“Mozilo’s record penalty is the fitting outcome for a corporate executive who deliberately disregarded his duties to investors by concealing what he saw from inside the executive suite—a looming disaster in which Countrywide was buckling under the weight of increasing risky mortgage underwriting, mounting defaults and delinquencies, and a deteriorating business model.” —SEC director Robert Khuzami, in a press release trumpeting the agency’s imposition of what they say is the LARGEST-EVER FINANCIAL PENALTY AGAINST A PUBLIC COMPANY’S SENIOR EXECUTIVE, $67.5 million, or less than half of what the former Countrywide CEO made selling off the company’s stock in 2006 and 2007. Clap. Clap.
