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Ameriquest Mortgage - incompetent spammers

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Ameriquest spent $20 million to lobby against subprime legislation

Subprime lenders spread lobbyists, cash, tickets around government Nick Juliano

Published: Monday December 31, 2007

Rolling Stones tix among gifts spread to lawmakers

As state governments around the country were trying to regulate subprime lending practices that critics say were responsible for this year’s mortgage meltdown, the subprime industry was spreading cash and gifts to lawmakers in a dozen states.

The Wall Street Journal’s Glenn Simpson details the case of Ameriquest Mortgage Co., reporting the company worked with a married pair of DC lobbyists to spread more than $20 million in political donations in states considering subprime regulations. Ameriquest also handed out stacks of Rolling Stones tickets to lawmakers in eight states as well as to the campaign of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“Home loans made by Ameriquest and other subprime lenders are defaulting now in large numbers, roiling global credit markets and sparking debate about whether regulators and lawmakers should have anticipated the mess and taken action,” Simpson reports. “A close look at Ameriquest’s lobbying and political donations shows how the subprime industry maneuvered to defeat legislation that might have contained some of the damage.”

The industry lobbying focused on state governments since at least 2001. At the federal level, members of the until-recently GOP Congress—who had received $645,00 in donations from subprime lenders—didn’t seem too interested in enacting new oversight of the industry.

“What seemed to be developing in the states was that there was going to be a wave of legislation,” lobbyist Wright Andrews, who coordinated the industry’s lobbying operation with his wife, Lisa, told Simpson.

Although Andrews didn’t directly lobby for Ameriquest, according to Simpson, he “ran three different subprime-industry trade groups: the National Home Equity Mortgage Association, of which Ameriquest was a member; the Coalition for Fair and Affordable Lending, which spent $6.3 million lobbying against state laws before it dissolved earlier this year, according to federal filings; and the Responsible Mortgage Lending Coalition.” Lisa Andrews was a senior vice president in Ameriquest’s lobbying division from 2003 to 2005.

Ameriquest’s state-level lobbying focused on Georgia after the state passed its Fair Lending Act in 2001. The act required lenders to provide a “tangible net benefit” to borrowers when it refinances loans less than five years old.

Ameriquest became “very, very engaged,” in working, along with other banks and mortgage houses, to get the law changed, Georgia state Sen. Vincent Fort told Simon. Fort, the author of the law, said he accused an Ameriquest lawyer of victimizing poor minorities, who made up the bulk of subprime borrowers.

After the law was passed, Ameriquest and other lenders began spreading campaign donations and tickets to lawmakers there. Less than a year later, in October 2002, Ameriquest announced it would state doing business in the state unless the law changed; the ratings house Standard & Poor’s Corp. said it would stop rating mortgages there.

The subprime industry essentially said it would no longer do business in the state until the law changed, Simon reports. Georgia’s state House and Senate voted within months to remove the “net benefit” provision Ameriquest objected to.

The industry worked together to roll back a similar effort in New Jersey. Simon reports that two of the recipients—Republican Gerald Cardinale and Democrat John Adler—introduced a bill “to make changes sought by the industry,” in December 2003, less than two months after receiving Ameriquest donations. The company gave Cardinale $2,200 in October 2003 and Adler $1,200 the next month.

The lawmakers recollections of the time period was far fuzzier when Simon asked them about the proposal’s genesis.

“I don’t remember ever being lobbied by Ameriquest,” says Mr. Cardinale. “I do recall that we were trying to make it easier for folks to be able to access funds. And, in general, I feel it is a good thing for us to remove barriers to people being able to buy homes.” He says he doesn’t remember receiving any contributions from Ameriquest. “You guys think we know all of our contributors, but that’s usually on a staff level. I don’t frankly know who Ameriquest is.”

Adler also didn’t “recall” ever meeting with Andrews firm.

As the Wall Street Journal documented how industry-influenced governments failed to head-off the negative impacts of the subprime lending crisis, new market data revealed that sales of new homes plummeted to their lowest level in more than 12 years.

“I think you can classify what we are seeing in the housing market as a crash,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “Sales and home prices are in a free fall. The downturn is intensifying.”

If you google “Ameriquest, lobbying, subprime” you’ll get a ton of links. 

