While the US was heading into the subprime meltdown, lawmakers around the country were being dissuaded from bringing in laws to curtail their sharp lending practices and Predatory lending through deceptive or unfair practices in the sale of high-interest loans, often to low-income borrowers who could not afford them. To stop the legislation going through, the subprime industry handed out cash and gifts as if it was Christmas, spending millions of dollars in political donations to persuade legislators in various states to relax tough new laws, reports Glenn Simpson at The Wall Street Journal.

Combing through federal and state campaign-finance records, Internal Revenue Service filings, and data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics, Simpson reveals that Ameriquest, its executives and their spouses and business associates donated at least $20.5 million to state and federal political groups. The other subprime giant Countrywide Financial, gave about $2 million in campaign gifts, and spent an additional $6.7 million lobbying in Washington.

And we learn that Ameriquest also handed out stacks of Rolling Stones tickets to lawmakers in several states as well as to the campaign of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Worse still, Ameriquest bankrolled George Bush who received more than $200,000 for his 2004 re-election campaign. Simpson shows that Ameriquest founder Roland Arnall and his wife, Dawn, contributed more than $5 million to political organizations that backed the president. And his efforts were rewarded. Last year, President Bush appointed Mr. Arnall ambassador to the Netherlands, and his wife took over as chairman of Ameriquest's parent company, prompting Peter Cohan at Blogging Stocks to ask the obvious question: "Will the subprime disaster become part of president Bush's legacy? Ameriquest's cash and Rolling Stones tickets suggest it already is part of the legacy of several state government officials".

Clearly, the subprime industry could see the writing on the wall and was taking its cue from The Stones:

"Gimme, gimme shelter
Or I'm gonna fade away."