Countrywide Critics Call For Change

Angry shareholder groups want members of Countrywide Financial's(CFC) compensation committee to resign in the wake of CEO Angelo Mozilo's massive cash out.

CtW Investment Group sent a letter to the nation's largest lender proposing the resignation of Harley Snyder, Countrywide's lead director and chairman of its compensation committee. And the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has also called for the resignation of Snyder and two other directors that make up its compensation committee -- Oscar Robertson and Robert Donato.

The letters come amid allegations that Countrywide executives, including Mozilo, and its directors have received excessive compensation and aggressively sold stock ahead of a housing downturn and crisis brewing at the mortgage lender.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into CEO and co-founder Angelo Mozilo's accelerated sales of Countrywide stock under a 10b5-1 plan. Mozilo has made more than $100 million on stock sales this year, even as Countrywide shares have tumbled more than 50% amid the worsening housing market.

The development comes a day after the N.Y. Attorney General widened his probe of inflated home assessments tied to Washington Mutual's (WM) mortgage business, and follows Morgan Stanley's (MS) $2.5 billion writedown of the subprime mortgage values on its books.

Snyder, Robertson and Donato have sold over $15 million of Countrywide stock in the last two years, according to AFSCME's analysis of Form 4 filings.