Countrywide Gave Special Attention To Lawmakers

Clyburn spokeswoman Kristie Greco said the congressman did not receive a favorable rate when he refinanced a loan valued between $100,000 and $250,000 for his house in South Carolina. Clyburn also had a bad experience with a Countrywide loan officer, Greco said, which prompted him to pay off the debt and vow that he would "never borrow from them again."

Yet Countrywide aimed to please. One employee familiar with the FOA program, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity, said loan officers tried to satisfy customers by "lowering the processing fees or the pricing."

"If I had a client who gave me a lot of business, I would probably try to give that person a better rate than someone else who just walked off the street," the employee said. As for friends of Mozilo, "it's human nature that you want to help them if they are friends with the boss."

Mozilo once offered Cecala, a longtime mortgage industry reporter, help with his own mortgage refinancing. The rates were "good, but not great," Cecala said. He declined.

"Some people give bottles of wine. He says, 'Come and ask. I will give you a good rate on a mortgage,' " Cecala said.

On Capitol Hill, Countrywide also spread support the old-fashioned way. Since 1990, Mozilo and his family have contributed at least $110,000 to federal political committees, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Mozilo donated $1,000 to Conrad in 1999, and Countrywide's political action committee gave Conrad $6,000 in 2005 and 2006. Countrywide's PAC has given Dodd donations totaling $21,000 since 1997.

But as the subprime crisis spreads, such largess has become a liability. The conservative advocacy group Freedom's Watch yesterday trumpeted the "sweetheart deal" extended to Dodd and Conrad. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal-leaning group, asked the House and Senate ethics committees to investigate.

"Although there is no evidence that either Sen. Dodd or Sen. Conrad were aware they were receiving special treatment from Countrywide, their receipt of the unusually favorable loans creates exactly the sort of appearance of impropriety that the gift rule was designed to address," CREW wrote in a statement.

Staff writers Renae Merle, Joe Stephens and James V. Grimaldi contributed to this report.