I’m not in favor of the legislation enacted or discussed, it’s mostly BS.  These legislators are either dimwitted or corrupt.  I propose only ONE new law, to be applied to ALL companies doing business with consumers. 

The ONE new law we really need:

1) impose statutory damages of $1,000 for each lie or deception by businesses dealing with consumers and treble damages for willful violations.

2) allow the recording of calls by all consumers for business calls, preempting state laws.

3) revocation of a company’s business license for frequent violations, from temporary to permanent license revocation.

This would take care of MOST problems with mortgages AND anything else. 

Arizona passed a law revoking the business license of companies who employ illegal aliens for up to 10 days for the first violation, effective 1/1/08.  Already many companies have laid off their undocumented employees.  Notably, some fast food chain already announced that they would stop expanding in Arizona and instead expand in Texas.  And that’s why you need a FEDERAL law.

The possibility of losing the license would stop the lies real fast and any employees acting against corporate policy would be fired.  And instead of battling consumers in litigation, the corporations would quickly SETTLE.  Of course they can take the settlement out of the employee’s salary or final pay check or even sue the lying employee for any deficiency.

Collector Focus did NOT fire James Hurd.  Instead they DEFEND him and claim that it was legal to extort the $250 I didn’t owe by threating to report the disputed bogus debt to the credit bureaus.  You bet they would change their training manual if they could lose their license.  I can’t wait to post the pretrial order with their arguments, due this Friday.

Having observed how PRO SE consumer litigants have successfully sued thousands of junk faxers, I know that MILLIONS would start recording the calls and SUE for being deceived or lied to.

The only “problem” with this law is that it would seriously impact on the economy.

If people aren’t lied to and deceived, they won’t buy the crap.

I’ve sued Ameriquest for lying to me and federal judge Neil Wake saw nothing wrong with lies, whether by Ameriquest, Capital One or anyone else.  Fortunately, I was able to prevail on some TILA or FCRA claim, something technical and complicated, that consumers normally don’t even know about and I got $5k in a settlement with Ameriquest.

The legislators do NOT think that it’s wrong to lie.  That’s of course because they lie all the time.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

From the logs: searches for Ameriquest, Arnall and Patrick

Hadn’t checked the searches in a long time and it’s kind of entertaining to see how people find the site.

Here are the 355 11/1 to 11/21 searches including “Ameriquest”:

1. ameriquest layoffs 56 15.77%
2. ameriquest settlement 9 2.54%
3. ameriquest mortgage 9 2.54%
4. ameriquest fraud 8 2.25%
5. ameriquest complaints 7 1.97%
6. ameriquest sucks 6 1.69%

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Case management conference: Judge Wake sets tight schedule - damages - expert witnesses

Almost forgot to finish this posting about the 11/17/05 case management conference in Phoenix.

I had Anthony Ferlanti and Panda Management Company, Inc. (the Ameriquest spammer) dismissed.  There’s no point to wasting any more resources on deadbeats, I just wanted to document who Ameriquest does business with.

Judge Wake urged the attorneys for Capital One, Equifax and Target to consider a magistrate judge with only 30 or 40 cases as he has over 300 cases.  Despite his promotion of the “great service” by magistrate judges, I doubt they’ll agree.  Why do the defendants always vehemently oppose magistrate judges?

He also discussed expert witnesses and that’s something that I’m really clueless about.  The defendants intend to have experts regarding my damages.  I’m going to have to read up on that.  He asked whether the defendants had submitted interrogatories, they haven’t yet and they intend to do so. 

How do you value 4 years of your life?

Staring at the LCD 14/7/360, being broke, not being able to help or even visit a dying relative, nothing but stress—and I STILL don’t have the Target and Cap One limits on my credit reports. 

PUNITIVE damages are definitely appropriate.

Judge Wake moved the deadlines forward and I obviously won’t be going to Nicaragua this winter.  Just as I finally got a clue about mobile sat connections.

“SCHEDULING ORDER issued: Discovery due by 3/31/2006. Dispositive motions due by 4/14/2006. Proposed Pretrial Order due by 4/28/2006. Signed by Judge Neil V Wake on 11/17/05.”

