Lincoln Savings Loan Association

Former Lincoln Savings & Loan boss Charles H. Keating Jr. won a final victory Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court, defeating attempts to reinstate his 1991 state court conviction on charges of swindling elderly investors. Without comment, the high court refused to reopen the case, leaving intact lower court rulings that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lance Ito had allowed a flawed prosecution.

The state's tumultuous, decade-long criminal case against Charles H. Keating Jr., the former Lincoln Savings & Loan boss who became the poster boy of thrift industry greed during the 1980s, ended quietly Thursday as prosecutors formally withdrew securities fraud charges.

A life insurance company owned by Irvine-based Lincoln Savings & Loan, the insolvent thrift now operated by federal regulators, said Monday that it had been sold for $31 million to a group of investors. American Founders Life Insurance Co. in Phoenix was acquired by a Nashville, Tenn., limited partnership called Financial Securities Fund, which bought a controlling interest, and the Riverside Group, a Jacksonville, Fla., insurance holding company.

Former Lincoln Savings & Loan boss Charles H. Keating Jr. won a final victory Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court, defeating attempts to reinstate his 1991 state court conviction for swindling elderly investors. Without comment, the high court refused to reopen the case, leaving intact lower court rulings that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lance Ito had allowed a flawed prosecution.

Investigators from the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are examining links between indicted financier Michael Milken and a circle of failed and troubled savings and loans, including Lincoln Savings & Loan in Irvine, sources close to the investigations said Tuesday.

A key figure in the failure of Lincoln Savings & Loan pleaded guilty Tuesday to bank fraud and agreed to cooperate with the continuing federal investigation of the thrift's collapse 18 months ago. Ernest C. Garcia II, a 33-year-old Tucson developer, admitted that he fraudulently obtained a $30-million line of credit in a series of transactions that also helped Lincoln hide its ownership in risky desert Arizona land from regulators.

Federal judge in Los Angeles Monday sentenced Judy J. Wischer, once the top aide to former Lincoln Savings & Loan operator Charles H. Keating Jr.,--to three years of probation and ordered her to pay $3.5 million in restitution for her role in Lincoln's collapse. Wischer's sentencing ends the long investigation and court proceedings against those responsible for the thrift industry's most notorious failure during the go-go 1980s. Lincoln's failure in 1989 is expected to cost taxpayers $3.

The state Department of Corporations was named a defendant Thursday in a lawsuit originally filed this spring on behalf of about 22,000 investors who stand to lose nearly $200 million from the collapse of American Continental Corp. In an amended complaint, the agency was accused of acting "in reckless disregard of its own internal findings" in approving the public offering of American Continental bonds, which were sold mostly through its Irvine subsidiary, Lincoln Savings & Loan.

Judy J. Wischer, once the top aide to former Lincoln Savings & Loan operator Charles H. Keating Jr., was put on probation Monday for three years and ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution for her role in the 1989 collapse of the Irvine thrift. Wischer's sentencing--lenient because of her cooperation with authorities--ends the long investigation and the trial court proceedings against those responsible for the thrift industry's most notorious failure.

Three cohorts of Charles H. Keating Jr. were put on probation Monday by federal judges who lauded them for admitting their guilt early and for helping to convict the former operator of Lincoln Savings & Loan. Raymond C. Fidel, a former president of the Irvine thrift, and Ernest C. Garcia II, an Arizona developer and major borrower, were each put on three years' probation for their roles in the nation's costliest thrift failure. Mark S.

Former Lincoln Savings & Loan boss Charles H. Keating Jr. won a final victory Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court, defeating attempts to reinstate his 1991 state court conviction on charges of swindling elderly investors. Without comment, the high court refused to reopen the case, leaving intact lower court rulings that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lance Ito had allowed a flawed prosecution.

Disgraced former savings and loan executive Charles Keating, released from prison earlier this year after admitting to federal fraud charges, won a federal appeals court ruling Thursday against a prosecution attempt to reinstate his state fraud convictions. In a 2-1 decision, the 9th U.S.

In another legal victory for Charles H. Keating Jr., a federal appeals court Friday voided a $4.3-billion judgment against the former Lincoln Savings & Loan boss, ruling that the government should have given him a full trial before holding him personally liable for the collapse of his thrift. The decision overturns a 1994 ruling by a federal judge in Arizona, who ordered Keating to pay the Resolution Trust Corp.

In another legal victory for Charles H. Keating Jr., a federal appeals court on Friday voided a $4.3-billion judgment against the former Lincoln Savings & Loan boss, ruling that the government should have given him a full trial before holding him personally liable for the collapse of his thrift. The decision overturns a 1994 ruling by a federal judge in Arizona, who ordered Keating to pay Resolution Trust Corp.

She calls herself one of the "losers," one of the trusting, unsophisticated people who plowed their life savings into junk bonds sold in branches of Charles H. Keating Jr.'s savings and loan. A widow with a ninth-grade education, who grew up poor in Arkansas and still sews her own clothes, Wanda Bean lost almost every nickel her husband left her to Keating's infamous junk bond deal. On Wednesday, a place deep inside her that hasn't hurt for a while began to sting again.

She calls herself one of the "losers," one of the trusting, unsophisticated people who plowed their life savings into junk bonds sold in the Southern California branches of Charles H. Keating Jr.'s Irvine thrift. A widow with a ninth-grade education who grew up poor in Arkansas and still sews her own clothes, Wanda Bean lost almost every nickel her husband left her to Keating's infamous junk bond deal. On Wednesday, a place deep inside her that hasn't hurt for awhile began to sting again.

A Los Angeles judge Friday refused to reduce the $5-million bail for Charles H. Keating Jr., saying the Phoenix businessman is a flight risk after being indicted on 42 counts of state securities fraud and other violations. Superior Court Judge Gary Klausner said Keating--pursued by creditors, regulators and prosecutors for his role in the failure of Irvine-based Lincoln Savings & Loan--has "significant reasons not to stay around."

The federal judge sentencing former Lincoln Savings & Loan operator Charles H. Keating Jr. today will have an unusual request from state prosecutors: They want Keating to finish his state sentence in a California prison before he goes to a federal penitentiary. Keating, convicted of state securities fraud in 1991 and sentenced to 10 years in prison, will face considerably more prison time today for his federal court convictions last January on 73 counts of racketeering, conspiracy and fraud.

In yet another victory for Charles H. Keating Jr., appeals judges agreed Tuesday that the former Lincoln Savings boss and his son are entitled to a new federal trial on charges of looting the thrift and swindling investors. In a 3-0 vote upholding the trial judge, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said federal jurors improperly learned of and discussed Keating's earlier state court conviction on similar charges. U.S.

A federal judge freed Charles H. Keating Jr. from jail Wednesday after a five-day incarceration during which his lawyer said the former Lincoln Savings & Loan operator had his stomach pumped and was placed on suicide watch after drinking shampoo. Jailed for violating the terms of his 1996 release from prison by applying for a passport, Keating inadvertently took a swig of shampoo that had been placed in a cup on his food tray several hours after his arrest last Friday, his attorney, Stephen C.