Abraham Spiegel

Abraham Spiegel, a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Los Angeles and became a prominent real estate developer, formed Columbia Savings & Loan and was a major philanthropist, has died. He was 97. Spiegel died of pneumonia April 10 at his home in Beverly Hills, according to publicist Warren Cowan. Formed by Spiegel in 1974 and based in Beverly Hills, Columbia Savings & Loan was for many years considered one of the nation's best-run thrifts.

Abraham Spiegel, a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Los Angeles and became a prominent real estate developer, formed Columbia Savings & Loan and was a major philanthropist, has died. He was 97. Spiegel died of pneumonia April 10 at his home in Beverly Hills, according to publicist Warren Cowan. Formed by Spiegel in 1974 and based in Beverly Hills, Columbia Savings & Loan was for many years considered one of the nation's best-run thrifts.

When Abraham Spiegel needed help with a city bureaucracy that was seeking to halt construction of a Westside office building, he arranged to have breakfast with a powerful friend--Mayor Tom Bradley. And, according to a source familiar with the meeting, Spiegel brought along his blueprints. When Bradley needed advice on his personal finances, he routinely spoke with Spiegel, a wealthy bank owner and builder.

At first glance it is hard to understand how Mayor Tom Bradley and Abraham Spiegel became such close friends because the two men appear to have little in common. Bradley's personality is reserved and he has a reputation as a penny pincher. Spiegel greets friends effusively and has been known to hand out $5 bills to every parking attendant in sight at the City Hall garage. Spiegel can be brutally outspoken as well. Bradley's politics are liberal.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich admitted Friday that he failed to report properly an apparently illegal $100,000 loan for his 1986 Republican primary campaign for the Senate, but he said the mistake was purely technical. "I thought it was OK," Antonovich said at a press conference. "Three years later, I am being apprised that this is a technical violation."

The startling news that House Majority Whip Tony Coelho plans to quit Congress rather than face a House probe into his personal finances has put a spotlight on the business and political activities of Thomas and Abraham Spiegel, majority owners of Columbia Savings & Loan in Beverly Hills. Thomas Spiegel, Columbia's chief executive, played a key role in Coelho's downfall by advising the Democratic congressman from Merced to buy a $100,000 "junk bond" in 1986, financed in part by a $50,000 loan from Columbia Savings.

When Mayor Tom Bradley and his fellow investors needed to make a balloon payment in late 1985 on a Riverside land partnership headed by Juanita St. John, the mayor turned to Abraham Spiegel and obtained a $50,000 loan from Columbia Savings & Loan Assn. with Spiegel's help, according to the city attorney's report issued Wednesday. The loan was among a number of favors exchanged over the years between the mayor's office and Spiegel, the founder and vice chairman of Columbia.

At first glance it is hard to understand how Mayor Tom Bradley and Abraham Spiegel became such close friends because the two men appear to have little in common. Bradley's personality is reserved and he has a reputation as a penny pincher. Spiegel greets friends effusively and has been known to hand out $5 bills to every parking attendant in sight at the City Hall garage. Spiegel can be brutally outspoken as well. Bradley's politics are liberal.

The suit accused the directors of the S&L of breaching their fiduciary duties when they recently approved a new class of preferred stock that was intended to help the Spiegel family consolidate its control over the Beverly Hills company. Defendants in the suit, which was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, include Chairman Abraham Spiegel and his son, Thomas, who is chief executive. Thomas Spiegel declined comment.

Thomas Spiegel, 40-year-old chief executive of Columbia Savings & Loan, took a sharp pay cut in 1986 but still received compensation of about $4.38 million, according to the company's latest proxy statement. Though huge by the standards of the savings and loan industry, the $4.38 million is less than half the $9-million compensation package that Spiegel received in 1985. That made him one of the best-paid executives in corporate America.

When Abraham Spiegel needed help with a city bureaucracy that was seeking to halt construction of a Westside office building, he arranged to have breakfast with a powerful friend--Mayor Tom Bradley. And, according to a source familiar with the meeting, Spiegel brought along his blueprints. When Bradley needed advice on his personal finances, he routinely spoke with Spiegel, a wealthy bank owner and builder.

When Mayor Tom Bradley and his fellow investors needed to make a balloon payment in late 1985 on a Riverside land partnership headed by Juanita St. John, the mayor turned to Abraham Spiegel and obtained a $50,000 loan from Columbia Savings & Loan Assn. with Spiegel's help, according to the city attorney's report issued Wednesday. The loan was among a number of favors exchanged over the years between the mayor's office and Spiegel, the founder and vice chairman of Columbia.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich admitted Friday that he failed to report properly an apparently illegal $100,000 loan for his 1986 Republican primary campaign for the Senate, but he said the mistake was purely technical. "I thought it was OK," Antonovich said at a press conference. "Three years later, I am being apprised that this is a technical violation."

The startling news that House Majority Whip Tony Coelho plans to quit Congress rather than face a House probe into his personal finances has put a spotlight on the business and political activities of Thomas and Abraham Spiegel, majority owners of Columbia Savings & Loan in Beverly Hills. Thomas Spiegel, Columbia's chief executive, played a key role in Coelho's downfall by advising the Democratic congressman from Merced to buy a $100,000 "junk bond" in 1986, financed in part by a $50,000 loan from Columbia Savings.

Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum on Sunday dedicated a chamber of light memorial to 1.5 million Jewish children killed by the Nazis during World War II. The underground memorial features four candles in the center of the chamber reflected by 500 mirrors placed at different angles to create the effect of a star-filled sky. The mirrors reflect 1.5 million separate points of light, each intended to symbolize the soul of a Jewish child who died in the Nazi Holocaust.

James A. D'Aquila is resigning as chief financial officer at Columbia Savings & Loan, the Beverly Hills thrift struggling against huge losses as the value of its $3.8-billion junk bond portfolio tumbles. D'Aquila will join a Los Angeles investment firm controlled by former Treasury Secretary William E. Simon and Los Angeles lawyer Gerald Parsky.