I had a lot of time to think during this 500 mile round trip to the hearing.  I don’t know of any pro se with a jury trial and I never thought that I’d even consider taking this to trial pro se.  But now I’m quite confident and nothing scares me anymore. 

Every juror has a credit report.

I have NOTHING to lose. 

There’s NO way for me to screw this up. 

It doesn’t matter WHAT happens, I’ll always prevail because I’m right.  If I don’t “win”, it’s not because there’s something wrong with me or my case, but because of a defective legal system and the corrupt “consumer advocate” lawyers.

Of course I’d really like to get some COMPETENT legal help and if I just find the time to send out a bunch of press releases, maybe there is a lawyer who’ll give me some good legal advice for an hourly fee.

Regarding expert witnesses.

I have yet to be able to think of any expert other than possibly Fair Isaac.  I don’t know why I shouldn’t just use the material from Fair Isaac’s websites.

Why do I need experts? 

I can’t think of anyone more qualified than myself.  Can I question the defendants’ experts’ qualifications? 

Can I ask how much the experts are paid for their testimony?

I already posted about those scumbag “consumer advocates” who market their expert testimony for a fee such as $2,500 for an affidavit, payable in advance.  “Consumer advocate” attorney David Szwak is one of those corrupt incompetent morons, sending out his “expert” testimony resume to other lawyers. 

Speaking of that low life, from his 8/02 e-mail:

… I want to make an offer and see what we might work out.  I have a great resource of links to nationwide practitioners who are willing to help consumers with legal questions, etc., filing suits.  You have one of the best site for compiling information about victims and repeat violations/practices.

It seems we ought to join forces.  You have access to victims and pattern/practice data.  We [collectively] have ability to bring legal actions
on behalf of those victimized and to cover clients nationwide via NCLC and NACA.

Some suits would permit grant monies to be awarded in your favor.

We might also help promote your site. ...

I accepted his offer and posted his ad at http://creditforum.org/showthread.php?t=928

Of course that’s all he wanted - free advertising.  He feigned interest in a client’s case initially (prior to my posting of his ad), kept stringing her along for several months to eventually decline her.  He refused ALL my client referrals (not profitable) and he actually wrote:

“The main problem with a BK consumer is that they have already caused maximum damage to their credit/rating.  Causation to damage is tough where they have ruined their credit with a BK [a max derog].  “

He ought the get the “most incompetent consumer credit lawyer award” for that one, what an idiot!  More on super moron Szwak is at Cream skimming CONSUMER ADVOCATE lawyers sold out to the corporations

So I’m wondering whether the grant money he promised (but never delivered) is only for class actions.  Since neither NACA nor ANY of these fake consumer advocate organizations provide assistance to consumers, it would be too cool if I could ask for some cash for myself and have anything above a certain amount go to establish a self sustaining consumer litigation organization

I’ve seen junk fax litigation settlements with part or all of the amount going to charitable organizations.  Of course you’d have to get a lot more than I’ve gotten in my settlements so far to actually be able to do something and hire at least one COMPETENT lawyer.

Every juror is extremely likely to be in need of such a service sooner or later.

Well, first thing’s first, and that’s discovery.  Judge Wake said he will decide in his ruling regarding the pending Target motion whether the reporting of the credit limits is required as a matter of law.  If he decides that “complete” credit reporting does NOT include the credit limits, I’ll definitely appeal.  But, I have to wait until the case is terminated, so the sooner we wrap this up, the better.

Regardless of what happens, I’ll get a chance to learn from my mistakes, publish the events to help the next pro se do better and of course I can use what I learn against Experian and whoever remains in my first case. 

I really need to send out lots of press releases.

Someone sent me
Ameriquest Mortgage Illegal Purchase of Consumer Credit Reports and it’s great to see how these press releases are the gift that keeps on giving.

There’s so much one can do, it’s too bad that I’m the only one “doing.”

Monday, November 21, 2005

Civil rights groups paid off by Ameriquest support CEO Arnall for ambassador

What a wonderful display of the corruption on Capitol Hill and in civil rights organizations:

Ameriquest Exec Has Unexpected Backers

Behind the scenes, the lender is trying to nail down a $325-million settlement that would break the logjam and probably assure Arnall’s confirmation.

