the best return for the investment of the shareholders, invested capital for the shareholders. So it is totally unrelated to any of my issues relative to the sale of stock.

Secondly, as I said, I don't know the exact amount of shares that I have. But the shares that I have, actual stock I have, I have retained for 39 and a half years. Not sold a share of the initial stock that I got when Dave and I started this Company that I got, that I purchased.
The only thing that is being sold under the 10b5-1 are options with expiration dates.

Alt-A / "Liar's Loan" mortgage king IndyMac's newest spin - "It's all good - we suck only just as bad as Countrywide"!!!

I think this would be like WorldCom saying that everything was OK because Enron was in a similar boat. Or buggy whip Company A saying all would be fine because they were tracking nicely against buggy whip Company B.

These guys really are amazing.

Yes, I'm short IndyMac via put options. I figure one day this company will have to stop with the spin and report the truth - but my guess is that it'll be the public auditors or Feds who come clean first, not IndyMac, their CEO or their PR flak Grove Nichols. What they don't mention in this posting are three very very important words, the 800 pound guerrilla in the room:

MARK TO MARKET

Here's just some of IndyMac's latest spin:

Update on Delinquencies in Our Mortgage Loan Servicing Portfolio
July 20th, 2007

In line with our expectations and as we communicated last quarter, delinquencies in our $184 billion servicing portfolio increased in the second quarter of 2007. As the following table illustrates, 30+ day delinquencies for our servicing portfolio in the second quarter of 2007 were 5.35 percent, up from 4.10 percent a year ago and 4.37 percent last quarter. Foreclosures also increased to 1.15 percent in the second quarter, up from 0.89 percent in the prior quarter.

While our delinquency rates have increased, they are comparable to Countrywide Financial Corp., which was ranked by the National Mortgage News as the No. 1 residential mortgage originator and the No. 2 residential servicer in the U.S. for the first quarter of 2007. On July 16, 2007, Countrywide reported a 30+ day delinquency rate in their servicing portfolio of 4.77 percent for the period ending June 30, 2007. Indymac’s modestly higher delinquency rate can be attributed to the fact that Countrywide carries a much higher mix of agency/conforming loans in their servicing portfolio relative to Indymac.

Grove Nichols
Communications Director

Enron, Worldcom, Liar's Loans, Ratings Agencies and Whistling Past the Graveyard

And the funniest thing is that it was all so damn obvious. Well, at least to some...

"So far, the stock market keeps whistling past the graveyard," said Matt Smith, president and portfolio manager at Smith Affiliated Capital. "But these issues continue to get worse, and eventually they'll impact [mergers and acquisitions] and private-equity activity, which have been the foundations of the stock market."

Until now, the pricing of risks linked to housing and subprime mortgages remained something of a mystery, as risks remained hidden in the complex world of credit derivatives. But changes in ratings will force a re-pricing of the roughly $800 billion in subprime-mortgage bonds sitting in investment portfolios across the globe.

"Whenever you have such a massive growth in derivatives, as we had with housing, it's [used] to hide the losses," said Smith of Smith Affiliated Capital. "Nobody knows the true counterparty risks."

Some market players believe that, with the rating agencies making their moves so late in the game, they're seeing a replay of the Enron and WorldCom debacles, which played significant parts in popping the 1990s stock-market bubble.

The rating agencies, then as now, have come under fire for changing their ratings only after the bad news was already out.

"The credit agencies are always lagging," said Smith Affiliated Capital's Matt Smith. "But the main difference between now and 2000 is that you could sell stocks quickly; for the real-estate market, it takes three or four years to unfold."

Both Enron and WorldCom had used "creative" accounting methods to artificially boost earnings, until the bursting of the stock bubble revealed their overwhelming debt was more real than much of their projected revenue. Yet the main credit-rating agencies had kept an investment-grade rating on both companies' debt until days before they went bankrupt.

In particular, so-called liar loans, or mortgages that were backed by dubious documentation -- if any -- from borrowers, still ended up receiving high-grade ratings from the agencies.

Peter Shiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital, said the rating agencies' moves this week were too little, too late. He said lenders knowingly relied on inaccurate data. "If the lenders themselves call them liar loans, why should we think they're boy scouts?"

Schiff added: "And it's not just people with bad credit that lied on their mortgages."

Liar's Loans (Alt-A), a housing crash and IndyMac: Trouble ahead...

This may be a big wonkish, but here's the dealio.

Mortgage backed security investors, who buy up the loans packaged as collateralized mortgage obligations (CMO's), had a bit of a come-to-jesus recently with the subprime meltdown. So now they've wizened up to the con, and they're telling the Alt-A (Liar's Loan) companies that they're not gonna buy their junk anymore, or at least not at par value.

Why? Let's me put this in HP terms. Would any of you buy up Casey Serin's Liar's Loan portfolio? Yeah, that's what I thought.

IndyMac is the big kahuna in this space, with nearly 80% of their entire portfolio made up of this junk. Nice business when the getting was good and investors were buying up any debt they could find.

But not anymore. Party over.

It's been fun to watch their CEO (and #1 stock holder) Michael Perry pump his stock to the dubious market, screaming that they're not to be confused with those yucky subprime lenders, and how all is well. You also have the CEO and a few insiders trying to confuse the market and stop the hemorrhaging (of their stock holdings) by buying some nibbles of their own stock. Man, sometimes it's just so obvious.

You have to wonder how long until the SEC investigation, or in this case criminal charges are filed. There's this little thing called Sarbanes Oxley, where intentionally manipulating your stock, or not coming clean about your financials or prospects presents a wee bit of a problem for crooked CEOs and CFOs.

IndyMax reports Q1 this week. Let's see if they come clean on what's happening in their business, or if they choose to head down the Enron / Ken Lay / WorldCom / Bernie Ebbers well-worn path.

Note - I own a few IndyMac puts, betting the stock will (eventually) fall. This one is the mother of insider manipulation and disinformation, not for the wary, but it's a fun ride...

FLASH FLASH FLASH: FBI launches investigation of Beazer Homes - stock collapses

Deja vu WorldCom and Enron anyone? Man, it's like this stuff was pre-written. Get out the paddywagons - here come the arrests (Toll, Mozilo, Karatz, McCarthy, the list could get big - just follow the money)...

FBI Investigating Beazer Homes - BusinessWeek Says Builder Beazer Homes Is Under Investigation; Stock Plunges in Late Trading

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Beazer Homes USA Inc. plunged in Tuesday's aftermarket trading session following a report from BusinessWeek magazine that federal investigators have opened a broad criminal probe of the homebuilder's lending practices, a number of financial transactions, and other matters.

According to BusinessWeek, the North Carolina field offices of the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Justice Department have opened a joint investigation into Beazer.

FBI spokesman Ken Lucas told the magazine Beazer is being investigated for "all types of (potential) fraud associated with Beazer -- corporate, mortgage, investments."

I'd say tonight's news makes this warm and fuzzy "about us" Beazer profile a bit outdated, eh?

Beazer is a highly regarded industry leader, using technology to improve company efficiency and provide enhanced customer service to homebuyers. A model of financial strength and stability, Beazer Homes USA is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BZH).