Free Republic

As detailed in this previous clip, co-authors Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera say there's plenty of blame to go around, from Alan Greenspan .....

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.

he hunt continues! A couple of weeks ago we discussed the various types of Realtors one is likely to come across. Now it is time for the loan officers to be exposed. Once again, this post is littered with stereotypes and generalizations, but we all know we have run across these folks at some point in our lending careers so don't get all politically correct on me. It would be wise for consumers to figure out which one they are dealing with. The Gangster: Maybe you haven't heard, gangs and street thugs have figured out that mortgage fraud is a...

The Hague - The United States ambassador to the Netherlands, Roland Arnall, is resigning. He says he wants to return to the US as quickly as possible because his son is seriously ill. Mr Arnall has been ambassador to The Hague since March 2006. His appointment generated a great deal of controversy. The US Senate initially refused to approve his nomination because his Ameriquest Mortgage Company, which specialised in making high-cost loans to people with low incomes, was being investigated for defrauding consumers. The nomination was approved after the company reached a 220 million euro settlement. Mr Arnall, who is...

Several years ago, state attorneys general and others involved in consumer protection began to notice a marked increase in a range of predatory lending practices by mortgage lenders. Some were misrepresenting the terms of loans, making loans without regard to consumers' ability to repay, making loans with deceptive ''teaser'' rates that later ballooned astronomically, packing loans with undisclosed charges and fees, or even paying illegal kickbacks. These and other practices, we noticed, were having a devastating effect on home buyers. In addition, the widespread nature of these practices, if left unchecked, threatened our financial markets. Even though predatory lending was...

During the housing boom, the subprime industry succeeded at more than just writing mortgages. It also shot down efforts by some states to curtail risky lending to borrowers with spotty credit. Ameriquest Mortgage Co., until recently one of the nation's largest subprime lenders, was at the center of those battles. Working with a husband-and-wife team of Washington lobbyists, it handed out more than $20 million in political donations and played a big role in persuading legislators in New Jersey and Georgia to relax tough new laws. Those victories, in turn, helped blunt efforts by other states to crack down on...

Godfathers of subprimeEstablished in 1979 by Roland Arnall, Long Beach Savings grew rapidly after Wall Street opened the credit tap. It moved to Orange in 1991 and gave up its banking license in 1994, converting to a pure mortgage company.In 1997, Long Beach Savings split into privately-held Ameriquest and a publicly traded subsidiary, which sold for $350 million in 1999 to become the subprime arm of Washington Mutual Inc.Other companies were started by executives who learned the ropes at Long Beach Savings: ResMae Mortgage Corp. in Brea in 2001 and Encore Credit Corp. in Irvine in 2002.  Godfathers of subprimeEstablished...

LOS ANGELES (AP) --- Ameriquest Mortgage Co., once the nation's largest subprime lender, will close with barely a whimper, after the other assets of its parent company were sold Friday to Citigroup Inc. Ameriquest, which saw its fortunes soar during the housing boom by lending to people with less than stellar credit, is the latest victim of a mortgage crisis that has left bankrupt companies and cash-strapped borrowers in its wake. Along with shuttering Ameriquest, Orange-based ACC Capital Holdings also said it was selling its wholesale mortgage origination operation and a mortgage servicing business to Citigroup for an undisclosed sum....

ACC Capital Holdings, the Orange-based parent of Ameriquest Mortgage Co., said it is laying off workers today "across all lines of business" and combining some of its operations to cut costs amid a downturn in the subprime mortgage industry. The company declined to say how many workers are being laid off. Employees said the number in Orange County was at least 100, and possibly many more than that. ACC, in a statement, also said it is "centralizing its retail origination and portfolio retention operations to Southern California and consolidating its New York wholesale loan production operations into its Illinois facilities."...

Citigroup Inc. bolstered the finances of the Ameriquest companies Wednesday by providing new funds, setting up a major credit line and getting an option to buy some operations of the specialist in high-cost mortgages to high-risk buyers. Los Angeles billionaire Roland E. Arnall, Ameriquest's principal owner and the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, also will provide a cash infusion, the Orange-based sub-prime lending company said. It didn't specify how much new capital would flow into the businesses. Citigroup also would become the chief "warehouse" lender for the operations, providing credit to fund loans and hold them until they are packaged...

California's prison guards have given Democratic gubernatorial challenger Phil Angelides a maximum $22,300 donation, but representatives for the powerful union say the contribution does not constitute an endorsement. "While we continue to evaluate the direction we are going to take in the fall, we do recognize that candidates have to be able to reach out to the voting public and voice their vision for California," said Lance Corcoran, spokesman for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA). The union has not donated to Gov. Schwarzenegger's campaign. The well-heeled union is believed to be sitting on a $10 million--or larger--war chest...

