Skip to main content

SEC Settles With Former Countrywide CEO Mozilo for $67.5 Million

Oct 15, 2010

Angelo Mozilo, co-founder of Countrywide, and two former Countrywide executives have agreed to pay out $67.5 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to avoid a trial on insider trading and civil fraud. Mozilo's trial was set to begin in federal court in Los Angeles this coming Tuesday. Mozilo’s financial penalty is the largest ever paid by a public company's senior executive in an SEC settlement. Mozilo also agreed to $45 million in disgorgement of ill-gotten gains to settle the SEC’s disclosure violation and insider trading charges against him, for a total financial settlement of $67.5 million that will be returned to harmed investors. Former Countrywide President David Sambol will repay $5 million in profits and pay $520,000 in civil penalties, while and former Chief Financial Officer Eric P. Sieracki will pay $130,000 in civil penalties. “Mozilo’s record penalty is the fitting outcome for a corporate executive who deliberately disregarded his duties to investors by concealing what he saw from inside the executive suite—a looming disaster in which Countrywide was buckling under the weight of increasing risky mortgage underwriting, mounting defaults and delinquencies, and a deteriorating business model,” said Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. Both Mozilo and Sambol have also been permanently banned from serving as officers or directors of public companies ever again. The trio were accused of non-disclosure of the status of Countrywide's dipping mortgage portfolio.  For more information, visit www.sec.gov.      
About the author
Published
Oct 15, 2010
CSBS Urges MLOs To Update License Registrations

NMLS updates that have taken effect prior to the Nov. 1 opening of the annual license renewal period include new a login process requiring users to update their username and password and establish account recovery details.

CFPB Finalizes New Rule Expanding Consumer Financial Data Privacy Rights

Financial institutions must deliver a consumer's financial data to another provider for free, upon the consumer's request

TD Bank Pleads Guilty To Enabling Money Laundering For Criminal Organizations

'TD Bank chose profits over compliance in order to keep its costs down,' said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.

LoanSnap Officially Loses Connecticut License

The AI mortgage startup formerly faced a cease and desist and a consent order from the State of Connecticut.

Oct 09, 2024
Wishing Regulations Away

What mortgage leaders want to see revised in the wake of Supreme Court undoing of government favoritism

False Moves, Real Consequences

Don’t let missteps mortgage your future