Mozilo could reap $115 million while stock dropped 80%

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mozilo11jan11,1,1233660.story?coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true

The Countrywide CEO's potential pay if his company is acquired rankles critics.
By Kathy M. Kristof, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 11, 2008

Countrywide Financial Corp. founder Angelo Mozilo, one of the nation's highest-paid chief executives, stands to reap $115 million in severance-related pay if his troubled company is acquired by Bank of America Corp., regulatory filings show.

Free rides on the company jet are also included in Mozilo's departure deal, and the company will pick up his country club bills until 2011.

Other executives, including Home Depot Inc.'s jettisoned CEO, Robert Nardelli, have garnered bigger going-away packages. But critics say Mozilo's arrangement is especially nettlesome given the losses that Countrywide investors have suffered in the last year. Company shares rallied Thursday to $7.75, up $2.63, but that's still down 82% from their high last year.

"This is a failed chief executive -- a failed and overpaid chief executive -- who has driven his company to the brink of bankruptcy," said Daniel Pedrotty, director of the office of investment at the AFL-CIO. "I think shareholders are going to be especially outraged if he walks away with another pay-for-failure package."

Neither Mozilo nor Countrywide officials returned calls for comment.

Bank of America is in talks to acquire Countrywide and a deal could be announced as early as today, according to people with knowledge of the talks.

FULL story at link.

when will you people realize this?

Blame the Board that wrote the contract, not the guy who accepts it.