Dean Foust, fellow Atlanta resident, has a great post on the CEO of Countrywide who has been selling his shares since December. Now, before people go off half cocked, what he is doing is perfectly legal, but the CEO who has held onto his shares for 39 years selling them just before the company takes some severe hits and the stock takes a dive, looks a little icky.

Dean also goes into the practice of a stock buyback program that was enacted just as the CEO is selling his shares to keep the market strong. Again, nothing illegal but that darn smell test is going to leave many feeling a little queasy.

I don’t often put much stock in the so-called “earnings calls” that companies hold with Wall Street analysts immediately after each quarterly earnings report, given that the majority of analysts are terrified of asking tough questions lest they offend the CEO and lose their access. But one investor, Ronald Redfield of Redfield, Blonsky & Co., a small New Jersey CPA and investment firm that appears to be short Countrywide’s stock (see commentary here that Redfield posted on his web site a week before Countrywide reported earnings), had the gumption to question Mozilo about the sales. It was an interesting exchange. Mozilo briefly defended the sales, but you could tell the question was eating at him because at the end of the earnings call, he brought it up again. Here’s the exchange:

Read the rest of the post at Hot Property

Related posts:

1. Countrywide’s Mozilo Charged With Securities Fraud and Insider Trading by S.E.C.
2. Angelo Mozilo To Be Charged With Fraud By The SEC
3. Countrywide Mortgages Friends Of Angelo Program Investigation Stalled
4. Countrywide Told Dodd and Conrad They Were Getting Special Deal on Mortgages
5. Former Countrywide Executives Take Advantage of Down Real Estate Market