Posted on 03/17/2008 2:10:40 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
The family of Ameriquest Mortgage founder Roland Arnall says he has died at UCLA Medical Center. He was 68.
The billionaire helped create and later emerged as a symbol of the struggling sub-prime mortgage industry.
A family statement said Arnall died Monday morning but did not give the cause of death.
Arnall was appointed ambassador to the Netherlands in March 2006 after an approval process that was slowed by unsettled issues regarding Ameriquest. the California-based lending company he founded in 1979.
A major Republican financier, Arnall's fortune was estimated at $1.5 billion by Forbes magazine last year.
A major Republican financier ..
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seems to me, dems enjoyed his favor as well.. Villaraigosa and the use of a corporate jet comes to mind.
Sad, but the first thing I thought of was suicide.
who knows, he may have owned a chunk of Bear Stearns..
I learned how NOT to be a loan originator at Ameriquest. Only took me 4 months!
Quite a symbolic event, it seems.
Ameriquest ping
Let’s see—That he was a “major” Republican financier comes up in the sixth line of the piece. Meanwhile, we still can’t seem to accurately peg Spitzer’s party affiliation.
Arkancide?
It sicking that the lamestearm media gets a pass on this
RIP.
What a way to avoid jail time, huh?
Yeah... but Roland put it in his resume. Otherwise, you couldn't tell that the liberals he backed were much different from demrats.
Reminds me of Ken Lay.
Alas, the poor Austrian will be missing a major sugar daddy. Can the New Majority survive the loss?
There have been quite a few of them in Los Angeles in recent history that I can think of. Sam Gilbert, a big UCLA booster and “businessman” (associated with some mobsters) died shortly before his indictment could be acted on. It involved one of the card clubs laundering money for a Colombian drug cartel. Michael Riordan (brother of Dick Riordan), died a year or two before the insurance scam at his company (Equity Funding) was exposed and 22 top-brass convicted.
As to Arnall, I don’t know if he ever would have been prosecuted, but Ameriquest sure had a stench to it. Regarding his politics, I will note that he was a good backer of Jerry Brown for Prez before he became a big supporter of “Republicans” like Schwarzenegger.
He still has Perenchio and Burkle. And they’ve lined up the new guys in the pyramid to be big supporters.
>>Quite a symbolic event, it seems.
Indeed. It’s a pity he never acknowledged responsibility for the machine he created, and the damage it has done.
There was an opportunity for redemption and true leadership there; sadly wasted. Let’s hope others take note.
RIP.
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