Mozilo faces a barrage of criticism about the way he mishandled the company and brought it to the brink of bankruptcy, about his personal compensation, the extraordinary amounts he accrued by cashing in Countrywide stock in the months preceding the subprime mortgage crisis which decimated the value of the company's shares, and about using the company as a personal fiefdom to grant favors for friends by approving loans at lower rates or without necessary safeguards.