North Dakota Senator Kent Conrad is perhaps the most unusual of the so-called Friends of Angelo, who received favorable mortgage rates and VIP treatment from Countrywide Financial and its boss, Angelo Mozilo.
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As chairman of the Senate budget committee, Conrad certainly is a VIP. But his home state is a long way from ground zero in the mortgage mess. For all of 2007, only four states — Maine, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Vermont — had lower home foreclosure rates than North Dakota, according to RealtyTrac.
This week, only three of the more than 14,000 homes that Countrywide lists for sale across the nation are in North Dakota. These are homes the lender has taken back from borrowers.
The Dakota homes have a total value of about $315,000. Conrad alone borrowed four times that amount from Countrywide: about $1.2 million for a home in Bethany Beach, Del., and another $96,000 for an apartment building in Bismarck, where he lives when he’s in North Dakota.
Others who received VIP treatment included Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, former HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson, former U.N. ambassaor Richard Holbrooke and former secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, according to Portfolio.com.
Of the two senators, Conrad has been more forthcoming than Dodd, who admits knowing he was part of a Countrywide VIP program but not that he received any special favors.
At first, Conrad attacked the story. But after reporters supplied him copies of internal Countrywide emails, he acknowledged that he probably received a break on his mortgage rate and donated the estimated benefit, $10,500, to Habitat for Humanity.
In a release on his Web site, Conrad also said he probably shouldn’t have received the loan on the Bismarck property because it has eight units and, at the time, Countrywide was making loans only on properties with four units or less. So, he said he will refinance that loan with another lender.
Conrad said his office is continuing to investigate the matter and he will take further action if warranted.
He also took the unusual step of posting his mortgage history on the Bethany Beach home, and some details on the Bismarck apartment building. Like many Americans, he was an active re-financer.
Dodd has taken a different approach. On Courant.com today, he still denies he received any special favors from Countrywide.
An editorial in The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, roasts him as “Angelo’s Angel” and says one of the primary beneficiaries of a housing bailout bill Dodd supports would be Countrywide.
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