Darrel W Dochow

A federal banking official who played a role in both the 1989 failure of Lincoln Savings & Loan and last year's collapse of Pasadena's IndyMac Bank is retiring. Darrel W. Dochow had earlier been relieved of his duties as Western regional director of the federal Office of Thrift Supervision. That action came in December after the Treasury Department's inspector general found that IndyMac had been allowed to report its finances in a way that delayed disclosure of the extent of its problems.

The former chairman of IndyMac Bank has alleged a key banking regulator "specifically directed" him to backdate $18 million in capital onto the Pasadena thrift's books to help prop up the company at the peak of the financial crisis. Michael W. Perry, who is battling fraud allegations connected to the thrift's failure in 2008, said that cash was added to the balance sheet during the first quarter of 2008 even though the money arrived more than a month after the quarter closed. The regulator was Darrel W. Dochow, former Western regional director for the Office of Thrift Supervision, a U.S. Treasury Department agency that "had the final say regarding IndyMac Bank's capital levels," Perry said in a statement posted online.

The former chairman of IndyMac Bank has alleged a key banking regulator "specifically directed" him to backdate $18 million in capital onto the Pasadena thrift's books to help prop up the company at the peak of the financial crisis. Michael W. Perry, who is battling fraud allegations connected to the thrift's failure in 2008, said that cash was added to the balance sheet during the first quarter of 2008 even though the money arrived more than a month after the quarter closed. The regulator was Darrel W. Dochow, former Western regional director for the Office of Thrift Supervision, a U.S. Treasury Department agency that "had the final say regarding IndyMac Bank's capital levels," Perry said in a statement posted online.

A federal banking official who played a role in both the 1989 failure of Lincoln Savings & Loan and last year's collapse of Pasadena's IndyMac Bank is retiring. Darrel W. Dochow had earlier been relieved of his duties as Western regional director of the federal Office of Thrift Supervision. That action came in December after the Treasury Department's inspector general found that IndyMac had been allowed to report its finances in a way that delayed disclosure of the extent of its problems.

As the mortgage crisis deepened in California last year, officials in Washington put the fate of thrifts in the West in the hands of a veteran regulator who had a memorable role in the last major crisis in the savings and loan industry. Darrel W. Dochow was the head of supervision and regulation at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in Washington when Lincoln Savings & Loan of Irvine failed in 1989, at the time the largest and costliest thrift failure ever.

Federal regulators said Friday that they had allowed four thrifts besides failed IndyMac Bank to improperly backdate infusions of capital. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, John Reich, the director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, did not identify the four S&Ls. The thrift regulator is an arm of the Treasury Department. The Times reported Dec. 23 that Treasury investigators had found that Darrel W.

The parent company of Lincoln Savings & Loan filed court documents Tuesday accusing a high-ranking regulatory official of illegally leaking damaging information about the Irvine-based thrift to reporters and others. In addition, an amended complaint and a new lawsuit filed by American Continental Corp. of Phoenix seek a total of $768 million in damages from government defendants, including $568 million for the wrongful confiscation of Lincoln by federal regulators. In the amended suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, American Continental claims that Darrel W. Dochow of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board was among a number of regulators who illegally disclosed "highly confidential and inaccurate information" about Lincoln.

When the government seized IndyMac Bank in July, many of its investors and customers wondered why regulators hadn't intervened sooner to prevent one of the costliest bank failures in U.S. history. An answer came Monday when the Treasury Department's inspector general said a government official had allowed the Pasadena mortgage lender to alter its financial statements in a way that delayed disclosure of the extent of its problems.

Only days before Lincoln Savings & Loan was seized in April, M. Danny Wall, the nation's chief savings and loan regulator, was expressing confidence in the owner of the Irvine thrift and advocating alternatives to a federal takeover, according to documents released Tuesday. The previously confidential material was made public by Rep. Henry B. Gonzales (D-Tex.

A key federal regulator warned top government officials nearly a year before the collapse of Lincoln Savings & Loan that their efforts to control the Irvine thrift would prove to be a "fiasco," according to an internal memo obtained by congressional investigators. The memo appears to contradict recent statements by M.

As the mortgage crisis deepened in California last year, officials in Washington put the fate of thrifts in the West in the hands of a veteran regulator who had a memorable role in the last major crisis in the savings and loan industry. Darrel W. Dochow was the head of supervision and regulation at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in Washington when Lincoln Savings & Loan of Irvine failed in 1989, at the time the largest and costliest thrift failure ever.

Former Lincoln Savings & Loan owner Charles H. Keating Jr., citing the Fifth Amendment, will refuse to testify today when he is called before a House committee to answer allegations that his fraudulent business practices caused the $2.5-billion collapse of the Irvine thrift, according to his lawyer. Attorney John J.

Only days before Lincoln Savings & Loan was seized in April, M. Danny Wall, the nation's chief savings and loan regulator, was expressing confidence in the owner of the Irvine thrift and advocating alternatives to a federal takeover, according to documents released Tuesday. The previously confidential material was made public by Rep. Henry B. Gonzales (D-Tex.