Meanwhile, others have lobbied for the nomination to be approved without delay. When the publicity-shy Arnall trekked to Capitol Hill for his confirmation hearing last month, his supporters inside the Senate Foreign Relations Committee room included Wade Henderson, head of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; Shanna Smith, head of the National Fair Housing Alliance; and Ricardo Byrd, head of the National Assn. of Neighborhoods, which pushes for economic development of minority and low-income communities.

All three groups have benefited from Arnall’s philanthropy. As they tell it, Arnall, 66, is a believer in human rights, a value forged earlier in life when his Jewish family was forced to hide out in German-occupied France during World War II.

Their support has gotten members’ attention, if not defused the concerns.

“Let me say at the very outset that you have a very commendable life story, and I have great respect for it,” said Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.), who has emerged as Arnall’s chief interrogator on Capitol Hill. “You have a number of friends who are friends of mine.”

....

Corrupt bastards, everywhere I look.  You might recall my posting Corrupt democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick praises Ameriquest CEO Roland Arnall

Of course I did NOT get a response to my e-mail.  Guilty as charged.  They have NOTHING to say.

… The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, for example, last year received more than $250,000 from Ameriquest for training and other organizational needs.

Henderson, who has insisted that the money comes with no strings attached, declined to comment for this article.

Byrd acknowledged that his association had received “a considerable amount” of money from Arnall over the years, much of which has been used to educate activists about the sub-prime mortgage market and its potential benefits for those in need of credit.

But Arnall is “a man of integrity,” Byrd said, adding that Ameriquest ran into trouble with the states because it did not police its loan agents as well as it should have as the company rapidly expanded amid a boom in home refinancings.

Patrick, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor of Massachusetts, said one of his earliest impressions of Arnall came when they met to negotiate the 1996 Long Beach Mortgage settlement at the Justice Department.

“We sat around my conference table, we talked it through, and I’ll never forget Roland saying to me: ‘How am I supposed to explain this to my mother … that I’m being sued by the Justice Department for violations of human rights?’ “

Arnall took a constructive role in the settlement talks and went on to support higher industry standards, Patrick said.

About a year ago, Arnall invited Patrick to become a board member of ACC Capital Holdings, the parent of Ameriquest.

Patrick, who declined to reveal his compensation as a board member, said he accepted the offer because he thought good could come of his involvement.

“He wants to do the right thing,” Patrick said of Arnall.

Corrupt Patrick “declined to reveal his compensation.” Does he really think that’ll make him look any better? 

Why isn’t there a LAW against corruption?

I guess it’s because we wouldn’t have any legislators and there would be no consumer or civil rights organizations if corruption was illegal.

A google for “define corrupt”

Definitions of corrupt on the Web:

* corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality; “debauch the young people with wine and women”; “Socrates was accused of corrupting young men”; “Do school counselors subvert young children?”; “corrupt the morals”
* lacking in integrity; “humanity they knew to be corrupt...from the day of Adam’s creation”; “a corrupt and incompetent city government”
* crooked: not straight; dishonest or immoral or evasive
* alter from the original
* bribe: make illegal payments to in exchange for favors or influence; “This judge can be bought”
* containing errors or alterations; “a corrupt text”; “spoke a corrupted version of the language”
* defile: place under suspicion or cast doubt upon; “sully someone’s reputation”
* touched by rot or decay; “tainted bacon”; “`corrupt’ is archaic”
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

* In broad terms, political corruption is the misuse of public office for private gain. All forms of government are susceptible in practice to political corruption. Degrees of corruption vary greatly, from minor uses of influence and patronage to do and return favours, to institutionalised bribery and beyond. The end-point of political corruption is kleptocracy, literally rule by thieves, where even the external pretence of honesty is abandoned.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupt

* Changed from good to bad, dishonest, to make wicked, to defile.
http://www.godonthe.net/dictionary/c.html

Here’s the law we SHOULD have:

NOBODY testifies in at any government hearing on behalf of any person or entity if compensation was received from that person or entity in the previous 5 years.  Anyone testifying for a person or entity cannot accept any compensation whatsoever from that person or entity for 5 years from the testimoney.

Patrick claims that Arnall wants to do the right thing.  Read their Motions to dismiss! Ameriquest could have apologized for their loan agent’s failure to send me the credit reports and it could have provided the promised reports.  It’s that simple.

