Countrywide CEO Made $10.8 Million, Cashed Out More Than $120 Million in Stock in 2007, According to SEC

Calabasas, Calif.–Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of Countrywide Financial Corp., was paid a $10.8 million salary and cashed out $121.5 million in stock gains last year as the company crumbled, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing made public Thursday.The CEO’s 2007 salary was an 80 percent reduction from 2006, when his salary, stock, pension accruals and perks totaled $51 million.Mozilo earned the stock gains by exercising stock options and promptly selling them through automatic trading plans, which allow executives to sell shares in a straight pattern without concerns about insider trading, the Los Angeles Times reports.But Mozilo executed two plans and amended one just before the subprime market collapsed, which is unusual–and it let him increase the number of shares he sold before Countrywide’s stock fell last fall, the Times said. Late last year, the SEC launched an investigation into stock trading at Calabasas, Calif.-based Countrywide.In 2007, Countrywide lost $704 million and laid off 11,000 employees.