Loans made to two Tampa, Fla. women show former Ameriquest employees may have manipulated investment account statements, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The Times article said a 401(k) statement from one Ameriquest Mortgage Co. borrower was altered and used on two other borrowers’ loans. The fraud reportedly enabled otherwise unqualified applicants to obtain financing from the Orange, Calif.-based lender.
Identical account balances surfaced in papers obtained by three men who have filed lawsuits against Ameriquest alleging that the lender falsified documents in connection with their loans, the Times said. The men reportedly say the papers bolster nationwide claims of document falsification by Ameriquest employees.
The Times has drawn national attention to Ameriquest from a series of articles suggesting the subprime lender runs a boiler room operation that encourages employees to commit fraud.
In addition to the fake 401(k) statements manufactured from the company’s “art department,” the Times reported one of the borrowers — now a mortgage broker — had an application with stated income of more than double her actual income.
Ameriquest denied any pattern of fraud and contended that the Tampa lawsuits have no merit and should be dismissed, the article said. But a company attorney was quoted as saying a number of people who worked at the office in question had been fired as a result of an internal probe.
Related:
Ameriquest in Hot Water Over Lending Practices
Ameriquest Mortgage Co. has agreed to settle a California class action lawsuit and is in talks with dozens of states over alleged abusive lending practices, the Los Angeles Times reported.
