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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (50427)	5/2/2006 5:37:12 PM
From: Think4Yourself	Respond to of 116555

Looks like they helped so many people that they finally ran out of sub-prime borrowers! Their web site says they'll even help you fill out your paperwork (properly). Maybe that's why they had that $325 Million multistate settlement? That could be a momentous press release, ushering in the next stage of the housing bust. As long as there is a mortgage broker on every street corner the housing bust hasn't really begun. Saw this in there. Is ACC Capital Holdings traded anywhere? This is a company I would love to have in my (anti) portfolio! "Ameriquest is the nation's largest sub-prime mortgage lender."

To: mishedlo who wrote (50427)	5/3/2006 5:45:49 AM
From: Chispas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

More on the Ameriquest closures : ................................................ nypost.com Billionaire Roland Arnall, who built Ameriquest into the largest mortgage lender for poor credit risks, is shutting down most of his company to focus on being the new U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands. The embattled firm yesterday said it's closing 229 branch offices, firing 3,800 mortgage staffers, and consolidating into just five call centers. Arnall's firm was hit earlier this year with charges by 49 state attorneys general that his company used bait-and-switch schemes to cheat customers into taking out more costly loans. Congress held up his long-sought appointment as ambassador until he cleaned up the mess. Arnall recently paid $325 million in penalties and launched sweeping reforms the branch offices - which now are being closed permanently. Sources said Arnall was preparing to sell the stripped down firm to HSBC, which has been on an acquisition spree and owns Beneficial Finance for consumers with bad credit. HSBC declined to comment. Arnall, 67, earned his $3 billion fortune lending money at high rates to the 50 million Americans with poor credit. He was one of the top 10 donors to President Bush. In the bloodbath yesterday employees were assembled in their offices with security guards and fired en masse by a telephone recording from Ameriquest CEO Aseem Mital. "It was cold, and short and sweet - we were told to turn in our keys, empty our desks and get out by the end of the day," said mortgage broker Carl Edgett, one of nine brokers left jobless in the firm's South Ferry, Conn., office. "If we had questions about our severance and commissions due us, we were told to call a number - but when we called it was just an answering service's voicemail box." Included in the shutdown was the sister mortgage chain, Town & Country, whose branches have ceased to opereate. Last month, the French-born Arnall was cleared by Congress to present his credentials to Dutch Queen Beatrix, nine months late.