What Whistle Blower and Former High Level Executive Michael Winston Knows About Bankers Crimes Will Horrify You

By David Dayen

August 28, 2013  |  You may know Michael Winston’s story from a series of articles by Gretchen Morgenson in the New York Times [3], or from a celebrated Frontline episode, “The Untouchables [4],” about the lack of prosecutions on Wall Street. He was a Ph.D. who rose to the corporate elite, with stints at Lockheed Martin, McDonnell Douglas, Motorola and Merrill Lynch. He was recruited to mortgage originator Countrywide Financial with the promise that it wanted to become the “Goldman Sachs of the Pacific,” a full-service global financial corporation.

 

“They talked about the importance of ethics and principles, and they said they heard I was a high-integrity guy,” Winston tells Salon, noting his father had a vanity plate that read “HONOR.” Winston initially succeeded as enterprise chief leadership officer at Countrywide, getting promoted twice in 14 months and building a team of 200 working on corporate strategy.