Instead, they were as vile as could possibly be, filed 3 motions to dismiss and LIED about the reason for my decline.

They did not even fire the agent Beatrice for SELLING my data to another broker after reviewing the credit report.  They LIED about declining my application due to my credit report.  The FCRA and ECOA REQUIRES notification and disclosures so that consumers can take advantage of their rights under the FCRA.  Ameriquest did everything it could to deprive me of those rights.

Deval Patrick and all these “civil rights” corrupt thieving perverts WILL get what they have coming - sooner or later.

c: notice of publication and request for comments to , ,

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Corrupt democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick praises Ameriquest CEO Roland Arnall

Patrick backs Ameriquest owner for ambassador’s post

By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff | November 10, 2005

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick is urging the US Senate to approve a controversial ambassadorial nominee whose mortgage firm’s lending practices are under investigation in 30 states and whose wife helped finance a GOP television ad blitz that targeted John F. Kerry in last year’s presidential campaign. 

Patrick last month wrote the Senate Foreign Relations Committee praising Roland Arnall, the principal owner of Ameriquest Capital Corp., whom President Bush has nominated to be US ambassador to the Netherlands. Patrick lauded the Los Angeles businessman’s ‘’rectitude” and said that Arnall has demonstrated leadership and creativity in moving to correct his company’s practices.

‘’This is a good man,” Patrick wrote in an Oct. 19 letter addressed to Senator Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican who chairs the committee, and to the ranking minority member, Senator Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat.

But his support for Arnall puts Patrick at odds with fellow Democrats and Kerry supporters, just as Patrick is trying to get traction in his campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor. The Democratic National Committee in Washington opposes the Arnall nomination, calling it an example of ‘’corruption and cronyism” in the Bush administration. Kerry also opposed the nomination.

Patrick said this week he did not consider the political repercussions when he responded to a request from Arnall to write the letter.

‘’My support for this guy was not a political calculation,” he said in an interview. ‘’My support was based on his friendship and his character. If it was based on his politics, I would not have written that letter.”

Arnall put Patrick, a former top US civil rights enforcer, on the Ameriquest board of directors in August 2004, to help resolve a wide-ranging investigation by regulators and attorneys general across the country. The privately held firm has over the years been forced to defend itself against allegations that it uses predatory lending practices directed at low-income minorities and the elderly.

....

The rest of the article is well worth reading.

This just goes to show what lowlife corrupt scum runs for office.  Arnall put Patrick on the Ameriquest board of directors in August 2004 “to help resolve a wide-ranging investigation by regulators and attorneys general across the country.”

How can Patrick so sell out?

Values have been reduced to $$$$ and power.

However, the real problem isn’t that Patrick is scum. 

The problem is that Patrick thinks he can still get ELECTED to Governor of Massachusetts!

As the last election proved AGAIN, the American people really don’t care about corruption. 

http://www.devalpatrick.com/

My e-mail to , ,

To Mr. Patrick and staff:

According to an article in the Boston Globe, Deval Patrick praised Ameriquest CEO Roland Arnall and supported his appointment to ambassador.

Nobody in their right mind would endorse a scumbag like Arnall unless paid off.

Patrick is a disgrace to the democratic party and ought to be expelled.

Most disgusted by the politician scum that runs for office,

Christine Baker

c: posted at [this URL].

I don’t know whether political parties ever expel anyone.  If they had any values, they would kick out a-holes like Patrick in 2 nanoseconds.  But it’s really just about $$$ and power everywhere. 

There’s no integrity in any political party.

You’d think that having the information available on the web, it would be easy to not only document and publicize the corruption, but to put pressure on the politicians.  I just don’t see it happening. 

A stunt like Patrick’s Arnall praises should immediately result in him having to withdraw because he and his supporters SHOULD know that he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell to get elected.  His supporters ought to RUN!

There should be similar postings at thousands of blogs.  Patrick’s office should get thousands of e-mails demanding that he immediately retract his support of Arnall and send a new letter to the Senate, demanding that Arnall NOT be appointed.

But, that’s not going to happen.  The Ameriquest victims are *mostly* whiners and complainers, cowards afraid to offend anyone, scared sheep limiting their activities to anonymous rants.

America 2005.