I'm with Countrywide, and I got them all approved. And I said, "What if he has no income?" "Fund ‘em." "What if he has no assets?" And he said, "Fund ‘em."ĪNNOUNCER: One of them was turned down for a home loan by three different lenders. MICHAEL WINSTON: "What if the person doesn't have a job? "Fund ‘em," the- the guy said. MICHAEL WINSTON: And I said, "A loan for every customer? How can that be?"ĪNNOUNCER: -a business owner whose income was hard to document. MICHAEL WINSTON: And he said, "We have a loan for every customer."ĪNNOUNCER: A growing family with a lot of debt. What do you suppose that means?" And he said, "That's Angelo Mozilo's growth strategy for 2006."ĪNNOUNCER: Low cost refi. And I just said, " ‘Fund ‘em', that's an interesting plate. I didn't know if it was the owner or just some guy walking by. And the personalized plates said, "Fund ‘em." And I had a conversation with the person nearest the car. MICHAEL WINSTON: I'd been there five months when I happened to park next to a car with personalized vanity plates. But just a few months into the job, Winston had an encounter in the company parking lot. At first, Winston was impressed by CEO Angelo Mozilo and how he had turned Countrywide into America's number one mortgage company. NARRATOR: Michael Winston once lived inside the bubble at mortgage originator Countrywide. See now if you can reach up-with both fists. And they wanted me to realize their vision. They said their goal was world-class, Goldman Sachs on the Pacific. I worked for Countrywide Financial Corporation from 2005 until 2008. MICHAEL WINSTON, Managing Director, Countrywide, 2005-08: What my Econ 1 prof taught us was business goes in cycles. NARRATOR: The story of how the big banks amassed enormous fortunes packaging home loans into securities and selling them to investors all over the world began, of course, on the ground with mortgage originators. That to me is what has been fundamentally lacking. They didn't ever try to bring together one coherent narrative, laying out the entirety of the story against one of the major players and demand sanctions that are meaningful. They have not done what needed to be done. NARRATOR: Some former prosecutors believe the problem is a lack of effort.ĮLIOT SPITZER, Attorney General, NY, 1999-06: The Justice Department failed. What makes a criminal case is that I can prove beyond a reasonable doubt every element of a crime. But that is not what makes a criminal case. I think there was a level of greed, a level of excessive risk taking in this situation that I find abominable and I find very upsetting. LANNY BREUER, Head of Criminal Division, Justice Dept.: I am personally offended by much of what I've seen. Chief of the Criminal Division at Justice Lanny Breuer says the problem is that greed is not necessarily criminal. NARRATOR: But today, more than four years since the financial crisis of 2008, there have been no arrests of any senior Wall Street executives. That doesn't happen if there isn't something bad going on. TED KAUFMAN: I was really upset about what went on on Wall Street that brought about the financial crisis, not only destroyed the financial- almost destroyed the financial system of the United States, almost destroyed the financial system of the world. NARRATOR: In Washington, there was broad support for prosecuting Wall Street. TED KAUFMAN (D-DE), 2009-10: The men and women who duped would-be home owners, who defrauded the American investor, need to identified, prosecuted, convicted and thrown in jail. There was obviously a lot of conduct that had gone on that was improper, and I think people were expecting to see some substantial prosecutions. I think people had seen the financial crisis. MARTIN SMITH, Correspondent: Was there a sense that there were going to be prosecutions of alleged fraud related to the mortgage crisis?ĭAVID BOIES, Boies, Schiller & Flexner: I think there was that expectation. NEWSCASTER: -$150 billion in mortgage-backed securities. With a new administration arriving in Washington, bankers and their attorneys expected investigations and at least some prosecutions. NARRATOR: But they were also worried they could be held criminally liable for fraud. NARRATOR: -the economy was in ruins, and Wall Street bankers were being blamed. NEWSCASTER: This is a huge amount of money. The great American mortgage bubble had burst. NARRATOR: In 2009, Wall Street bankers were on the defensive. NEWSCASTER: That's the biggest loss since 1974. NEWSCASTER: Almost six hundred thousand jobs. NEWSCASTER: Today's numbers suggest job losses are accelerating. NEWSCASTER: Although this downturn started in the housing sector and in the financial sector, you're seeing a lot of things being hit.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |