Decision Making Process

The trip to Dromoland and other Irish haunts was booked in better days for winners of the firm's President's Club awards. New Century's money troubles led it to rescind sponsorship, but some workers apparently decided that if their employer was dying, an Irish wake was in order.

"Some people had already made personal plans and decided to go ahead on their own," company spokeswoman Laura Oberhelman said.

Sales incentives such as trips to Ireland were long a part of the culture at New Century and other lenders that specialize in making sub-prime mortgages to people with spotty credit, irregular income or other issues that stopped them from getting lower-cost prime loans.

The business boomed as housing prices soared. Orange County, one of the world's hottest real estate markets, was a center of the action. New Century and other lenders, including Ameriquest Mortgage Co. in Orange and Irvine-based Option One Mortgage Corp., recruited huge sales forces to hustle business.

"The culture around all of these sub-prime lenders has been 'Hey, bring it to us. We'll make it happen,' " said Philip X. Tirone, a Los Angeles mortgage broker and author. " 'If you have a client with a [low] credit score who only wants to put 5% down and had a bankruptcy not too long ago, that's OK. Bring us that loan.' "

Then it all came crashing down, and few fell