typical...is anyone really surprised?

Just another example of those who have, getting more and more and those who have nothing paying for it in the long run and getting screwed. It's the new American Way, give wealthy people huge incentive packages, while you eliminate the worker's pension, health insurance, et all.

Perhaps another Bush crony? Who appointed him Ambassador? they need to be investigated and how can someone with such a negative history even become an ambassador?

I heard the report this morning (11/15) on Ameriquest. I, too got caught up in this madness.What can one do? What recourse is there? I want to prevent my home from being taken but what alternatives are there for the average citizen?

Apparently none of these folks could, or did, read the volumes of disclosures and the mortgage noates they signed. In NO WAY does this excuse Ameriquest, or any of the other rogue lenders, but the consumers have to read before they sign. I once ran a national lending company, and feel that the lenders are being asked to shoulder 100% of the blame, wehen the borrowers should rightfully assume their portion.

How come nobody can take responsibility for anything in this country anymore? Are there bad mortgage brokers and bank loan officers out there...yes. Are there ignorant people out there...yes. Take your licks, learn something and move on.

If you don't understand what you are signing:

1) Don't sign it, or

2) Accept that what you are signing may have serious repercussions

If signing your name to a contract no longer obligates you to anything, then I think this Republic of ours is in serious trouble. I think the people that intentionally committed fraud (borrower, broker, loan officer, lender, etc) should have to deal with the repercussions of doing so. However, saying, "I didn't know" is on par with, "the dog ate my homework" to me. Not knowing what is in a document you sign is your own fault. If it was not in the loan documents that is a different story, but I have not heard or seen that happening. Time to take responsibility for the things we do again America.

My husband and I knew something was wrong with this company, they made it sound so great and easy, but where do you start with your complaints. GMA was on this morning 10-15, my husband yelled upstairs, hurry and turn on GMA, we couldn't believe it. SCAM on Ameriquest, finally. Believe me, I will be searching and watching this story. We were SCAMMED and LIED to and I want to jump on the band wagon and get back what they took from us, illegialy. What is happening to honest consumers with these mortgage companies?

What ever happened to integrity? Most average Americans cannot understand the volumns of legal jargon involved with mortgage contracts and we trust the professional lenders to explain what is in the contract. Yes, we could have a lawyer read the documents before signing but how many average americans can afford to hire a lawyer and can we then trust the lawyer any more than the lender? It is sad that our society has become so greedy and deceitful and has lost self-respect.

My husband and I were caught up in the same deceit and had to foreclose on what
was our American dream for family to come, and to lose it after paying mortgage fee every month was devastating
for us. We now live in an apartment that
has plenty of room for us, but not for family affairs and gatherings which is
what I grew up with

Since Arnall and his wife contributed so
much to the Bush-Cheney campaign was he actually paying for the Ambassador to the Netherlands position?

Mr.Arnall should be in jail, not sitting pretty in the Netherlands.If your a friend of Mr.Bush you can do anything.

Loans such as these shouldn't even be allowed. It's a set up from the beginning with only the lender to profit. Consumers must qualify for the initial mortgage based on their income. How do they qualify for payments that will double two years later after the mortgage has adjusted?

I agree with Donald Cameron. People, they give you three days after signing the agreement to review it. Why don't people take advantage of that and really read the fine print? It as much a fault of the lender as the borrower. If consumers would READ what they SIGN then Ameriquest would've been out of business long before they could scam anyone.

It's all fine and good to blame the consumer for failing to read the document. But perhaps you did not follow the story closely enough? Ameriquest has a history of changing the documents AFTER the borrowers have signed. They would set up a closing at the home or office of the borrower. They would change the date of the closing several times, each time with a new rate and new terms. They would send an agent to the closing who would be "running late" and have to "dash off" immediately after the signing, and not have time to make copies of the signed documents, but would "make copies and send them to you". The documents would never arrive, of course, and before long the payments would start to rise, and that would be the point at which the borrower would find out what they supposedly signed was very different from what they recalled signing. Requests for copies of the signed documents would be ignored, so the borrower had no proof of what they actually did sign. And that would be just the start of the borrower's nightmare. As the rate would rise and the payments became harder to make, there would be the harrassing phone calls, sometimes as many as 25 in a 90-minute period; the disparaging comments; even laughter from the Ameriquest agents as the borrower would seek to work with them.

