Washington ? The Senate ethics panel cleared Sens. Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad Friday of breaking rules by getting mortgages through a VIP program, but it scolded them for not being more careful to avoid the appearance of sweetheart deals.

The Select Committee on Ethics told Dodd of Connecticut and Conrad of North Dakota in separate letters that it found “no substantial credible evidence” after a yearlong investigation that their mortgages from Countrywide Financial Corp. broke Senate gift rules. The two influential Democrats got their mortgages through a VIP program for those designated as “friends” of then-Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo.

The committee said participants in the program “were often offered quicker, more efficient loan processing and some discounts,” but it also found that those borrowers didn’t necessarily get the best financial deal available. And in both Dodd’s and Conrad’s cases, the panel said the loans they received would have been available to a wide variety of borrowers with comparable financial profiles.