Countrywide's Mozilo charged with fraud, insider trading by SEC

Former Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo has become the highest-profile executive to be accused of wrongdoing in the subprime mortgage meltdown. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged him with allegedly lying to investors and reaping $140 million in profits from illegal insider trading this afternoon.

A civil lawsuit filed by the SEC alleges that Mozilo knew that increasingly lax mortgage underwriting standards at Countrywide, once a heavyweight in the subprime home loan industry, would endanger the company but failed to disclose the risk to investors.