"Roland Arnall is the U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands and billionaire owner of Ameriquest, which was once one of the United States's leading wholesale sub-prime lenders. The company is one of the largest privately held retail mortgage lenders in the United States. In early 2006, the company announced a $325 million settlement with state attorneys general and law enforcement agencies and financial regulators in 49 states and the District of Columbia over allegations of predatory lending practices. Ameriquest faced allegations that, among other things, it misled and overcharged borrowers, and falsified loan applications. Arnall now claims he was born in Paris, France. However, according to Arnall himself, he was born in Poland and his Family fled to France when he was 2 years of age to escape the Nazi advance. He seems to have changed his life's story since he had to publish it. He is apparently ashamed of his Polish heritage, but Polish born he is, nonetheless. He was raised as a Catholic, unaware of his Jewish heritage until he was nearly teenage, to avoid the stigma of being a Jew in post-war France. After World War II, he moved to Canada, and relocated to Los Angeles, California in the late 1950s where he and his brother operated a flower stand.
In 1977, Arnall helped found the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization. He served for 16 years on the California State University board of trustees. In recent years, he bought a 10-acre Los Angeles estate for $30 million from singer Engelbert Humperdinck and a ranch in Aspen, Colo., for $46 million from movie mogul Peter Guber. Arnall and his wife, Dawn, have been longtime, generous political contributors, giving to both parties and favoring incumbents, according to Federal Election Commission records. Since 2002, Arnall has given campaign contributions of more than $7 million to California legislators, including $1.5 million to Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In the 2003-2005 period, Arnall and his wife raised more than $12 million for George W. Bush's political efforts, including $5 million for the Progress for America Voter Fund, a self-proclaimed ""conservative issue advocacy organization dedicated to keeping the issue record straight.""
Mrs. Arnall also served as a co-chair for the 2004 Republican Convention and hosted a $1 million Bush-Cheney fund-raiser at the couple's 10-acre home in Holmby Hills, California. After Bush was reelected, The Arnalls contributed another $750,000 for inaugural balls in January 2005.
On August 1, 2005, Bush nominated Arnall to become the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands. The senate approved his nomination on February 9, 2006. Arnall was successfully installed as ambasssador to the Netherlands on March 8, 2006 when the Dutch Queen Beatrix received Arnall's diplomatic letters."