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 Ronald Arnall is a pioneer name in the
field of providing bank mortgage. He was instantaneously an American
billionaire, generous political contributor, diplomat and so forth. In recent
times, his name is being pronounced repeatedly in the global economic changing
situation where Arnall's self-styled initiative appears as a nightmare.
A flower peddler
Though Roland Arnall got familiarity as an
American entrepreneur, he was born in Paris, in 1939, on the eve of World War II. Arnall came into life in a Jewish family.
But he was grown up having the identity of Roman Catholic. To avoid the Nazi
deportations, Arnall's parents had to hide the Jewish religious identity. Arnall flew from Europe to America with his
parents after the Second World War. They stayed many days in Canada and finally entered
the United States. At one stage of early life, Arnall would peddle flowers from
streets to streets of Los Angeles and California. Arnall's mother did a nursing
job while his father was a clothes maker. His residence was placed at the Holmby
Hills, CA, United States. Arnall died in 2008 at the age of 68. FOX
Business reported that the reason behind Arnall's death was cancer. Arnall left
behind his two children Daniel and Michelle and his wife Dawn L. Arnall.
Acts for many things
Arnall's name was enrolled in the list of
billionaires. According to the Forbes Magazine, Arnall was one of the richest
persons in America. In 2007, his net wealth value was more than 1.5 billion US
dollar while, $3 billion in 2006. Spending $30 million, Arnall bought Los
Angeles estate that was previously possessed by thw singer Engelbert Humperdinck.
In 1970s, Arnall invested a large amount of
money in real estate business. And later his investment was expanded into
diverse sectors like technology, oil, etc and finally he founded loan lender company
Ameriquest. With founding the Long Beach Savings and
Loan Company (in 1994, it turned Ameriquest) in 1979, he entered into the niche
marketing. His company aggressively provided loan even to the general people. Arnall worked more than two years (from
March 2006 to March 2008) as an ambassador of the United States of America to
the Netherlands. Being enlisted his name in the line of
business, Arnall became the title-holder of ACC Capital Holdings and co-founder
of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Unspoken scandal
Arnall married twice. His first wife was Sally
Arnall. But they officially ended their 37 years marriage life in 1996. But the
news did not end there. After seven-year of divorce, Ronald's spouse appeared
in the court and appealed to look into her ex-husband's wealth in order to
secure more divorced payment. Sally accused her former husband that he hid his
actual finance. However, Arnall did not agree to disclose anything to the media
persons terming it as his personal and family's secret matter.
Much talked name
Arnall became a much talked name for giving
election campaign donation to California politician Arnold Schwarzenegger. Besides,
questions were also raised against Chabad who seemed to be the beneficiary of
Roland Arnall. With a view to supporting George W. Bush's
political endeavors, Arnall along with his spouse raised at least $12 million.
Among the amount, more than $5 million was kept for the advancement of America
Voter Fund. Moreover, he was one of the leading donors
of Republican Party, the associate press reported.
That damaged everything
You know, in recent world, the most
discussed and spoken incident is undoubtedly the world economic recession. If
we investigate the reasons for that unpleasant episode, we find one big thing-
mortgage, aggressively providing mortgage. Arnall's company Ameriquest provided
huge amount of money as loan but they could not able to recover it.
The Ameriquest was one of the American
largest sources of sub-prime mortgage. It had been facing very difficulties
since the start of economic recession in August 2007 resulting from non-payment
of sub-prime mortgage by the borrowers. As a result, the company lost its
profit drastically. And that is why the company recently stopped more than 230
retail offices and dismissed about 3,800 employees.
The Argent Mortgage is the wholesale sister
of Arnall's company Ameriquest Mortgage. Both of the companies appeared largest
sub-prime lenders in America. But their aggressive mood in providing home loan
to the ordinary people brought some difficulties to the companies. Simultaneously,
borrowers raised lots of complains against them and even the company was
accused of cheating with mortgagor. Moreover, it was charged to pay a huge
amount of compensation ($325 million). And finally Ameriquest was handed over
to Citigroup in 2007.
A generous donor indeed
Arnall donated a big amount to establish a
human rights organization named Simon Wiesenthal Center. He also contributed to
the Museum of Tolerance. He was one of the trustee board members of
the California State University where he held the position at least 16 years. In addition, Arnall and his partner
contributed a lot of money to the political parties of the USA. The Federal
Election Commission termed them as generous contributors.
Md. Asraful Alam
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