Many of those in Washington DC are concerned about the ethics of VIP cash loans their staff has. Bank of America 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.
VIP loan given out by Countrywide
Numerous “sweetheart” loans were given out by Countrywide, according to Bank of America documents. No credit check was done when giving out the low rate of interest loans, and they were targeted towards Senate staff. 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. 2002 and 2003 were the years the loans had made.
Ethics being tied to loans
Senator Issa decided to make it a duty to file complaints about ethics on these senators. These reports which were filed caused Senator Dodd and Senator Conrad to be “scolded” by the Ethics committee, although that’s the extent of it. These two senators were told to “be more careful to avoid the appearance of favoritism from Countrywide.” Both senators were cleared after this scolding. Probably the most recent ethics complaint being made blames Senator Robert Bennett. Out of these 30 “VIP loans”, twelve went to his staff instead of being more spread out.
Names of those who took loans
The Senate appointed a committee on Oversight and Government Reform to check out the new investigation that is being done on VIP cheap loans. Bank of The United States has to give the government all documents involving VIP loans that they have included anything that has “US Senate” written down as their employer. 37,000 documents were provided by Bank of America already that talk about Countrywide and anything that was received from them. If the names come out, then the upcoming election might be detrimental for some.
Response from 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. Senator Burnett informed everybody that he doesn’t pay any attention to where his employers put their money or take their money from. Mortgages and short term loans, he said, are personal matters that he did not specifically ask his employees about.
