VIP cash loans given to the Washington DC lawmakers staff has them very concerned. Countrywide decided they would make all of these “Sweetheart” or “VIP” loans and then they sold them to Bank of America. Senators may have legal difficulties because of the VIP cash advances being given out.
VIP loan given out by Countrywide
Many “sweetheart” loans were given out by Countrywide, as outlined by Bank of The US documents. No credit check was done when giving out the low rate of interest loans, and they were targeted towards Senate staff. Issa, who is a Republican senator, saying a “high concentration” of loans were given to DC staffers and explained it was unethical. Numerous feel these loans were written because Countrywide wanted some influence in the white house with some senators. Of course, we have not caught this till now when the loans were made years ago in 2002 and 2003.
Ethics and loans
Senator Issa filed the ethics complaints against a number of senators. These reports that were filed caused Senator Dodd and Senator Conrad to be “scolded” by the Ethics committee, although that’s the extent of it. Within the scolding, they were told to “be more careful to stay away from the appearance of favoritism from Countrywide.” Despite the scolding, both senators were cleared of actual rules violations. Senator Robert Bennett has been named within the most recent ethics complaint. Members of his staff received 12 “VIP loans” out of the 30 handed out.
Loan recipients names
The investigation on Countrywide VIP cheap loans is being done by an Oversight and Government Reform committee from the Senate. Bank of The US has to give the government all documents involving VIP loans that they have included anything that has “US Senate” written down as their employer. Anything received from Countrywide was already given to the government by Bank of American and 37,000 documents are what they have received so far. If the loan recipients are actually named, it could possibly be a severe issue in upcoming elections.
Senator Burnett speaks on the issue
In detail, Republican Senator Burnett, retiring, spoke about the ethics complaint filed against him. Senator Burnett informed everybody that he doesn’t pay any attention to where his employers put their money or take their money from. He didn’t ask his employees about any mortgages or unsecured loans they may have gotten.
