Interesting new details are coming to light regarding his 1998 loan. It was a mortgage refinance of a home he purchased one year earlier in Stevenson Ranch (Santa Clarita), California. The strangeness of refinancing your mortgage after only a year also raises some interesting questions, probably answered by looking at his other finances. McKeon was one of five brothers who inherited Howard and Phil’s Western Wear in California. Howard and Phil’s had 55 stores at its height, but filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1996 to avoid repaying millions to creditors. The business floundered over the next three years and finally liquidated with a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1999, citing many debts, including about $400,000 in unpaid state sales taxes to California.
Some of McKeon’s brothers declared personal bankruptcy in addition to corporate bankruptcy. McKeon too was on the verge of personal bankruptcy and desperately needed cash. But because of his bad credit and large debt, he wouldn’t have been approved for a refinance the normal way everyone else would be, by going to a bank. Instead, he approached Michael J. Ferrell, shady head lobbyist for the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, who directed him to Angelo Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide. Obviously, he was in real financial trouble, after bankrupting the business he inherited and he needed money fast. A newspaper in McKeon’s district, the Antelope Valley Press, obtained Countrywide’s phone logs subpoenaed by Congress and printed excerpts this week. The notes state, “Borrower [McKeon] is a bit difficult to deal with. He seems on the edgy side,” and “Borrower wants to close ASAP.”
Read more here: Buck McKeon’s Desperation To Get A Dicey Countrywide Loan Was His Impending Bankruptcy