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Kim Johnson ReportingShe was the perfect victim - elderly, poor, limited language skills -- the target for a type of mortgage lending under increasing scrutiny.
Marian Paul is a 73-year old Native American woman living on a fixed income. Looking for a four thousand dollar loan, she called Ameriquest Mortgage company. Months later, she's now suing the company that gave her more than she asked for.
The suit claims two men from Ameriquest showed up at Marion Paul's home last March at 10:30 at night to have her sign loan documents. She says the men pushed a table into the hallway to be near the only working light in the house in the bathroom.
Russ Cline, Paul's Attorney: "They pressured her, continued to tell her, 'You're going to save a lot of money. This is a good deal, don't worry everything will be fine.'"
Paul, who has cataracts, asked the men to leave the documents with her so her daughter could read them to her. She says they told her no.
Marian Paul: "And here they talked sweet to me. 'You're not going to be paying as much. You're going to have a lot of money,' and I believed it."
By midnight Paul says she had signed up for a 60-thousand dollar loan, which contained more than five thousand dollars in fees and a much higher interest rate that loans she already had.
Russ Cline, Paul's Attorney: "The unfortunate thing, I think here, is where you have a lender, as has been alleged with Ameriquest, that specifically targets less educated, poor, older people, where they know going into it that these are people that can be easily be misled."
With her home now in foreclosure, Paul says the stress is taking its toll.
Marian Paul: "I cry every day. I pray all night. I even went to the reservation and used a medicine man."
A spokesperson for Ameriquest Mortgage Company told us he can't comment on ongoing litigation. But Ameriquest agreed last month to pay 325-million dollars to settle claims that it engaged in widespread unfair and deceptive lending practices. Some of that money is earmarked for Utahns, but it's not clear if Marion Paul will get a piece of it.
