Merit Financial - Subprime Lender

This major Washington state-based subprime lender collapsed in spring last year under the weight of buybacks of low-quality issuance and fraud complaints, as refis slowed down. The company was started in 2001 by former Huskies football player Scott Greenlaw, who apparently ran the company like a frat house (as the first article above adequately illustrates).

Merit allegedly originated around $2 bln (not sure if this was in 2005 or from 2001-2005) and reached 410 employees at its peak. I have seen claims that it was the #1 wholesale lender in Washington state as of 2005 (by what metric, I am not sure). More than 300 were laid off all at once in the May 2006 collapse, with further lawsuits created as many (most?) of them were not paid.