Numerous of those in Washington DC are concerned about the ethics of VIP cash loans their staff has. Countrywide decided they would make all of these “Sweetheart” or “VIP” loans and then they sold them to Bank of America. All of these VIP cash advances are likely going to give senators a hard time legally.
Countrywide creates VIP loans
In documents recently released by Bank of America, it was revealed that Countrywide wrote a huge number of “sweetheart” loans. No credit check was done when giving out the low interest rate loans, and they were targeted towards Senate staff. Republican Senator Issa, who filed an ethics complaint stemming from these loans, points out a “high concentration” of loans to D.C. staffers. Numerous believe that Countrywide was trying to get what they want out of Senators by writing these loans. Of course, we have not caught this till now when the loans were made years ago in 2002 and 2003.
Ethics being tied to loans
Senator Issa decided to make it a duty to file complaints about ethics on these senators. The Ethics committee “scolded” Senator Dodd and Senator Conrad for these complaints. In the scolding, they were told to “be more careful to avoid the appearance of favoritism from Countrywide.” Both senators were cleared after this scolding. The most recent ethics complaint being made blames Senator Robert Bennett. Members of his staff received 12 “VIP loans” out of the 30 handed out.
Names of any person who got a VIP loan
The Senate appointed a committee on Oversight and Government Reform to take a look at the new investigation that is being done on VIP cheap loans. A subpoena has been issued to Bank of The US to provide all loan documents where the VIP loan department issued loans to borrowers who listed “U.S. Senate” 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 names come out, then the upcoming election could be detrimental for some.
Senator Burnett speaks on the issue
Republican Senator Burnett, who is not running for re-election, has responded in detail to the ethics complaint filed against him. In short, Senator Burnett said that he doesn’t make it a point to find out where his staffers do their banking. He didn’t ask his employees about any mortgages or unsecured loans they may have gotten.
