Countrywide Destroyed Tapes with Public Officials Discussing Mortgages

[Slim Shavings]

Countrywide Destroyed Tapes with Public Officials Discussing Mortgages…
By John Frisby • Sep 30th, 2009 • Category: Ethics, Politics


SEPTEMBER 28, 2009

Phone Calls Add to Din Over Loans
Congressional Investigators Ask for More on Countrywide VIP Mortgage Program
By JOHN R. EMSHWILLER

The discovery that Countrywide Financial Corp. recorded phone conversations with borrowers in a controversial mortgage program that included public officials — and that those recordings have been destroyed — has prompted new congressional calls for more information about the program.

Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is trying to subpoena the remaining records of Countrywide’s VIP loan program. So far, the committee’s chairman, New York Democratic Rep. Edolphus Towns, has turned down that request.


Associated Press

Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), second from right, speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill earlier this month. Mr. Issa is trying to subpoena the remaining records of Countrywide Financial’s VIP loan program.


The Issa spokesman said that earlier this month Bank of America Corp., which purchased Countrywide in July 2008, confirmed the existence of the recording system, but said all the VIP program-related calls had been disposed of.

A Bank of America spokesman said in a written statement that the VIP recordings “were retained only for a limited time or until available recording space was utilized. Due to these limitations, we have no recordings from before July 2008 when Bank of America assumed management of Countrywide and terminated the VIP program.”

Many companies routinely record phone conversations with customers, both for internal-training purposes and to help resolve disputes over what was said during a call.

On Thursday, Mr. Issa sent a letter to Bank of America Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis with a dozen questions seeking more information on what happened to the recordings. Arguing that those call records could have shed light on what public officials were being told by Countrywide personnel about the favorable treatment they were receiving, Mr. Issa wrote that Bank of America’s “refusal to fully explain” what happened to the recordings “raises important questions.”

Mr. Issa’s letter noted that the VIP program began receiving widespread media attention in early June 2008, nearly a month before Bank of America’s Countrywide takeover. Articles focused on prominent individuals who received loans through the program, which often gave lower fees and interest rates and faster service than could be obtained by the general public. Among the prominent VIP program borrowers were two Democratic senators, Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Kent Conrad of North Dakota. Both men have denied wrongdoing, and said they never asked for favorable loan terms from Countrywide.

Last year, Condé Nast Portfolio magazine reported that Alphonso Jackson, who had been a Housing and Urban Development secretary under President George W. Bush, also received two loans through the VIP program. At the time, Mr. Jackson told the magazine that he had been a longtime Countrywide customer and wasn’t aware of receiving any favorable treatment on the loans.

Mr. Jackson couldn’t be reached for comment Sunday.

Given all the public attention to the VIP operation in the month before Bank of America’s Countrywide takeover, any destruction of records after the acquisition “would be reprehensible,” Mr. Issa wrote in his letter to Mr. Lewis.

Asked about the letter to Mr. Lewis, the Bank of America spokesman said the bank “has in the past, and continues, to assist congressional committees with respect to matters related to Countrywide.” The spokesman added that the bank was “unable” to say whether any VIP recordings still existed when it took over Countrywide because of the routine nature of removing such recordings.

The VIP loan unit was also known as the “Friends of Angelo” program because a number of the borrowers were recommended by the company’s then-chief executive, Angelo Mozilo. An attorney for Mr. Mozilo couldn’t be reached for comment Sunday.

In August, The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Towns, the oversight committee chairman, had received two mortgages from Countrywide — one on his home in Brooklyn and the other on a house in Florida. The loan documents indicated that both had been processed through the VIP unit. At the time, a Towns spokeswoman said his decision not to subpoena the VIP records had “nothing to do with his mortgages.” If the mortgages, which were originated in 2003, came through the VIP unit, Mr. Towns was unaware of that fact and never asked for special treatment, the spokeswoman said.

Given the information about Mr. Towns’s Countrywide loans, he “is conflicted now” when it comes to investigating the VIP program, Mr. Issa said in an interview Friday. He said that the chairman should allow the oversight committee — which consists of 24 Democrats and 15 Republicans — to vote on issuing a subpoena. Mr. Issa said three committee Democrats have approached him privately and said they would vote for such a resolution. He believes other Democrats would do the same. “If it comes to a vote, I don’t think I would lose,” he said.

The spokeswoman for Mr. Towns didn’t return messages seeking comment


Countrywide Destroyed Tapes with Public Officials Discussing Mortgages… | Lux Libertas - Light and Liberty

[AzGryffindor]

I think that any elected official who entered into a program titled "VIP" or "Friends of Angelo" should have had a clue that they were receiving special treatment (aka: a bribe).

As for the recordings, since I work in this field, I can state that what BofA is saying is correct. When you call into a call center they have what is called a digital call logger. What this is, in simple terms, is nothing more than a glorified MP3 recorder. When calls are recorded the recording starts from the moment that the call is answered by the autoattendant (voicemail system). The recording does not stop until the caller has disconnected from the telephone system. Since audio takes up HUGE amounts of space, recordings can only be held on a system for so long. Usually, the system is programmed to begin overwriting calls after it reaches a certain capacity or within a certain time perameter.

This is unless the department in charge of the telephone system and recorder has been directed to store all calls to a backup system (CD, other server, portable storage devices, etc).

There is a secondary part to the recordings though. Most companies will also install a program that works in conjunction with the recorder that will enable the company to track a telephone call from the time it's answered to the time it's disconnected. It will generate reports showing the incoming caller ID #, the telephone number and extension that the call came in on & the date & time. It will then track the call everytime that it's transferred and report how long the caller was on hold, what extension the call was picked up at (in other words, with whom the person spoke to) and how long the conversation lasted.

These records, because they are simply entries in a database take up far less space than those of a recorder.

If congress really wants answers they need to subpeona THESE records and then the people with whom the elected officials actually spoke with to get to the truth.

[ama125]

Great info AZ - I had no idea that's how it works. I don't know if the VIP program was actually called that, I think that was the nickname it was dubbed with by the press.

[AzGryffindor]

I guess what it boils down to is who called who first. Did Countrywide target elected officials or did the elected officials contact Countrywide?