McCain, Clinton advisers have ties to subprime lenders

NY Daily News: “Key McCain advisers were lobbyists for shady lender”:

“John Green, the senator’s chief liaison to Congress, and Wayne Berman, his national finance co-chairman, billed more than $720,000 in lobbying fees from 2005 through last year to Ameriquest Mortgage through their lobbying firm, disclosure forms reviewed by the Daily News show.”

NY Newsday: “Clinton campaign head made $200,000 with subprime lender”:

“Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign manager, Maggie Williams, earned about $200,000 on the board of a Long Island subprime lender that charged prepayment penalties – a practice that Clinton, a critic of the subprime industry, now seeks to eliminate. Williams, who took over the reins of Clinton’s campaign in early February, served as a director on the board of the Woodbury-based Delta Financial Corp. from April 2000 until the firm declared bankruptcy in December, according to Securities and Exchange Commission records.”

And this postscript from Glenn Thrush at the LA Times’ Top of the Ticket blog:

“The 53-year-old Williams isn’t the only Clinton campaign insider who made money from an industry that their candidate boss demonizes on the political trail. A month ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that Clinton ally and former secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros grossed more than $5 million in stock sales and board compensation from Countrywide Financial, one of the nation’s largest subprime lenders.”