WELL, THIS SEEMS LIKE NEWS:

The Wall Street Journal reports that a federal grand jury in Los Angeles is investigating the so-called “Friends of Angelo” loan program at Countrywide Financial, under which influential borrowers received preferential terms on home loans.

The reported borrowers under the program have included U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), former Fannie Mae Chief Executive Franklin Raines, and California state appeals court judge Richard Aldrich.

Stay tuned. More on the “Friends of Angelo” — really, it you put that in a novel it would seem ridiculously heavy-handed — in this article from Portfolio.com.