The Ameriquest Mortgage Company was one of the leading lenders in the United States lending scene. Founded in 1979 in California as a bank then called Long Beach Savings and Loan, it was converted to become a mortgage lender in 1994 and was renamed Long Beach Mortgage Co. The business had two divisions with its retail part being privately run and c
Ameriquest was one of 53 companies to donate the maximum $250,000 toward the Bush."Many believe that Arnall faked his own death, in order to avoid investigation and imprisonment by the FBI for his involvement in a litany of mortgage fraud cases. A naturalized Israeli citizen, he may have fled to Israel to escape any possibility of prosecution."
Ameriquest Mortgage was responsible for so much mortgage fraud and sub prime exploitation that the very name sends shivers up the spines of anyone who has ever worked for, dealt with or been victimized by Arnall and his gang of deceivers. At one point during 2004-2005 Ameriquest Mortgage had over 500 individual class action lawsuits pending...
Top 5 Ameriquest mortgage commercials. Funnier than you think!
It all makes sense now. John McCain’s clueless take on the economy is finally understood. It turns out, according to the New York Daily News, that two of his top economic advisors were lobbyists for Ameriquest Mortgage, a company that was found to have taken advantage of people in 49 states (what, they couldn’t go for all 50?).
Two of his top campaign staffers made hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying for Ameriquest, one of the worst of the predatory lenders. Don't be shocked; that's the story of McCain's whole political career. His economic agenda is a joke and is best summed up in the picture above.
Two top McCain aides were connected to Ameriquest, one of the largest real-estate companies (since gobbled up) and one of the most aggressive in pitching sub-prime mortgages.
Ameriquest was one of the United States's leading wholesale lenders. Ameriquest was founded in 1979, in Orange County, California, as a bank, Long Beach Savings & Loan. The bank moved to Orange County in 1991 and was converted to a pure mortgage lender in 1994, renamed Long Beach Mortgage Co. In 1997, the wholesale part of the business (funding loans made by independent brokers) was spun off as a publicly traded company. Originally founded as a subsidiary corporation under the name Ameriquest Mortgage, it was now renamed Long Beach Mortgage, while the retail part of the business was renamed Ameriquest Capital and remained private. (In 1999, Washington Mutual purchased Long Beach Mortgage.) Ameriquest Mortgage was a private company held by ACC Capital Holdings, which was owned by Roland Arnall.
On August 31, 2007, Citigroup completed its acquisition of its wholesale origination lending unit Argent Mortgage, its servicing unit AMC Mortgage Services and shut down its retail lending unit Ameriquest Mortgage.
Ameriquest was among the first mortgage companies to use computers to search for prospective borrowers and to speed up the loan process.
Ameriquest was widely known in the United States. It advertised widely on television, had blimps that flew over football and baseball stadiums, and sponsored the Rolling Stones (2005 U.S. tour) and NASCAR drivers. Its ad slogan is "proud sponsor of the American dream."
The home stadium of the Texas Rangers was called Ameriquest Field until March 19 , 2007 , when in an undisclosed agreement between the two entities, Ameriquest relinquished the naming rights, and the stadium was renamed to the "Rangers Ballpark in Arlington".
Subprime lenders made $587 billion in new mortgages in 2004, up from $390 billion in 2003, according to National Mortgage News. Ameriquest's share of that is estimated at over $50 billion.
On August 31, 2007, ACC Capital Holdings announced that it was closing Ameriquest by no longer taking loans and selling its loan servicing unit to Citigroup.
Lawsuits
In 1996, the company agreed to pay $3 million into an "educational fund" to settle a Justice Department lawsuit accusing it of gouging and predatory lending practices against older, female, and minority borrowers. Prosecutors accused it of allowing mortgage brokers and its employees to charge these customers an additional fee of as much as 12% of the loan amount. As part of the settlement, Ameriquest (then still known as Long Beach Mortgage) agreed to use the educational fund to train its employees in proper mortgage techniques (training which most observers agree never actually occurred to any substantial degree), and to refrain from utilizing predatory lending techniques (such as "bicycling"), but only within the State of California. Shortly after entering into this settlement agreement, the company "switched" names with its subsidiary, and began aggressively seeking refinance mortgage business throughout the United States.
