The rogues gallery of pay-for-failure CEOs is scheduled to get three new inductees Thursday, when the chief executive of Countrywide Financial Corp. and the former heads of Merrill Lynch & Co. and Citigroup Inc. are hauled before a congressional committee to defend their multimillion-dollar compensation packages amid the subprime-mortgage mess.

The trio make inviting targets. Angelo Mozilo sold more than $360 million of Countrywide shares between 2004 and 2007; but Coutrywide's stock plunged more than 80% in the past year,...