Mortgage exec who took rap for subprime crisis prepares appeal

Washington

REBECCA Mairone scarcely deserves a mention in the annals of finance, except for this: she's the only executive of a major US mortgage lender found liable for her part in the 2008 financial crisis.

Ms Mairone was chief operating officer of a division of Countrywide Financial Corp, the California giant that came to symbolise the excesses of the subprime era. While top executives there and elsewhere walked away, Ms Mairone, now 48, was targeted by federal prosecutors.