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1. eaboclipper says

   October 28, 2010 at 6:11 am

   It’s Called The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America–and Spawned a Global Crisis.  Our Governor, Deval Patrick, gets double digit mentions in the book which details how Ameriquest took down Lehman and Bear Stearns and by extension the US Economy.  

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   p>If you care about the foreclosure crisis there is no way you can vote for one of the main actors who made it happen, Deval Patrick, but many here will.

   • david says

     October 28, 2010 at 9:18 am

     This is such a tired line of attack, EaBo.  But I’m all for your spending as much of your energy as possible on it, since the amount of traction it’s getting is … ok, that’s a 3 over there, carry the 1 … yup, zero.  Maybe the fact that it’s false has something to do with that.  Voters are usually pretty good at sniffing out the BS.  Which is why this attack isn’t sticking to Patrick, but the strip search problem is sticking to Perry and the Big Dig problem is sticking to Baker.

     • eaboclipper says

       October 28, 2010 at 1:28 pm

       Since you won’t read the book I won’t even make you go to Red Mass Group to read what the book reveals.  I’ll put it right here for you.

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       “We didn’t cause this global collapse, and nobody’s working harder to get us out of it,” he (Deval Patrick) said.

       Boston Globe, October 26, 2010

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       “The governor’s role on the board . . . was a board role, not a management role,” Rubin said. “He was brought in to help fix some of the many problems at the company.”

       Boston Globe, October 21, 2010

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       Michael Hudson: “If you had to pick one figure that did more than anyone else to grow the subprime market, and grow it into the monster that it became, it would be Roland Arnall.” (Ameriquest founder, and Patrick’s friend and patron)

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       p>Far too little time during this campaign has been spent by the media, the public’s watchdog, vetting what really happened with Deval Patrick and Ameriquest.  In light of the financial meltdown caused by the sub-prime mortgage crisis everything Deval Patrick did at ACC Capital the parent of Ameriquest should have been revisited as should Deval Patrick’s role in the economic meltdown.

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       p>Where the Boston media have failed, a shocking new book by Michael Hudson, a staff writer at The Center for Public Integrity, outlines the role Ameriquest played in the economic meltdown, and Deval Patrick’s true role at Ameriquest.  The book entitled, The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America–and Spawned a Global Crisis paints a damning picture of Ameriquest and ACC before, during and after Patrick’s time there.

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       p>The book goes into great detail about how Ameriquest sold over $45 Billion in subprime loans to Lehman Brothers and Wall Street and how that relationship was key in Lehman’s and the national economy’s downfall.  Hudson’s point is that without Ameriquest the economy never would have fallen, it was ACC Capital Holdings that invented the market that caused the economy to collapse.

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       p>”The Monster” also talks about how other AG’s across the country were “not impressed” with Deval Patrick during the 2006 negations and how the result of the negotiations may have “emboldened subprime mortgage industry rather than making it pull back” (page 262, Kindle location 4461) This is explains why Tom Reilly was so aghast at Patrick’s participation in the negotiations in 2006.  He new the true facts.

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       p>We also learn that the entire settlement payout was less than Ameriquest’s advertising  and marketing budget for just one year.  

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       p>The book makes clear that Deval Patrick played a central role in the company and with subprime decisions, not just the advisory role that Patrick and Doug Rubin claim.  The book also makes clear that “Ameriquest’s loans increased the odds that borrowers would end up in foreclosure” not just because of predatory lending but also because of the nature of the loans they wrote “in 2004, just one-quarter of 1 percent of its mortgages went toward home purchases; the rest were refinancing or home-improvement loans. ” Ameriquest was never a home ownership company.(page 222)

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       p>There are several other key revelations that go beyond Deval Patrick’s role in the economic meltdown. They are:

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       p>Patrick’s interactions with ACC Capital while at the Justice department:

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       p>As a DOJ official  Deval Patrick sued the precursor company to Ameriquest – Long Beach Mortgage; owned by Roland Arnall.  There are new revelations that Deval Patrick gave unusual latitude to Roland Arnall and his company, allowing Roland Arnall unique flexibility to personally select which groups would get any settlement money.  He put the person in charge of the crime in the driver’s seat of the punishment.  

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       [Deval Patrick quoted while at DOJ:]”We recognize that lenders understand the industry in ways we don’t,” he said.  “that is why there is so much flexibility in the decree.” (page 93, Kindle location 1580).

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       Arnall then turned these donations into a positive capital.    Arnall gave the funds to “watchdogs”, such as the National Fairs Housing Alliance and the National Association of Neighborhoods to buy their silence. (page 93)

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       p>Investigators were “not impressed” with Deval Patrick:

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       David Huey, assistant Attorney General from Washington on Deval Patrick: “He (Arnall) was pushing Deval Patrick and wanting everyone to know that he had brought Deval on board.  This was supposed to make us happy and satisfied that he was on the up-and-up, trying to do a good job.  We were a pretty cynical lot.  We were definitely not impressed.”  (page 240)

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       p>Patrick did not clean up all of ACC, it’s other subsidiary Argent Mortgage continued the shady practices:.

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       p>The book also points out that ethically challenged Argent Mortgage, one of ACC Capitals major subsidiaries was not even a part of the 2006 settlement and was allowed to continue business as usual.  As one of just five board members, Patrick ignored the abuses at Argent even though he claims to have cleaned up ACC.  (page 262)

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       p>Finally, in one of the most shocking claims it seems Patrick participated in the breaking of numerous state ethics laws.

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       Deval Patrick participated in a major ethics violation of providing free meals to public servants and investigators during the AG’s investigation.  This was the Ameriquest way, wine and dine politicians and public investigators to try and get them to back down.  At the dinner Deval Patrick sat next to Tom James, the assistant attorney general from Illinois.

       Ameriquest never cashed the checks of the public servants.  

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       p>This book paints a complete picture of the fraudulent practices of Ameriquest and Deval Patrick’s complicity in them.  Will the voters care, only if they know.  It is incumbent upon the mainstream media to make the findings of this author public.

       • christopher says

         October 28, 2010 at 2:30 pm

         I’m more than satisfied with his role at Ameriquest.  Working for a corporation does not make one inherently evil.  As I recall he was basically corporate counsel.  There is a clear choice between the top two candidates regarding who is on the side of the people vs. the corporations.  Between his record as Governor and as Asst. AG for Civil Rights the Governor wins in a walk.  Amerquest was brought up in 2006 and the Governor won that election, so that’s not really relevant anymore.

   • centralmassdad says

     October 28, 2010 at 4:37 pm

     I thought it was the Community Reinvestment Act, and Barney Frank!?