Just when I thought I’ve seen it all. From the Washington Post 7/25/05:

“... And so President Bush has picked Los Angeles multibillionaire Roland Arnall , a longtime major Democratic contributor until just a year ago, to a most excellent posting as ambassador to the Netherlands.

How did this happen?

Well, Arnall and his wife, Dawn , were the single biggest source of financial support for Bush since 2002. Over the period, they gave and raised at least $12.25 million. Arnall and his company, Ameriquest Capital Corp., are reported to have given more than $1.2 million to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ® and raised much more.

Arnall’s company is the largest mortgage lender to lower-income folks and those with iffy credit ratings. Concerns about shoddy lending practices, alleged fraud, falsification of documents and bait-and-switch sales tactics have been raised in a few—okay, 25—states, the company announced a few months ago. Ameriquest also said it had agreed to pay as much as $50 million to settle allegations it had defrauded borrowers in four states, the Los Angeles Times reported. ...”

Arnall should be going to jail and as a reward for defrauding the disadvantaged, President Bush appoints him to ambassador.

I read that Ameriquest announced that it set $325 million aside to settle with the states.

This just proves what I’ve been saying:

The feds WANT banks to defraud the disadvantaged, they WANT companies like Ameriquest to go out and make loans at ANY cost, no matter what documents have to be fabricated and no matter how much they lie to the borrowers.

These loans keep the American economy going.

And it’s not just the Feds, California Governor Schwarzenegger is taking the exact same approach, appointing junk faxers to the Cal. Housing Agency and making sure the DRE and the Department of Corporations don’t enforce California advertising laws. Every loan generates thousands of dollars spent in California.

Corruption rules just about everywhere.