CalPERS and Other Large Players Settle Suit Against Countrywide and Bank of America

Angelo Mozilo

Remember Countrywide Financial? If you suffered through the prospect or reality of a foreclosed home, the words are chilling ones. Since the collapse of the corrupt housing market in 2008, Countrywide (now called Countrywide Mortgage) and its current owner, Bank of America, have tried to get out from key lawsuits against them.

They appear to have succeeded recently against a well-funded, determined adversary. The LA Times reported today that CalPERS, the Golden State's powerful pension arm, along with other large institutional investors, quietly settled their litigation against Countrywide and BofA. The confidential nature of the settlement means the public has no idea how much the defendants ponied up to satisfy CalPERS and the other litigants. BofA's 4th quarter SEC filing might offer a hint; then again, maybe not.

What is clear is that Countrywide's former chief executive and the face of the foreclosure scandal, Angelo Mozilo, walks free to this day. Meanwhile, those who are financially chained or ruined by the foreclosure disaster do not.

Meanwhile, The New York Times published an interesting look at the interplay of a federal bank regulator and IndyMac, one of the financial firms that formed the housing debacle's Ground Zero. The excellent story was co-authored by Gretchen Morgenson. She is of the few mainstream reporters willing to take on complex financial topics and the combined muscle of Major League Finance and the Feds.