For ex-subprime king Ameriquest, money did the talking
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Today’s L.A. Times analysis piece on the spotty regulation of the giant financial firms that backed Ameriquest and other subprime lenders prompted several e-mails suggesting that political donations kept the government at bay.
In a letter to the editor, Daniel J. Fink of Los Angeles said that, ‘Federal regulators may not have been watching Ameriquest Mortgage Co., but various state regulators tried.’
‘Unfortunately,’ Fink wrote, ‘their attempts were thwarted by Ameriquest’s founder and chairman, the late Ambassador Roland Arnall, who made generous contributions to President Bush’s campaign and other politicians.’
Arnall’s wide-ranging contributions to Bush and a host of California politicians were examined in a 2005 Times profile of the late billionaire, as part of an investigative series into his now defunct city of Orange-based empire.
Arnall, who died of cancer last year at 68, tended to give more to Democrats earlier in his life, then shifted focus. He and his second wife, Dawn, were by some accounts the biggest financial supporters of President George W. Bush at the time of Bush’s re-election campaign in 2004.
As the Washington Post wrote in January 2005: ‘Roland and Dawn Arnall of Los Angeles, the chairman and co-chairman, respectively, of Ameriquest, and their companies are more than contributors to the inauguration. They are also the single biggest source of financial support for Bush since 2002. Over the period, they gave and raised at least $12.25 million.’
Arnall’s influence, however, remained bipartisan: Those favored with invitations to the annual December holiday bash at his Holmby Hills mansion would find themselves rubbing shoulders with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, his predecessor Gray Davis, and former California Atty. Gen. (now Treasurer) Bill Lockyer.
Democratic political strategist Garry South, who had worked for Davis’ election as governor, described succinctly how Arnall chipped in with an astonishing political influence and talent for fund-raising. ‘Roland was responsible for Gray becoming governor,’ South told me when I was writing the profile.
A footnote of sorts: When President Bush nominated Arnall to be ambassador to the Netherlands in July 2005, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee refused to confirm him until Ameriquest and its parent company finalized an agreement to pay $325 million to resolve predatory lending allegations brought by dozens of states and the District of Columbia.
As reported by my former colleague, Jonathan Peterson, one vocal opponent on the committee was the then-junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, who questioned ‘whether it is appropriate for us to send someone to represent our country with these issues still looming in the horizon.’
-- E. Scott Reckard
.