A month ago, I suggested that Countrywide Financial Corp. (NYSE:CFC) could be this year's version of Enron. One reason: Enron's Ken Lay and Countrywide's CEO Angelo Mozilo both publicly boosted their companies' prospects as they dumped their shares.

Today's New York Times [registration required] seconds that motion by reporting that North Carolina's Treasurer, Richard Moore, has asked the SEC to investigate Mozilo's $132 million in stock profits -- which he took as Countrywide traded above $40 -- it's now trading at $18.80 -- right before the subprime mess heated up starting in October 2006.

Moore's letter expressed his anger: "As an investor and a Countrywide shareholder, I was shocked to learn that C.E.O. Angelo Mozilo apparently manipulated his trading plans to cash in, just as the subprime crisis was heating up and Countrywide's fortunes were cooling off." How is this like Enron's Ken Lay? As I posted before, Ken Lay sold about $100 million worth of shares even as he was telling Enron employees what a great investment its shares were.

Will the SEC investigate? Will Mitt Romney keep Mozilo's campaign contribution? Stay tuned for the next episode.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in Countrywide securities.

More Countrywide Financial news

Douglas McIntyre: Countrywide (CFC) CEO stock sales questioned
Zac Bissonette: Countrywide (CFC) has a new PR campaign, but what about real change?
Eric Buscemi: Countrywide (CFC) showing some class and good business sense
Peter Cohan: Is Countrywide (CFC) too big to fail?
Douglas McIntyre: Could subprime problems hurt search engines?
Peter Cohan: Is Bank of America's (BAC) purchase of Countrywide Financial (CFC) a good bet?
Joseph Lazzaro: The (still) foggy subprime mortgage sector
Peter Cohan: What the mortgage meltdown means to you
Michael Fowlkes: Countrywide Financial (CFC) adds to subprime panic
Peter Cohan: Could Countrywide Financial (CFC) be put down?

The head of former energy trading company Enron, Jeffrey Skilling, has won a short delay in his request to report to prison. Skilling will begin serving a 24-year sentence on fraud and conspiracy charges soon. Originally, Skilling was supposed to report to prison today in Waseca, Minnesota at the low-security prison there. Waseca is 75 miles south of Minneapolis.

Skilling, quite naturally, is appealing his conviction. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans delayed his reporting date yesterday, in order to allow enough time to consider a request for bail during Skilling's appeal. This was just in time to prevent Skilling from having to report to Waseca.

The delay -- according to the court -- was "solely to allow this court to give careful consideration to the request for bail pending appeal" based on text at the court's website. The court did not set a new prison report date yet. Skilling was planning to undergo alcohol and mental health counseling at Waseca. Completion of this would have taken an entire year off his sentence, and in addition, Skilling was looking to earn 54 days a year off his sentence for good behavior.

Do you think all the folks involved in the Enron scandal -- Lay, Skilling, Fastow -- deserved what they received? For Lay, some would argue he escaped easily by passing away before his sentence began. Fastow pleaded out and received a less steep sentence, and then Skilling became the highest-ranking executive in corporate America -- thus far -- to receive such a long prison sentence.