One of the key businessmen behind America's sub-prime mortgage crisis, Angelo Mozilo, took home $132m (£66m) last year despite huge losses on unsustainable loans at his Countrywide Financial home-loans empire

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Countryside boss earned $132m

Mozilo, who is co-founder and chief executive of Countrywide, saw his salary and bonus fall by 79% to $10.8m. But he made $121.5m by cashing in stock and share options - transactions which were placed under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission

Before the sub-prime crisis erupted, Countrywide was America's top mortgage lender, with nine million loans on its books worth $1.5trn

But as customers found themselves unable to keep up repayments, the Californian firm lost $704m and laid off 11,000 employees. Amid rumours of impending bankruptcy, Countrywide agreed to a takeover by Bank of America in January

the fall in Mozilo's basic pay was a sign that the company was showing "a little more restraint" in the face of political pressure