Corrupt Senator Viewed Mortgage Treatment as a ‘Courtesy’

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/washington/18dodd.html?_r=1&bl&ex=1214020800&en=234e439f794d2cf2&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin# WASHINGTON — Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut said Tuesday that he was aware that Countrywide Financial Corporation had assigned him to a V.I.P. program in 2003 when he refinanced mortgages on his homes in Connecticut and Washington but that he and his wife “assumed” that “it was more of a courtesy thing.” Mr. Dodd insisted that they did not get favorable pricing. As the Senate prepared to take up legislation intended to rescue homeowners at the brink of foreclosure, Mr. Dodd, a Democrat and chairman of the banking committee, defended himself against suggestions that he had received preferential treatment from Countrywide. At a tense news conference, he flatly denied seeking or receiving any discount from the lender. But his concession that he never inquired or even wondered whether his special status with Countrywide might be related to his position as a senator prompted a barrage of new questions about the terms of his mortgages and about exactly what he knew and when he knew it. “Somebody told you you were in a V.I.P. program,” a reporter said, “And you didn’t think you were getting ... ” Mr. Dodd cut off the reporter and finished the question himself. “A special deal on a loan?” the senator asked. “No.” Another Democrat, Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota, has admitted receiving preferential treatment from Countrywide on mortgages for a vacation house in Bethany Beach, Del., and an apartment building in Bismarck, N.D., but he said he was unaware of favoritism until a report last week on Portfolio.com questioned the terms of the loan. Mr. Conrad announced that he had made a donation of $10,700 to Habitat for Humanity — the amount he saved by getting a one-point discount on fees related to a $1.07 million loan for the beach house. Mr. Conrad had said he would refinance the apartment building loan and on Tuesday said the loan had been paid off. Mr. Dodd said he had no intention of taking similar steps. “Well, I don’t know we did anything wrong here,” he said. “I negotiated a mortgage at a prevailing rate, a competitive rate. If anyone had said to me, ‘We’re giving you some special treatment here,’ I would have rejected it. So no, I don’t feel at this point that I have any obligation. I did what I was supposed to do. I did what millions of other people did.” Portfolio.com cited internal Countrywide e-mail messages indicating that the lender had reduced the interest rate on both of Mr. Dodd’s loans by half a percentage point, a discount that potentially could save him tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the loans. The questions about the mortgages threatened to overshadow the foreclosure rescue legislation and, as some Republicans pressed for a more aggressive inquiry, Senate Democrats delayed consideration of the bill. (A spokesman for the majority leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, said that details were still being worked out on some tax provisions in the bill.) Representative Jeb Hensarling, Republican of Texas, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, called for hearings on Monday. “We must ensure that no member is inappropriately benefiting from their position,” Mr. Hensarling wrote in a letter seeking support for hearings. Mr. Conrad said Tuesday that the Senate ethics committee had begun looking into the loans. “I welcome it,” he said. “My conscience is absolutely clear.” Mr. Dodd said that he was a longtime customer of Countrywide and refinanced the mortgages on his homes in 2003 after shopping for the best deal. Ultimately, he obtained a five-year adjustable rate loan at 4.25 percent for his house in Washington and a 10-year adjustable rate loan at 4.5 percent for his house in East Haddam, Conn. Mr. Dodd rented a house in Iowa, where he lived last year while seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He said the interest rates on his refinanced mortgages were slightly lower than he was quoted initially because rates had declined generally before the loans closed. In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Conrad said that when he bought his beach house in 2002, he was determined not to be treated unfairly as he believed he had been while getting a loan for a different property years earlier. He said he called a close friend, James A. Johnson, who had recently stepped down as the chairman and chief executive of Fannie Mae. Mr. Johnson was forced to give up an advisory role with the presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama following suggestions that he got special treatment from Countrywide. When Mr. Conrad called, Mr. Johnson was with Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of Countrywide. Mr. Conrad said Mr. Johnson handed the phone to Mr. Mozilo, who gave him the name of a loan officer. Mr. Conrad said he never talked to Mr. Mozilo again. He said he did not find it unusual to be talking to a chief executive of a lending company about a mortgage because he did that even before he was in the Senate. “Ten of the 12 mortgages I got were in North Dakota and in every one of those instances I talked with the No. 1 or No. 2 person,” he said. “I don’t know what I would’ve done differently.”