Let me start off by saying that I have read a ton of reports and rebuttals on this website from current and former Ameriquest employees. It is evident that the unethical and/or illegal business practices are exercised in most if not all branches of the company, nationwide.
I recently resigned from Ameriquest after 3 years of jumping through hoops, and compromising my beliefs, my health, my family, and my personal life for the unrealistic expectations of an irresponsible, greedy mortgage company.
During my employment with Ameriquest, I was led to believe that Ameriquest was the only place I could afford to work, having recently graduated college, with substantial student loan debts, which had to be paid back.
The entire time I was employed with the company, I was told that I should be "grateful" for the opportunity I had been given. Since my resignation, I have realized that this is completely inaccurate.
The following is just an idea of the type of unethical/immoral behavior that I have personally witnessed:
*In the 3 years I worked for the company, I had 14 Branch Managers, because they kept getting prematurely promoted, then demoted or terminated within 3-6 months. I also had also had 4 Area Managers, and 2 Regional Managers, all of whom were either transferred because of a controversey/lawsuit or fired because of lack of production.
*A typical day in an AMC retail branch began at 9am, and ended around 11pm to midnight, and lunches were usually not permitted. It was usually suggested that employees "order-in" for lunch, so they can get as much done as possible. If an employee needed to run errands during their "lunch hour", they had to specifically explain why it was something that had to be done during business hours, and was still frowned upon.
*It was also "strongly suggested" that employees work Saturdays and Sundays to "catch-up", unless they had a prior commitment for the weekend, which rarely ever took priority over working.
*Branch Managers and other branch employees were always calling Real Estate Appraisers threatening to "black-list" them unless they over-inflated property values to "make the deal work", which is obviously illegal, but many appraisers comply with the demand because Ameriquest sent them so many orders, and they were afraid to loose the business. Many of the appraisers had never made any where near the money they were making from Ameriquest loans.
*Branch Managers and other branch employees had similar practices with Title Companies. They would bend-over-backwards to get Ameriquest loans, and keep the branches happy. Many times, this included removing or hiding abstracts of judgments and other liens just to satisfy the AMC employees. It had nothing to do with the best interest of the borrowers.in fact, in many cases, when the borrowers have title work done in the future, they will find liens/a.J.'s that were somehow "missing" from the previous AMC title commitments, because their "title buddies" took care of it to keep the branch happy.
*In other cases, title companies would bribe Area Managers to "require" the branches to only use their title company, so that the Area Manager is set-up with a kick-back from the title company for giving them all of the Ameriquest business for that particular area.
*I won't even begin to mention the unethical behavior associated with "stated income" loans, not to mention, the "stated income" loans that were forged by branch employees without the borrower ever knowing that their true income (W-2's, bank statements, etc.) was not enough income to qualify them for the loan they signed.
*It was typical to combine all 3 scams to close the "quick, easy" loan. According to Branch Managers/Account Executives, it's really easy to sell a loan that sounds too good to be true. Obviously, that was the case, because they would have the appraised value inflated, so they could give the borrower more cash than expected, then have the title company remove any liens they "didn't want to pay" as to keep the cash-in-hand maximized, which looks even better to the borrower, and finally when the borrower's income didn't support that loan amount, rather than paying off some of their debts, and making them payments affordable, they would just forge a "stated letter" doubling, or tripling, their income figures.
Anyone who gives this any thought can see that this is the perfect formula for "writing someone into foreclosure". If you, as an employee know and understand that the borrower you are writing a loan for does not qualify for the loan, you should be prosecuted. Better yet, the management who trains you and pressures you to do such things, should most definitely be prosecuted.
Rowland, Mary Jo, Joe Henderson, Mariano, Travis, or any of those other fools can't possibly say they don't know these things are going on. They are ignoring the problems for as long as they possibly can, because they make enough money in a few months to live for several years, if not retire from a couple of years at Ameriquest. They are obviously making enough money to buy themselves out of any trouble they are getting into, watch the news, read the papers...
This whole situation is unreal. I am very relieved to now be working for a very reputable mortgage company, while making better money than I was at Ameriquest, which everyone told me wasn't possible.
If anyone is interested in talking seriously about retribution for unpaid wages/commissions that are owed to you by Ameriquest, or if anyone is working with a good attorney already, please contact me at [email protected].
Oh, and everyone, please remember:
"KARMA IS A MOTHERF*CKER"
Pissed Bi-otch
Orange, California
U.S.A.
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