TAMPA, Fla. — Idanel Bonaparte's credit record had a few dings when she borrowed $108,000 from Ameriquest Mortgage Co. last year to fix up her aging home.
The divorced nurse had an offsetting advantage, though: a mutual fund account worth $25,456.53.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday March 29, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 40 words Type of Material: Correction
Ameriquest documents -- An article in Monday's Section A about alleged falsification of Ameriquest Mortgage Co. loan documents misspelled the last name of a person who has sued the company in Tampa, Fla. His name is George Soroka, not Sokola.
Linda Hubbard, a widow working three jobs, refinanced her home with a $211,000 loan from Ameriquest a month after Bonaparte. As she spread out the loan papers on her kitchen table recently, she expressed surprise to see that she had been credited with a 401(k) retirement fund. Its balance: $25,456.53.
Romy Hodge, a disabled house cleaner, said she was scraping by on $561 a month in disability income when Ameriquest refinanced her house with a $75,000 loan. The documents she was handed at her loan closing, two months after Hubbard's, also showed a 401(k) account -- totaling, once again, $25,456.53.
Unlike the account balances, the stories of the three Tampa women don't match. Bonaparte said the mutual fund was hers, but Hubbard and Hodge said they had no such investment or anything like it.
"Oh, my God, are they saying I owned money? I wish I had money," Hodge said when shown a copy of a mutual fund statement with her name on it.
The identical account balances surfaced in papers obtained by three other Ameriquest customers who have filed lawsuits alleging that the company falsified documents in connection with their loans. The three men say the papers bolster claims from across the country of document falsification by Ameriquest workers.
The Times last month reported allegations, in lawsuits and interviews with former employees, that Ameriquest loan agents falsified applications to help customers qualify for loans or lower interest rates. The agents, in turn, would boost their loan volume and earn more commissions, the lawsuits and ex-workers claim.
Orange-based Ameriquest, the nation's largest lender to homeowners with nicked credit and financial problems, denies any pattern of fraud and contends that the three Tampa suits have no merit and should be dismissed.
Company spokesmen declined to comment on the specific documents in question, but they stressed that Ameriquest took allegations of fraud seriously.
The three plaintiffs contend in court papers that Ameriquest had an "art department" in a Tampa office where loan documents were altered. In interviews with The Times, they've shown stacks of what they say are internal Ameriquest files proving their allegations.
