Judge sends investigators after Countrywide (CFC)

Posted Apr 3rd 2008 3:53AM by Douglas McIntyre
Filed under: Deals, Law, Bank of America (BAC), Countrywide Financial (CFC), Housing

The troubles never end for Countrywide (NYSE:CFC), but that may be its own fault. According to The Wall Street Journal: "A federal judge has authorized an in-depth probe of Countrywide Financial Corp.'s mortgage-processing systems by bankruptcy investigators hunting for evidence that the big mortgage lender has systematically abused borrowers."

Who knows? Maybe Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) will still walk away from its deal to buy the mortgage company.

Among the charges is that Countrywide got people into mortgages and pumped up fees as customers made payments late. The court is concerned that the "fees" were no accident.

Similar charges keep jumping up as the world learns more about how Countrywide was run. As the old saying goes, where there is smoke there is fire. The number and depth of concerns about how the company made loans and handled customers appears to increase by the day.

The top executives at CFC are getting rich packages as the buyout by Bank of America continues. But, even the bank only has so much patience if the legal bills keep piling up.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Tags: BAC, CFC, inhenews, mortgage backed secu..., MortgageBackedSecu..., mortgages, recession, subprime

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-03-2008 @ 7:42AM

Drew said...

I had a Countrywide Mortgage and that's exactly what happened to me. As I was late with my payments, they charged late fees and raised my interest rate. They notified me that they were helping me out, so they should be compensated for it. Then they sold the Loan to Litton Loan Services, who was also in on it, and they increased the interest rate and charged more fees. Finally, after I finally got my finances worked out, my monthly payment went from ($ 2,450.00) to
($ 3,775.00), which puts more pressure on me to continue to make the payments. Countrywide bought the loan back, then three months later, they sold it back to Litton Loan Services. These guys should go to prison, because they know that they are only making it worse for the consumer.

4-03-2008 @ 9:13AM

Teresa said...

Drew

What is even worse, is when the discriminate against a perfect appraisal. What is even worse it was a Fannymae100 no money down. The deal came down to only needing, signatures on the final papers.

My only hope is that Bank of America will walk away from a very bad deal.