Angelo Mozilo expresses dismay about homeowners' plight

Former Countrywide CEO testifies before Congress in March 2008, well before all the you-know-what hit the fan (bear with the droning by a congressman for the first minute or two of the clip). Below is a snippet from the Justice Department complaint alleging that Countrywide discriminated against black and Hispanic borrowers during the housing boom.

Countrywide's home mortgage lending policies allowed its employees and mortgage brokers both to set the loan prices charged to borrowers and to place borrowers into loan products in ways that were not connected to a borrower's creditworthiness or other objective criteria related to borrower risk. Countrywide's policies created financial incentives for its employees and mortgage brokers by sharing increased revenues with them. Countrywide knew or had reason to know based on its own internal monitoring and reporting that its policies of giving unguided direction to its own loan officers as well as to brokers was resulting in discrimination.

Inquiring minds are still asking: What did Angelo know and when did he know it?

Earlier: Countrywide's misdeeds have systemic smack