• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

AI CEOs from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft set aside their rivalry to warn Congress AI is making it too easy to design and create bioweapons

2

Ohio city workers are covering automated license plate readers with trash bags as officials sound the alarm on 'egregious violations' of privacy

3

10,000 Boomers a day, $39 trillion in debt, and no benefit cuts: Bessent stakes Social Security on the Trump economy

1

AI CEOs from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft set aside their rivalry to warn Congress AI is making it too easy to design and create bioweapons

2

Ohio city workers are covering automated license plate readers with trash bags as officials sound the alarm on 'egregious violations' of privacy

3

10,000 Boomers a day, $39 trillion in debt, and no benefit cuts: Bessent stakes Social Security on the Trump economy

BofA’s highest paid? Mozilo

By
Colin Barr
Colin Barr
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Colin Barr
Colin Barr
Down Arrow Button Icon
February 3, 2011, 5:01 PM ET

Forget CEO Brian Moynihan and top trader Tom Montag. The most lavishly compensated guy at Bank of America is, um, Angelo Mozilo.

That is pretty impressive when you consider that Mozilo (deeply tanned, right) hasn’t lifted a finger for BofA (BAC) for almost three years, since the bank completed the purchase of his crumbling subprime empire in mid-2008.



Orange man collects much green

But funding the former Countrywide chief’s retirement leisure isn’t cheap. A settlement reached this week means Bank of America has spent some $50 million in Mozilo’s name to settle various legal scrapes.

That compares with a paltry $10 million to $15 million being handed out this year to Moynihan and Montag, and most of that in restricted stock to boot.

What’s more, the gap between Mozilo and BofA’s current management stands to widen as the year goes on. Given Countrywide’s checkered lending history and the many cases pending against Mozilo, BofA will surely find itself writing more checks in Mozilo’s name.

Mozilo got his latest handout from BofA Wednesday, in a $6.5 million settlement of a California state predatory lending suit against Mozilo and David Sambol, his former righthand man at Countrywide, now part of Bank of America Home Loans.

It was Mozilo and Sambol who, as form dictates, neither admitted nor denied the state’s allegations. But it is BofA that is writing the checks because it agreed in purchasing Countrywide to indemnify Mozilo and his ace lieutenants against legal costs.

That is not the least bit unusual, but it is turning out in this case to be plenty costly.

Take Mozilo’s October 2010 settlement of a fraud suit filed a year earlier by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC headlined its press release with the news that Mozilo would pay the “largest-ever financial penalty against a public company’s senior executive,” $22.5 million.

SEC enforcement chief Robert Khuzami called the settlement “the fitting outcome for a corporate executive who deliberately disregarded his duties to investors.”

But what was more fitting than Khuzami may have liked to admit was how Mozilo and BofA handled another aspect of the settlement, the SEC’s demand that Mozilo disgorge his ill-gotten stock sale profits during the time he allegedly misled investors.

The SEC got Mozilo to agree, without admitting or denying that he misled anyone, to pay $45 million in disgorgement. That’s a lot of money, even for a guy who cashed out $121 million in stock in Countrywide’s last year.

But the disgorgement decision can’t have been a very hard one for Mozilo. After all, BofA was on the hook for that $45 million, and Mozilo for none of it.

That had a familiar ring, of course. BofA agreed in August to settle a subprime class action suit for $600 million, with Mozilo and other execs initially named as defendants getting off scot-free.

You might well guessed by now that BofA may likewise be on the hook for any future settlements that don’t involve paying a penalty to the government. There could be plenty of those: A recent article in Corporate Counsel magazine says at least a dozen civil cases are pending against Mozilo.

In one such case, being heard last month in suburban Los Angeles, a former executive training consultant accuses Mozilo of wrongfully firing him.

Mozilo denies the charges, though his claim to be a reasonable guy is perhaps undermined by his comment that he was OK with firings in general because “I always felt that mediocrity is comparable to cancer.”

Nonetheless, onward he presses. “I always regarded myself as a CEO, not a dictator,” Mozilo said.

Good thing, too, because you certainly can’t tell the difference to look at the river of shareholder money still flowing into the guy’s pockets.

About the Author
By Colin Barr
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in

Tech stocks lead market bloodbath as fears of Fed rate hikes add to worries about the AI-fueled chip boom petering out
Investingtech stocks
Tech stocks lead market bloodbath as fears of Fed rate hikes add to worries about the AI-fueled chip boom petering out
By Jason MaJune 5, 2026
1 hour ago
The Class of 2026: Meet the 12 companies making their Fortune 500 debut
Startups & VentureFortune 500
The Class of 2026: Meet the 12 companies making their Fortune 500 debut
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJune 5, 2026
2 hours ago
Shoppers search for meat and pork product inside Walmart store
Economyfarming
The U.S. is still one of the world’s biggest meat producers. So why are Americans paying so much for beef?
By Tristan BoveJune 5, 2026
3 hours ago
As the World Cup draws millions to 11 U.S. cities, measles—not Ebola—may be the biggest concern
HealthHealth
As the World Cup draws millions to 11 U.S. cities, measles—not Ebola—may be the biggest concern
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJune 5, 2026
4 hours ago
jack
PoliticsElections
A Kennedy, Kellyanne Conway’s ex-husband and a former Palantir data scientist debated AI regulation. Welcome to the Manhattan primary
By Anthony Izaguirre and The Associated PressJune 5, 2026
6 hours ago
trump
Arts & EntertainmentWhite House
Trump says Knicks owner James Dolan invited him to Game 3 of the NBA Finals and he’s going
By Collin Binkley and The Associated PressJune 5, 2026
6 hours ago

Most Popular

AI CEOs from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft set aside their rivalry to warn Congress AI is making it too easy to design and create bioweapons
AI
AI CEOs from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft set aside their rivalry to warn Congress AI is making it too easy to design and create bioweapons
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJune 5, 2026
16 hours ago
Ohio city workers are covering automated license plate readers with trash bags as officials sound the alarm on 'egregious violations' of privacy
Cybersecurity
Ohio city workers are covering automated license plate readers with trash bags as officials sound the alarm on 'egregious violations' of privacy
By Sasha RogelbergJune 3, 2026
2 days ago
10,000 Boomers a day, $39 trillion in debt, and no benefit cuts: Bessent stakes Social Security on the Trump economy
Economy
10,000 Boomers a day, $39 trillion in debt, and no benefit cuts: Bessent stakes Social Security on the Trump economy
By Nick LichtenbergJune 4, 2026
1 day ago
MacKenzie Scott's approach to her $26 billion giving spree was inspired by a book she read in college about writing
Success
MacKenzie Scott's approach to her $26 billion giving spree was inspired by a book she read in college about writing
By Sydney LakeJune 5, 2026
17 hours ago
CEO says anyone who works from home is grabbing groceries or at the vet 30% of the time—and shows off his busy office at Friday 5 p.m. to prove it
Success
CEO says anyone who works from home is grabbing groceries or at the vet 30% of the time—and shows off his busy office at Friday 5 p.m. to prove it
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 4, 2026
2 days ago
A single new sentence in SpaceX's amended IPO filing could signal the biggest merger in history
Startups & Venture
A single new sentence in SpaceX's amended IPO filing could signal the biggest merger in history
By Shawn TullyJune 4, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.