Paula Dwyer , Columnist

Is This the Road Map to Prosecuting Angelo Mozilo?

Do federal prosecutors have a road map for charging former Countrywide Financial leader Angelo Mozilo for his company's role in the financial crisis?

December 6, 2013 at 4:58 PM UTC

By Paula Dwyer

Paula Dwyer is a senior editor with the New York editing hub, focusing on daily and long-form enterprise. She was London bureau chief for Businessweek and Washington economics editor for the New York Times, and is a co-author of “Take on the Street: How to Fight for Your Financial Future.

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In the first two posts in this series, I explained how a sixth year added to the statute of limitations by the Dodd-Frank Act, along with a new prosecutorial zeal at the Justice Department, might result in reopening long-closed cases against senior bank executives, including Countrywide Financial Corp. founder Angelo Mozilo.

To bring such a case, it wouldn't be necessary to explain complex instruments such as collateralized debt obligations to a jury. No, all it would take is connecting the Countrywide underwriting practices a jury last month found fraudulent with what Mozilo knew at the time.