Countrywide Financial Corp.’s chief executive and president will receive a combined $19 million in stock next week as part of the company’s pending takeover by Bank of America Corp., according to a regulatory filing, the Associated Press reports.
The payments of stock valued at $10 million for chief executive Angelo Mozilo and $9 million for President David Sambol were disclosed in a regulatory filing late Thursday by Bank of America.
The payments, described as “performance-based” stock rights and grants, are required by agreements the executives struck with Countrywide less than a year before the sub-prime meltdown forced the mortgage lender to sell itself, according to the filing.
Some lawmakers were incensed by the payouts.
“It’s perverse for Bank of America to reward the principal architects of the bad business practices that caused this housing crisis,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y, said in a statement.
Mozilo, who is expected to retire after the takeover, previously agreed to give up $36.4 million in cash severance benefits. But after his departure he will receive company-paid life and health benefits worth $21,084 and medical benefits worth an estimated $85,000.
