LOS ANGELES — Countrywide Financial Corp. co- founder Angelo Mozilo and two other former executives have agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars to avoid a trial on civil fraud and insider-trading charges, a federal judge said in court Friday.
Mozilo and the others were to face trial on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s charges next week.
Mozilo agreed to repay $45 million in ill-gotten profits and $22.5 million in civil penalties. Former Countrywide president David Sambol will repay $5 million in profits and pay $520,000 in civil penalties, and former chief financial officer Eric Sieracki will pay $130,000 in civil penalties.
Sambol’s attorney Walter Brown said in a statement after the hearing that Bank of America Corp., which bought Countrywide in July 2008, would pay his client’s $5 million in ill-gotten profits.
The payment comes on top of $600 million that Bank of America agreed to pay in August to end a class-action case filed by former shareholders against Countrywide.
Mozilo lawyer David Siegel did not return a message asking whether the former countrywide chairman’s $45 million forfeiture would also be paid by the bank.
Messages left with Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America were not immediately returned.
Under the settlement, the three men did not admit wrongdoing.
“Mr. Sambol has agreed to settle the SEC lawsuit and put the matter behind him for the benefit of his family and loved ones,” Brown said in the statement.