In 2001, after being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission, the company settled a dispute with ACORN, a national organization of community groups, promising to offer $360 million in low-cost loans.
On 1 August 2005 , Ameriquest announced that it would set aside $325 million to settle attorney-general investigations in 30 states to settle allegations that it had preyed on borrowers with hidden fees and ballooning payments. In at least five of those states—California, Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Florida—Ameriquest had already settled multimillion-dollar suits. Brian Montgomery, the Federal Housing Administration commissioner said that the Ameriquest settlement reinforced his concern that the industry was exploiting borrowers, and that he "was shocked to find those customers had been lured away by the “fool’s gold” of subprime loans".
In May 2006, Ameriquest Mortgage announced it was closing all of its retail offices, and in the future would make its loans through mortgage brokers, a channel that is not covered by the predatory-lending settlement with the Attorneys General.
On June 13th, 2007, lawyers for borrowers, who are seeking to combine 20 suits into one class action suit, asserted in a filing in Illinois Northern District Court that "Assets of the Ameriquest entities were transferred to (the owner of Ameriquest) Arnall with the actual intent to hinder, delay, or defraud the plaintiffs in this action."
The issues confronted by companies like Ameriquest could be a major contributing factor to the rapid rise of Certified Mortgage Planners, certified industry experts that work in concert with Certified Financial Planners in harmonizing the home-finance products utilized by consumers with their larger financial portfolios.
Former employees from Ameriquest, which was United States's leading wholesale lender, described a system in which they were pushed to falsify documents on bad mortgages and then sell them to Wall Street banks eager to make fast profits. There is growing evidence that such mortgage fraud may be at the heart of the Financial crisis of 2007–2009.
Charity
Ameriquest has operated the Soaring Dreams Fund, which gives money to initiatives that help children. During the 2006 NASCAR Busch Series season, the fund was promoted on race cars, whose designs were picked in a contest.
External links
- Ameriquest $325 settlement press release with links to agreement and fact sheet
- Meet the biggest predatory lender in Cleveland — America's new ambassador to the Netherlands. , Cleveland Scene magazine.
- Forbes Magazine top 400 entry for Roland Arnall
- Workers Say Lender Ran 'Boiler Rooms' , Los Angeles Times, February 4, 2005
- Attorneys general comment on their investigation of Ameriquest
- SECInfo.com Ameriquest SEC filings
- NPR: Former Ameriquest Workers Tell of Deception
References
- ^ a b Becker, Jo; Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Stephen Labaton (December 20, 2008). "White House Philosophy Stoked Mortgage Bonfire". New York Times . http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/business/21admin.html?bl=&ei=5087&en=a19dbf6b15622b6c&ex=1230440400&pagewanted=all .
- ^ Case 1:2007cv03325 Illinois Northern District Court Miller
- ^ a b c Road to Ruin: Mortgage Fraud Scandal Brewing May 13, 2009 by American News Project hosted by The Real News
- http://www.oalj.dol.gov/Decisions/ALJ/SOX/2005/MCCLOSKEY_WILLIAM_JO_v_AMERIQUEST_MORTGAGE__2005SOX00093_(DEC_06_2005)_133749_CADEC_SD_files/css/MCCLOSKEY_WILLIAM_JO_v_AMERIQUEST_MORTGAGE__2005SOX00093_(DEC_06_2005)_133749_CADEC_SD.HTM
- http://www.oalj.dol.gov/PUBLIC/ARB/DECISIONS/ARB_DECISIONS/SOX/06_033.SOXP.HTM
- http:
Ameriquest Mortgage Company
2007 Ameriquest Mortgage Company. Trade/servicemarks are the property of Ameriquest Mortgage Company and/or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved.
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