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"Let 'em Eat Kobe Steak" .

New York Post, Feb. 23, 2008

While foreclosed homeowners across America pack cartons of belongings this weekend, a band of junk-mortgage bankers is checking into a lavish Aspen, Colo., lodge to celebrate and dine on $105 steaks - with junk king Countrywide picking up the tab.

The disgraced mortgage outfit - which already has foreclosed on 90,000 loans peddled to largely unsuspecting home buyers - is hosting a three-day getaway at the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch ski resort for 30 mortgage-banking pros who packaged many of Countrywide's mortgages.

Countrywide has teetered on the edge of bankruptcy from its mishandled junk mortgages, firing nearly 12,000 of its employees. It has narrowly escaped ruin by agreeing to sell itself in coming weeks to Bank of America in a $4 billion insider deal.

The handpicked guests, who'll stay in rooms starting at $750 a night, begin their long weekend with a party at Wolfgang Puck's famed new Spago restaurant at the lodge, where Kobe steak is $105, and Kabocha pumpkin flan is $54.

Countrywide defends its extravagant entertainment as necessary business, although event schedules show just four hours a day devoted to business meetings. The rest of the time is for skiing, drinking and dining.

The business meetings would relate to the daily work performed by the guests, who represent smaller mortgage banks that originated home loans and sold them by the carload to Countrywide, earning huge commissions and fees.

An outraged Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has demanded that Countrywide cancel the event and instead use the money to help distressed homeowners refinance their mortgages to prevent evictions.

Countrywide is paying for the hotel rooms, meals, skiing, and tips, says a program given to the attendees.

(Registration)
http://www.nypost.com/seven/02232008/business/let_em_eat_kobe_steak_98946.htm