Two-time Pro Modified champion and Top Fuel owner Mike Ashley believes the government is on a mission to try a civil suit against his company in the media and not in a court of law. Despite the legal distractions, Ashley is confident Antron Brown and the Matco Tools team will mount a serious charge for the championship over the final two races of the NHRA season.

While Brown and co-crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald, put forth their best efforts at the drag strip, Ashley will deal with what he claims is a nuisance fueled by a vendetta.

A civil complaint was filed October 20, 2009 in federal court in Central Islip against Ideal Mortgage Bankers, Ltd. d/b/a/ Lend America, a mortgage lender located in Melville, Long Island, seeking a court-ordered injunction to prevent the company from making loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (“FHA”). The complaint also sought relief against Ashley, Executive Vice President and Chief Business Strategist.

“The government is on a massive crackdown because of what happened with the whole subprime mess,” said Ashley, Thursday morning, in an interview with CompetitionPlus.com. “They incorrectly filed a civil suit against us … not a criminal suit … a civil suit. The suit accuses us of 40 fraudulent loans in our portfolio.”

Ashley said those 40 loans were among 12,000 loans his company had processed in that same period.

“Forty loans is no trivial matter,” he continued. “We take that very seriously. However, the allegations of fraud are without evidence … without basis … there’s no proof that we knew anything. If a borrower wanted to defraud us to buy a house and made up something … we have tremendous fraud guards in place … and these things slip by from time to time.”

In a press release issued October 20 by the United States Justice Department, United States Attorney General Benton Campbell issued the following statement.

“Fraudulent lending practices that compromise the integrity of the FHA mortgage insurance program and contribute to the alarming increase in loan defaults and housing foreclosures will not be tolerated. We will use all means at our disposal to stop those who engage in such activity.”

Ashley pointed out that he’s willing to indemnify the government.

“The problem is that there’s one guy in the Inspector General’s office who can’t stand Michael Ashley,” he said. “Every few years he tries his best to go after me to put me out of business. His problem is that in America, we have a justice system and you just can’t do that. When we got our day in court, which was yesterday, the judge looked at all of that information and said, ‘There’s no way.”

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Bianco in Central Islip, N.Y., denied the request by prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn, for a temporary restraining order on Wednesday against Ideal Mortgage Bankers Ltd., which does business as Lend America. FULL ARTICLE:  http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091021-718682.html

“There was no evidence and no proof of anything,” Ashley explained. “He just categorically denied their request and that was it.”

Ashley sees the civil suit as nothing less than a personal attack on himself, as well as his company. He also believes the civil suit is likely in retaliation for a lawsuit he filed against HUD in May 2009 but withdrew when the situation was resolved.

“Just to give you an idea of how this government behaves, they are doing this to everybody so quickly that the same complaint they filed against someone else, and put out of business, still had that company’s name in my filing papers,” Ashley said, discussing Madison Home Equities. “It’s almost as if they cut and pasted my company’s name in there.”

For Ashley, every time one of these issues, such as the civil suit, arises past transgressions always find their way into the mix.

In 1996, Ashley pled guilty to charges of mail fraud and was sentenced to probation and fined more than $30,000 in a sting at a separate mortgage company run by his father.

“When I was younger, I was caught up in something with my father,” Ashley explained. “They keep harping on the same thing that happened 20 years ago. That WAS 20 years ago. They keep harping on the same thing over and over. Whatever it is … I’m not perfect and people make mistakes.”

With that said, Ashley wants one point known.

“Lend America is an excellent company,” he said. “The company has an excellent mission. We were the first ones to do FHA loans in front of everybody else and get out of sub-prime loans. We do right and that’s why the judge sided with us. People can say what they want to say … rumors are going to spread … but Lend America is going to continue in business and continue on our way.

“I’m a good person.  Lend America is made up of 600 hard working people who are completely offended by all of this … by the way.”

Ashley said that the employees of Lend America had gone as far as to charter a bus and descend upon the courthouse yesterday in defense of the company.

“Nobody’s perfect … and having 40 loans is no trivial matter,” he said. “That’s serious to have 40 loans with fraud in them. I don’t even know that they are fraudulent; I haven’t even had the opportunity to look at them. At the end of the day, we are a company with integrity. We care about our clients and the way we do business. The whole thing is a shame. I have to go through this it seems like every four or five years and it doesn’t have any effect on my race team or anything else.”

Ashley believes a resolution to the case will be reached quickly.

“If they want to do something, they have to prove their case and I don’t expect that to happen,” Ashley explained. “I expect us to reach a quick settlement with them because the judge was very firm with them. They had literally no evidence. Nothing. They only had allegations. Allegations are not good.

“Instead of giving us a chance in court, they surprised us. They never even told us they were doing this. The first I heard about it was through a government press release.

“Look, we’re not looking to be adversarial with the government. We believe that they misunderstand our company. We believe they are misinformed by one rogue investigator who has it in for me personally. What he’s doing is … doing the best job he can by telling half-truths. They did whatever they could do to try and make us look bad but the judge saw right through that. Why would a judge deny a motion from the Federal Government if I wasn’t right? If that’s proof right there, I don’t know what anyone needs.”

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