On November 28, 2007, U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer appointed Thomas P. DiNapoli, Comptroller of the State of New York, and the New York City Pension Funds (collectively, the “New York Funds”) as Lead Plaintiff and approved their selection of Labaton Sucharow LLP to serve as Lead Counsel in In re Countrywide Securities Litigation, No. CV-07-5295 MRP (MANx) (C.D. Cal.), a consolidated class action asserting claims under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 against Countrywide Financial Corporation (“Countrywide” or the “Company”), certain of its current and former directors and officers, outside accountants, and underwriters of public offerings of Countrywide securities. The New York Funds represent a Class of all persons and entities who purchased or otherwise acquired the publicly traded securities of Countrywide during a class period between March 12, 2004 and March 7, 2008.

Plaintiffs generally allege, among other matters, that Defendants violated securities laws by making false and misleading statements concerning Countrywide’s business as an issuer of residential mortgages, and regarding the creditworthiness of borrowers, underwriting and loan origination practices, loan loss and other accounting provisions, and by misrepresenting high risk low documentation loans as being “prime", violating generally accepted accounting principles (GAAPO) and engaging in other false and misleading statements.

A material portion of the Company’s loans was made to individuals on a “no-documentation” or “low-documentation” basis, which means that Countrywide gave loans without requiring traditional paperwork, such as income and/or employment or asset verification. Such loans were referred to in the lending industry as “liar loans” because they invite applicants to inflate their stated income levels and/or assets to obtain credit. The Company reported such low-documentation loans as “prime” loans even when they were substantially riskier than traditional prime loans, while repeatedly (and falsely) touting Countrywide’s supposedly superior and more conservative approach to lending, an approach that, investors were assured, would allow Countrywide to prosper as weaker companies fell by the wayside.

While the price of Countrywide stock was artificially inflated by Defendants’ false representations, and before Countrywide’s stock price collapsed, insiders received $867 million from Countrywide stock sales, of which the Company’s CEO, Angelo R. Mozilo, received nearly $450 million. In contrast, the decline in market capitalization suffered by Countrywide investors was in excess of $25 billion. Countrywide bondholders suffered additional large losses.

On April 11, 2008 a Consolidated Amended Complaint was filed providing substantially more detail concerning the Defendants' fraudulent scheme. Defendants will have until June 10, 2008 to respond to the Consolidated Amended Complaint. A copy of the Consolidated Amended Complaint may be viewed by clicking this link: Consolidated Amended Complaint