In this video I produced, I talked with former Ameriquest employees who spoke about the corrupt culture that permeated the entire company. It seems like the fraud problem is just now bubbling up to the surface. Now that homeowners are facing foreclosure they are examining their loan agreements and finding fraud.
Experts I have spoken to say that fraud was so rampant in the subprime lending industry that the investment banks who bought all of the mortgages have no idea of the true value of their assets.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the financial crisis was the product of more than just corporate greed; as more of these stories surface it could become apparent that there was large scale white collar crime carried out at the highest levels of the mortgage and investment industries.
Then the question is: Who goes to jail?
Criminal fraud may be the most underreported aspect of our current financial crisis. In this "Road to Ruin" report, former subprime lenders from Ameriquest, once the country's largest lender, describe a system rife with fraud. They describe how a "by-any-means-necessary" policy pushed employees to cut corners and falsify documents on bad mortgages and then sell the toxic assets to Wall Street banks eager to make fast profits.
There is a lot more that I would like to cover on this subject, so please let me know if you have any thoughts on this or other stories you think should be covered in video form.
You can email me directly at lagansebert@gmail.com