At the height of his predatory lending spree, Ameriquest chief Roland Arnall was appointed by President Bush to be the ambassador to the Netherlands.
When last we left Argent Mortgage Co. [“All the President’s Men,” October 19, 2005], the lender was screwing thousands of Clevelanders using a grab-bag of illegal practices.
Argent’s rise in Ohio was swift. In a three-year period starting in 2003, it filed 11,000 loans in Cuyahoga County alone. Everything was so fabulous that Roland Arnall — head of its parent company, Ameriquest — was appointed by President Bush as ambassador to the Netherlands. But by 2007, the company’s deal with the Devil had run out: Argent went broke and was sold-off to CitiGroup…
This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2008.