senate Ethics committee looks at VIP loans given out

VIP cash loans given to the Washington DC lawmakers staff has them very concerned. Bank of The US bought all of these “Sweetheart” or “VIP” loans that Countrywide made. All of these VIP cash advances are likely going to give senators a hard time legally. Source for this article – Senate Ethics Committee investigates VIP loans by Personal Money Store.

Countrywide’s VIP loans

In documents recently released by Bank of The US, it was revealed that Countrywide wrote a huge number of “sweetheart” loans. The loans were given to Senate staff and have low interest rates along with no credit check. Republican Senator Issa, who filed an ethics complaint stemming from these loans, points out a “high concentration” of loans to D.C. staffers. Numerous believe that Countrywide was trying to get what they want out of Senators by writing these loans. Of course, we have not caught this till now when the loans were made years ago in 2002 and 2003.

Ethics and loans

Several senators had ethics complaints by Senator Issa filed about them. These reports that were filed caused Senator Dodd and Senator Conrad to be “scolded” by the Ethics committee, although that’s the extent of it. They were told they had to “be more careful to stay away from the appearance of favoritism from Countrywide.” Despite the scolding, both senators were cleared of actual rules violations. The most recent ethics complaint being made blames Senator Robert Bennett. Members of his staff received 12 “VIP loans” out of the 30 handed out.

Naming the loan recipients

The investigation on Countrywide VIP cheap loans is being done by an Oversight and Government Reform committee from the Senate. Any documents Bank of The US has from VIP loans that have “US Senate” written down for their employment must be handed over to the government instantly for the investigation. Anything received from Countrywide was already given to the government by Bank of American and 37,000 documents are what they have received so far. Many will have issues with the November election if names are really given out and reported.

Issue discussed by Senator Burnett

The ethics complaint filed against Republican Senator Burnett was responded to by him as it doesn’t matter since he is not running for re-election. In short, Senator Burnett said that he doesn’t make it a point to discover out where his staffers do their banking. Mortgages and unsecured loans they received are none of his business so he never made it his business.