The food-stamp economy
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FACTBOX: Rise and fall of Countrywide and Mozilo
(Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged Countrywide Financial Corp co-founder Angelo Mozilo and two other former executives with securities fraud.
The civil lawsuit accuses Mozilo, former Countrywide President David Sambol and former Chief Financial Officer Eric Sieracki, of misleading investors about credit risks taken to build and maintain the lender's market share. Mozilo also was charged with insider trading.
Following are some key facts about the rise and fall of Countrywide:
* Angelo Mozilo and David Loeb found Countrywide Financial Corp in California in 1969. Loeb died in 2003.
* Countrywide grows exponentially through the years until it becomes the U.S. largest mortgage lender by writing up riskier and riskier loans. By September 2006, Countrywide estimated that it had a 15.7 percent share of the market, up from 11.4 percent at the end of 2003.
* During the housing boom, Chief Executive Mozilo ranked as one of the top- paid U.S. executives, getting about $387 million from pay and stock option gains from 2002 to 2006, according to regulatory filings.
* Countrywide accumulates $2.5 billion in losses for three straight quarters between the second half of 2007 and early 2008, hurt by charges for write-downs and bad loans as the housing slump deepens.
The company, specializing in sub-prime loans, says about one in 11 borrowers overall and more than one in three subprime borrowers have fallen behind on home loan payments.
* Bank of America Corp acquires Countrywide in 2008 for $2.5 billion, less than a tenth of what it had been worth in early 2007. The all-stock deal was originally worth $4.1 billion, but the price fell as Bank of America's stock went down.
* Bank of America drops the Countrywide name from its mortgage operations in April, shedding a 40-year-old brand.
* U.S. regulators recommend in May filing a civil fraud suit against Angelo Mozilo for insider trading.
* Mozilo is charged with securities fraud and insider trading, accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with making more than $139 million in profits in 2006 and 2007 from exercising 5.1 million stock options and selling the underlying shares.
(Reporting by Juan Lagorio; Editing by Bernard Orr)
