by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB![]()
Roanoke Times Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: THURSDAY, January 7, 1993 TAG: 9301070108 SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO SOURCE: Associated Press DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
KEATING, SON FOUND GUILTY, ALL COUNTS
Charles Keating Jr. and his son were convicted Wednesday of all counts in a federal indictment charging them with looting Lincoln Savings and Loan in the nation's most notorious S&L failure.Keating was convicted of 73 counts of racketeering, fraud, conspiracy and transporting stolen property, and his son of 64 counts. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 505 years for Keating and 455 years for his son, Charles Keating III.
The elder Keating, 69, already is serving a 10-year prison term on state charges of swindling investors.
Keating, looking gaunt and grim as he peered across the courtroom at the jury, put his hands together as if praying and leaned back as the 20th guilty count was read against his 37-year-old son.
As the clerk began to read the guilty counts against him, the elder Keating pursed his lips, looked down, then turned toward his son.
"You OK?" he mouthed.
The younger Keating nodded.
A racketeering count initially was unresolved. U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer announced the guilty verdict on that count after conferring with prosecutors and defense lawyers.
The racketeering count charged in essence that the Keatings converted Lincoln, its parent, American Continental Corp., and related companies into a gigantic criminal enterprise designed to let the Keatings live like royalty on looted funds.
Keating and his son claimed that vengeful bureaucrats and power-mad prosecutors had made them their prey, but to most of the country they were a national symbol of excess and arrogance. Contributing to the notoriety were the millions the elder Keating paid his family and his donations of $1.3 million to the "Keating 5" U.S. senators.
The failure of Irvine-based Lincoln Savings & Loan and the bankruptcy of Phoenix-based American Continental in April 1989 cost taxpayers $2.6 billion and investors $288.8 million.
Keating and his son maintain they are broke, ruined along with other American Continental investors in Lincoln's collapse.