ACC Capital Holdings, the parent company of Ameriquest Mortgage Co. and Town and Country Credit, said Tuesday it is closing all of its 229 retail mortgage branches and cutting 3,800 jobs across the country to cut costs. The closures include a handful of Ameriquest and Town and Country retail branches in Sacramento, Rancho Cordova and Stockton, possibly affecting dozens of employees in the region. Ameriquest's California regional mortgage center in Sacramento will remain open. The Orange-based firm, which handles subprime mortgage loans, would not give specific information about local branch closings or jobs cut. ACC Holdings vice-chairman Adam Bass said...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ameriquest Mortgage Co. said on Monday it agreed to pay $325 million in the second largest U.S. consumer lending settlement to clear up claims that its lending practices abused customers in 49 U.S. states. A two-year investigation found that salespeople at the company concealed interest rate and loan costs, pressured appraisers to inflate values of borrowers' homes, and used other high-pressure tactics to close deals, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office said in a statement on Monday. The agreement requires Ameriquest, one of the largest U.S. mortgage lenders to people with poor credit, to pay...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa accepted a prohibited $250 gift from Ameriquest Capital Corp. and will write a check to the company to comply with the law, an attorney for Villaraigosa said. By law, elected Los Angeles officials cannot accept gifts worth more than $100 from companies that have lobbyists assigned to City Hall. "It was in excess of what it should have been," Thomas Saenz, the mayor's general counsel, said Wednesday of the gift basket from Ameriquest. "We are filing an amended report to reflect that he is reimbursing $150 of the amount. It was a mistake."...

The head of the Mexican American Political Assn. on Tuesday called on Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to drop support of an ambassadorship for an owner of Ameriquest and urged him not to use the mortgage company's jet again. --snip-- In a letter to the mayor, MAPA National President Nativo Lopez said his group was "taken aback" by an article in The Times on Tuesday that detailed Villaraigosa's use of the Ameriquest jet and his letter of support to the Senate for the nomination of Ameriquest principal owner Roland E. Arnall as ambassador to the Netherlands. Lopez said his organization...

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa faced criticism Monday for requesting the use of a jet owned by Ameriquest, a mortgage firm that has a City Hall lobbyist assigned to press its interests with the mayor. Villaraigosa, who once worked for the firm, flew last week on the private jet to Detroit with an aide and his security detail after receiving a last-minute invitation to speak at the funeral of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks. "Because of the short notice and the need to fulfill his official duties, the mayor needed the services of a private jet," spokeswoman Janelle Erickson said....

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A judge refused a request by Ameriquest Mortgage Co. founder Roland Arnall to limit his ex-wife's look into his net worth as part of her attempt to get a higher divorce settlement. Sally Arnall's attorney, Vicki Greene, asked Superior Court Judge Richard E. Denner to approve a broad investigation into the finances of Arnall, who is President Bush's nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands. "We want to assess all the assets that were not disclosed or undervalued," Greene said. But Leonard J. Meyberg Jr., lawyer for the Ameriquest founder, told the judge Wednesday that...

[SNIP] “With music that appeals to a wide spectrum of the American public, the Rolling Stones offer Ameriquest a broad platform to strategically communicate our brand, our services and our positioning as, ’Proud Sponsor of the American Dream’" said Brian Woods, Chief Marketing Officer, Ameriquest Mortgage Company. “In today’s saturated marketplace, the Rolling Stones break through the clutter to reach fans in a way that few iconic brands can. Being the presenting sponsor of this tour allows Ameriquest the opportunity to reach those fans by fulfilling their Dream to see the Stones on stage live."

A giant Orange County mortgage company accused of duping low-income homeowners has pumped more than $7 million into California politics since 2002, including contributions to Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Democratic Attorney General Bill Lockyer and dozens of other state legislators, members of Congress and political committees. Ameriquest's top executive, Roland Arnall, also has been one of President Bush's top fundraisers, generating $12 million for the president's political efforts during the past four years. On July 28, Bush nominated Arnall, a billionaire who was ranked No. 106 in the 2004 Forbes magazine list of the wealthiest Americans, as ambassador to the...

Here's the ticket: a private evening rockin' the night away with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger during the kickoff of the Rolling Stones' "A Bigger Bang'' U.S. tour on Aug. 21 at Boston's Fenway Park. Here's the bottom line: $10,000 a pop to get in on a private preconcert reception and front-and-center seats to watch the show -- or $100,000 to sit with the governor in his luxury box. The eyebrow-raising event is one of a cluster of glitzy fundraisers the star-power governor will headline in the next few weeks as he seeks to arm his campaign fund with $50 million in...