An Ameriquest speechwriter’s mea culpa

AMERIQUEST Mortgage Co. recently fired thousands of workers, and its parent company closed six operations centers across the country. It’s reeling from the shakeout in the subprime lending business -- passing out pink slips, tightening its belt and taking lots of little-guy mortgage holders with it.

I can only blame myself.

Everybody else blames the lending practices that Orange-based Ameriquest has been repeatedly accused of: forging documents, hyping customers’ credit-worthiness, “juicing” mortgages with hidden rates and fees and targeting the poor, the old, the disadvantaged. But it was I, a freelance writer from San Diego, who helped the company keep it going.

It all started in the summer of 2005, when I received a call from a friend, a well-respected real estate writer who said she had a job opportunity for me.

I remember talking to her on the phone as I sat in my backyard under a big pepper tree, trying to keep cool in our inflatable pool. My mortgage payment was so high I couldn’t afford air conditioning, but I was happy that after 15 years as a freelance writer, I still owned a home in San Diego, one of the most expensive cities in the country.

The deal was this: writing speeches for Ameriquest’s execs who would be attending an important conference in Florida. Their regular speechwriter was busy and they were desperate to explain to investors what was happening in their company: 49 states and the District of Columbia had accused it of predatory lending practices.

I make my living covering street fairs, ugly dog contests and the occasional hard news story. Just because I had never written a speech didn’t mean I couldn’t. Just because I’m nearly innumerate and had no expertise in mortgage rates didn’t mean I couldn’t make up words for individuals earning more money in a year than I would ever make in a lifetime.

I read the papers; I knew that Ameriquest was on the hook for some iffy dealings, but it had been my own mortgage lender a decade earlier. I figured I could write for the company for a paycheck. My friend suggested a rate of $250 an hour. I almost dropped the phone in the pool.

When Ameriquest’s vice president of internal marketing and travel called the next day, my biggest fear was quoting that fee, but she didn’t even pause. I had three weeks to complete the speeches.

First up, an executive vice president. She gave me 10 minutes on the phone. I assured her that I could write a seven-minute speech by the end of the week, so she could review it and make changes. Just like that, I was a high-priced speechwriter.

I‘m your emcee this afternoon.

We always enjoy coming to Florida for our annual presentation.

This is a great state that is very important to Ameriquest.

Lately we have been reaching out to countless residents who have been impacted by the devastation from Hurricane Katrina .... Our hearts go out to the people who have lost their homes and their loved ones.

Now, undoubtedly you have heard or read news stories raising questions about our lending practices, including the accuracy of our appraisals and interactions with clients.

I am here today to tell you that we are working to resolve these issues and to assure you that Ameriquest is 100 percent committed to providing customers with the credit they deserve to achieve their financial goals.

At this point, Ameriquest was still paying out millions in branding and marketing money, and I was instructed to burnish the big-time glow: It was sponsoring the Rolling Stones tour and the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXIX. The founder, Los Angeles billionaire Roland E. Arnall, would soon be named U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands. The new CEO, Aseem Mital, was being introduced to the investors in Florida.

Even he wanted me to write his speech.

We live in a competitive environment -- and people have a natural tendency to do what’s easy, not necessarily what’s right. That fuels the myth that only the ruthless -- not the righteous -- will survive.

However, that is not true for those whose goal is long-term success -- and I emphasize long term. An organization that shirks its responsibilities might survive in the short term, but that approach always catches up to them.

As I wrote and rewrote, I researched great mortgage companies and not-so-great companies, and I couldn’t escape that one seemed to be the worst: Ameriquest. Right before the conference, President Bush announced Arnall’s ambassadorship, and the company announced that it would set aside $325 million to settle the allegations of predatory lending tactics, all on the very same day.

When I finished the speeches, I got a thank you and, two weeks later by courier, a check for $9,500. I happily made an extra mortgage payment, bought two tickets to Paris and went on with my life.

It was three months after that when Ameriquest called again. This time I was to write for a branch-manager conference in Dallas. By now, the case against the company was hitting the front pages on a regular basis. I knew it wasn’t going to come off looking good unless I wrote some pretty fancy words.

I interviewed a branch manager. I could tell his life story. He had recently purchased a new, 4,000-square-foot home and had moved his family west from New Jersey, enrolling his children in the local schools. He was still gung-ho about Ameriquest. He told me he would hire only “mortgage associates” who weren’t taking the job “just because of the paycheck.”

In November of 2000 I joined one of the oldest and largest home-equity lenders because I knew that they were committed to helping people achieve their homeownership dreams and financial freedom.

I wanted to be a part of that dream.

I interviewed more branch managers and found them personable, even likable. And when they told me they wanted to talk about Ameriquest’s accountability and responsibility to its employees, customers and their communities, I wrote it up for them: five speeches and an introduction for the conference’s motivational speaker, former football player and coach Mike Ditka. When the $9,525 arrived, I quickly made two extra mortgage payments and a small donation to my local Boys & Girls Club.

Not much later, Ameriquest settled with its accusers and paid out that $325 million in restitution to borrowers. It admitted no guilt, but I did. Who was I writing speeches for? What had I done? I figured no one would be calling for more speeches, but what if they did? I tried to think it through.

I asked myself, would I take a gig writing ad copy for a cigarette company although my grandmother had died of lung cancer? The answer was yes, probably, if the money was good. Every assignment didn’t have to score high on my morality meter, did it?

I then contemplated whether I could write a speech for a candidate I thought might send us into an unnecessary war. This time, my answer was no. So I found out something ugly about myself. I would draw the line at mass death and destruction but not necessarily deception.

I didn’t have the words to describe how I felt about what I did for a living, except the ones Ameriquest paid for.

In closing, let me say that Ameriquest has a bright future. Ameriquest is a great American company with a great mission.... I am here to tell you that we are all living the American dream by working for Ameriquest.