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Settlement checks mailed in Ameriquest predatory lending case

More than 21,500 residents of New Jersey and Pennsylvania are sharing $23 million from a multi-state class-action settlement with Ameriquest Mortgage Co., the largest supplier of subprime loans to the Philadelphia region in 2005.

More than 21,500 residents of New Jersey and Pennsylvania are sharing $23 million from a multi-state class-action settlement with Ameriquest Mortgage Co., the largest supplier of subprime loans to the Philadelphia region in 2005.

Checks ranging from $172 to $6,350 in New Jersey and from $91 to $5,117 in Pennsylvania were sent out today and yesterday, officials said.

The money is part of a $325 million lending settlement that was reached in Jan. 2006 and resolved allegations that Ameriquest employees deceived consumers and used high-pressure sales tactics to boost commissions.

"Many of the consumers involved in this case had modest incomes or poor credit, and were forced to pay higher interest rates and larger monthly payments than they had initially been led to believe," Pennsylvania attorney general Tom Corbett said in a news release.

Ameriquest, of Orange, California, stopped taking applications in August and its parent company sold part of the operation to Citigroup Inc. in September.

Ameriquest, which specialized in refinancing, made 3,437 loans in the eight-county Philadelphia area in 2005 worth $504 million, or 7.6 percent of the region's total subprime mortgage business, according to federal data.

In New Jersey, 9,132 borrowers will receive a total of $12.2 million, said Lee Moore, spokesman for the New Jersey office of the attorney general. The total awarded in Pennsylvania was $10.8 million to 12,401 borrowers.

The settlement, which established a $295 million compensation fund, covered 1999 through 2005. Borrowers eligible for payments were notified last summer and had until Sept 10 to submit a claim.