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On 19 March 2008, The Times told us this:
"The self-made billionaire Roland Arnall was a pioneer of sub-prime mortgages in the US, the collapse of which industry led to the present credit squeeze in the West and huge banking uncertainty. The reverberations of THE SUB-PRIME DISASTER HAVE BEEN FELT IN THE COLLAPSE AND TAKEOVER BY THE STATE OF THE NORTHERN ROCK BANK IN BRITAIN and the failure of the Bear Stearns investment bank in the US, bought for a song by its rival JP Morgan Chase last week.
ARNALL WAS ALSO… ONE OF THE BIGGEST DONORS TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY and, latterly, a diplomat, being appointed US Ambassador to the Netherlands in February 2006.
HE WAS ALSO A FOUNDING CO-CHAIRMAN AND TRUSTEE OF THE SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE…
BUT IT IS FOR HIS ROLE IN PROMOTING THE LENDING OF MONEY AT HIGH RATES OF INTEREST TO MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WITH POOR CREDIT RATINGS for which Arnall will chiefly be remembered. HIS LENDING COMPANY, AMERIQUEST… AND ITS WHOLESALE SISTER, ARGENT MORTGAGE, BECAME AMERICA’S BIGGEST SUB-PRIME LENDERS…
The business that styled itself the proud sponsor of the American dream was increasingly accused of operating “boiler rooms” of agents who persuaded borrowers to take out loans that they could ill afford with fees buried in the small print and interest rates higher than promised. The number of borrowers’ complaints mounted, and in 2006 no fewer than 49 state attorney-generals launched class-action suits charging the company with using “bait and switch” schemes to cheat borrowers into taking out costlier loans than they seemed…
Roland Edmond Arnall was born in Paris in 1939 to East European Jewish parents who had fled to the French capital and was brought up as a Roman Catholic to evade the Nazi deportations…
He began investing in property in the 1970s and expanded into financial services, oil and technology. HE SAW A NICHE MARKET AMONG THOSE UNABLE TO GET BANK LOANS THROUGH TRADITIONAL METHODS AND PROVIDED THEM WITH THE MONEY BY AGGRESSIVE SELLING TECHNIQUES. In 1979 he founded the Long Beach Savings and Loan company which became Ameriquest in 1994 and eventually AMERICA’S LARGEST SUB-PRIME MORTGAGE PROVIDER…
In a single year it generated loans worth $83 billion… But rising interest rates led to a steady increase in the number of defaults by borrowers unable to pay, the business found itself in trouble and in 2007 the bubble burst.
Arnall and his wife, Dawn… were generous Republican benefactors.
THEY WERE AMONG THE TOP TEN DONORS TO THE PARTY DURING THE 2003-04 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN AND GAVE $1 MILLION TO PRESIDENT BUSH’S INAUGURATION PARTY.”
On 13 February 2008, BBC News reported thus:
“Sub-prime lenders are bringing more than half of UK repossession orders, despite accounting for just 6% of total mortgages, a BBC report has found…
Official figures showed last week that actual repossessions rose to an eight-year high of 27,000 in 2007… MORE THAN 10% OF THE CASES WERE BROUGHT BY TWO SUB-PRIME LENDERS OWNED BY US INVESTMENT BANK LEHMAN BROTHERS.”
The Lehman family, who founded the bank that bears their name, are Jewish.
On 20 February 2008, The Daily Telegraph told us this:
“The cost of the Northern Rock crisis has reached the equivalent of £3,500 for every taxpayer”!
The man who was America's "largest sub-prime mortgage provider" and "gave $1 million to President Bush's Inauguration party", is pictured below:
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