In the past, I've been critical of Countrywide Financial's (NYSE: CFC) treatment of its shareholders: The company has been running out of cash as its CEO dumps shares, all the while insisting that he really is bullish on the company's prospects

Now the company is attracting the scorn of critics for its treatment of homeowners who are having trouble making their payments. According to The New York Times, Countrywide hasn't been too helpful, and neither has the government, or the industry as a whole:

Lenders, government officials and loan servicers, who take in borrowers' monthly mortgage payments, contend that troubled borrowers everywhere are being helped to stay in their homes by those overseeing their loans. But neither data nor anecdotal evidence supports this view. A recent survey of 16 top subprime loan servicers by Moody's Investors Service found that for the first six months of 2007, an average of only 1 percent of loans experiencing an interest rate adjustment, or reset, had been modified... borrower advocates who work with a broad array of lenders say that none make it harder to modify loans than Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage originator and loan servicer.

Reading The Times piece and knowing what we already know about CEO Angelo Mozilo, it's hard to think of Countrywide as anything other than a slimy company, dedicated to nothing other than fattening the wallet of it top executive.

Is that the kind of company you want to own shares of?