I don't think the Ameriquest borrowers need to hear any more about "read what you sign" or "take responsibility". I know I don't. I DID read what I signed. But what was explained by the agent as we were signing and what we did read before we signed and what they later claimed we signed are all very different.

I have no sympathy for this company or its founder. Surely usury of this nature and extent should be punishable by something other than an ambassadorship.

Another REPUBLICAN like Kenneth Lay. Another company like Cheney's Halliburton. So what else is new? Being a Bush Jr. crony pays off SUPER BIG TIME!

finding ingenious ways to screw hardworking people out of their money, thats the new american way. this is what six years of republican rule has brought us.

Unfortunately, in these times of economic uncertainty, our society always looks for a scapegoat. Who is really at fault?

ALL OF AMERIQUEST ARE NOT EVEIL SO PLEASE DON'T TREAT US AS "PECKS BAD BOY"

Ameriquest had over 259 offices and over 3000 loan officers it is not fair to lum everyone together, Many of us conducted ourselves professionally and only wrote good loans. I managed one of the larger offices in the counrty , located on Long Island. My staff wrote more than 2000 loans over a 3 year period and had only 3 or 4 customer complaints. We still do business with most of our customers. We would take hours explaining the documents to our clients and we would even keep in contact with them during the 3 days recession in case they had any questions.

It is not fair to blame everyone for what a very few bad apples have done! Some of us always tried to do the right thing and there are many clinets out there who are now in a better position because of us.

I am reliving a nightmare, that was the most depressing time of my life, I knew what the told me and the doc's were not what what I signed, sadly I feel relieved that I was not the only one duped this was bigger that anyone knew and of all the money I lost i'll probably get back a few hundred dollars if that, what I would like to see is Roland Arnell stand trial and lose his position.

I too felt that something was amiss. We had a wonderful experience with the first Ameriquest loan officer we delt with in Bensalem, PA. We NEVER once had a problem with our payments or fees, Not one single time in over 2/3 years. So to (aj ittilles in Rhode Island). I would love to here from you. Your version sounds exactly like the, very professional, loan officers we delt with, when we first went with Ameriquest approx 5 yrs ago. BUT THEN, Out of the blue an agent from Calf. called us to have us refinance. He made it sound Wonderful and it was getting close to when we were considering refinancing, in approx 4 to 6 more months. Well this 'so-called agent' said, "He would waive any penalty fees that we would have had to pay for refinancing early" (since we were gonna stay with them,'Ameriquest').
We also were totally scammed by this 'A**#****', like Teresa-posted 10/15-5:30and debbie delenardo-posted 10/15-2:39, Things just were not right, dates for closing changed, dollars amounts changed. When I confronted them with these discrepancies, they adjusted them immediately. Almost to easily. We also had an 'in-and-out' representative who did not have the final copies for us at the time. I was gonna cancel the whole deal before the 3 day period, that all these people are mentioning. But i would call and they would correct anything that was amiss. But as you mentioned WE DID NOT have these corrections, on our copies. We were completely jerked over. Because we had such a positive experience the first time, we thought it would get handled. Well it did! with ignorant phone calls, changing or not honoring what we were 'promised' at closing. Then to boot extra fees were applied for bogus charges. Payments were posted late, intentionally. Oh then they altered the company name, i found that very suspicious and questioned them about that, as did my husband. They side stepped all questions and got back to badgering us again. THEY HAVE EVEN WENT AS FAR AS CALLING MY CHILDRENS CELL PHONES!!! REpeatedly (i just found this out last week). Any of you out there who delt with them know EXCATLY what I mean. When i heard the story on GMA the other morning, I SAT STRAIGHT UP and yelled 'Damn I Knew it'. They're crooks. If anyone can offer me advise please do. We work too hard like all of you to make ends meet. Especially with 2 kids off to college this year. Look forward to any advice or help that can be offered or helpful. Thank you, Tammi and Larry. Another set of victims.