Countrywide’s Mozilo Has Plenty of Options

CALABASAS, Calif. – Countrywide Financial co-founder and CEO Angelo Mozilo, one of the highest paid corporate executives countrywide, earned almost $5 million by exercising options last week. Mozilo has taken home more than $350 million over the last three years–more than $250 million of it from the exercise of options. On Friday, Mozilo exercised options to purchase 46,000 Countrywide shares at $10.89 each, then sold the shares for $38.02 each, a gain of $1.25 million. That followed a profit of $1.27 million on Monday, and a $1.96 million on Wednesday, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mozilo still holds more than 5.2 million options to acquire Countrywide shares. Mozilo has earned almost $60 million so far this year with by exercising Countrywide options. Countrywide said last week that the 69-year-old executive has agreed to a curb in the cash and stock-based portion of his pay, which amount to half of last year’s $142 million pay-out.