Two Senators' Loans Prompt Complaint

21 Jun 2008 // Two Senate committee chairmen have been identified as having received unusually favorable loans from Countrywide Financial Corp. and may face an Ethics Committee investigation.

The legal watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed a complaint with the committee on June 13 after an article in Cond?? Nast's Portfolio magazine said Democrats Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut benefited from a special loan program at Countrywide in which certain points, fees and borrowing rules were waived for officials.

The committee traditionally does not disclose its activities, but a complaint such as this one usually would be reviewed. "Any time there is a complaint, we will look at it," said Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

Both Conrad and Dodd said they did not know they were given special interest rates and loan terms because they are senators, as suggested by an e-mail obtained by Portfolio magazine.

Conrad, the chairman of the Budget Committee, told the Ethics panel about the article just before it was published June 12. "If there is a finding here that I was given a gift, I'd be happy to send the money to Countrywide," he said last week.

Conrad said he gave $10,700 -- the value of the benefit he says he received -- to the charity Habitat for Humanity. He said he paid off the $32,000 left on the mortgage on a Bismarck, N.D., apartment house.

Dodd, chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, said he had no reason to think being in Countrywide's "VIP" program would get him special treatment, adding that he would have rejected the loan if he had thought that was the case.

"I don't think I did anything wrong," Dodd said. "I negotiated a loan at the prevailing rate." He said he had not heard from the Ethics Committee, but would "cooperate fully" if it investigated his loans.