Larry Coss, ex- Green Tree Financial CEO, dies

Larry Coss, a controversial businessman who turned a Minnesota company into the nation's leading mobile home lender, died late Sunday.

Coss, 75, had been suffering from lung cancer for about two years, according to an assistant.

Coss grew up in Miller, South Dakota. He started out as a Twin Cities car salesman living in a rented trailer in Crystal with his wife and three children and later built St. Paul-based Green Tree Financial into the nation's leading manufactured home lender.

In 1995, he earned more than $65 million, more than any other executive in corporate America that year. That prompted criticism about how the company earned its huge profits.

Green Tree was acquired by Conseco Inc. in 1998. But losses within Green Tree's business helped drive Conseco to file for bankruptcy.

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