Charles Keating Jr., key figure in '80s savings and loan scandal, dies
Source: AP
Charles H. Keating Jr., the notorious financier who served prison time and was disgraced for his role in the costliest savings and loan failure of the 1980s, has died. He was 90.
A person with direct knowledge of the death confirmed Tuesday that Keating had died but didnt provide further details. The person wasnt authorized to release the information and spoke on condition of anonymity.
When Keatings Phoenix-based home construction company, American Continental Corp., bought Lincoln Savings & Loan in 1984, the multimillionaire elevated its worth from $1.1 billion to $5.5 billion in a four-year period.
But his financial empire crumbled with state and federal convictions for defrauding investors. Keating allegedly bilked Lincoln customers by selling them $200 million of unsecured junk bonds. They became worthless when Keatings company became bankrupt.
Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20140401-charles-keating-jr.-key-figure-in-80s-savings-and-loan-scandal-dies.ece
Ecumenist
(6,086 posts)This piece of barely human trash contributed to the early death of my great aunt...
freshwest
(53,661 posts)The eighties were full of these types, and they all got away with it. Of course like the old saying goes, 'the shortage will be divided amongst the peasants.'
We had to take it and kept on working, but learned once again the good old boys made their money stealing from working people. It just got more vicious and open with Reagan, as if the New Deal never happened.
I'm sorry about your aunt, this is what they do, shorten lives and impoverish people. Then turn around and spit on them.
okaawhatever
(9,461 posts)MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)"...bankers were prosecuted?"
"Well once upon a time, many years ago..."
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)...they lived in an evil concrete and granite canyon called WALLSTREET. There they plotted their evil designs on retirement funds and manipulated silver and gold markets, and worst of all, they made so beau coup of the munies on processing the food stamps for the poor that they decided to relieve those old pensioners of their Social Securities as well.
[center][/center]
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!! And no one could top them because they were all afraid. All but one. The One.
- Meh. But he decided to have lunch with the queens instead.......
tofuandbeer
(1,314 posts)bluestateguy
(44,173 posts)Auntie Bush
(17,528 posts)Playinghardball
(11,665 posts)SoapBox
(18,791 posts)(stealing) and living free.
Burn in you know where, Crook.
MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)I'm getting tired of the sleaze left here on earth.
May both your souls evolve in another solar system, while we deal with what's left on earth, shit stain.
Nanjing to Seoul
(2,088 posts)Zorro
(15,740 posts)Lest we forget. From 25 years ago.
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1989-11-29/news/mccain-the-most-reprehensible-of-the-keating-five/
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)I didn't know how dirty his role was....
EDIT: evidently Greenspan was in on it, too:
Mr. Keating hired Alan Greenspan, soon to be chairman of the Federal Reserve, who compiled a report saying Lincolns depositors faced no foreseeable risk and praising a seasoned and expert management. Mr. Keating soon called on five senators who had been recipients of his campaign largess Alan Cranston of California, Donald W. Riegle Jr. of Michigan, John Glenn of Ohio and Dennis DeConcini and John McCain of Arizona to pressure the bank board to relax its rules and kill its investigation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/02/business/charles-keating-key-figure-in-the-1980s-savings-and-loan-crisis-dies-at-90.html?_r=0
Zorro
(15,740 posts)"You're John McCain, clearly the guiltiest, most culpable and reprehensible of the Keating Five. But you know the power of television and you realize this is the only way you can possibly save your political career."
And that was written in 1989.
kimbutgar
(21,137 posts)This road was built for keating who was planning on developing in area off highway 10. He got busted but the road stayed. John McCain should gave lost his seat over that scandal.
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)And spent a great deal of time trying to limit access to contraception and abortion services.
It's always the most corrupt who see themselves as "moral leaders". And the wealthiest of the wealthy always reserve the right to pass dismissive judgment on the rest of us.
I hope he spends all eternity as a pregnant, unmarried entry-level filing clerk. With HPV and chlamydia.
JHB
(37,159 posts)...letting him cultivate a reputation as an "upstanding citizen" and "Mr. Clean" even as his financial dealings were rather less upstanding and clean.
***
In 1956, Keating joined a priest leading a group of concerned Catholics in Cincinnati who were concerned about the dangers of pornography, and he began giving fervent talks on the subject to parents and other groups.[25] In 1958, Keating went to Washington, D.C. and testified before the House Judiciary Committee on mail-order pornography, saying that it was "capable of poisoning any mind at any age and of perverting our entire younger generation", that it was closely tied to juvenile delinquency, and that it was "part of the Communist conspiracy".[25]
Keating founded Citizens for Decent Literature in 1958, (later renamed a number of times, the best known of which is Citizens for Decency through Law),[14] which advocated reading classics not "smut."[28] It would grow to 300 chapters and 100,000 members nationwide and become the largest anti-pornography organization in the nation.[28] Over the next two decades the organization mailed some 40 million letters on behalf of its position and had filed amicus curiae briefs.[29] Keating gained the moniker "Mr. Clean".[30] During the early 1960s, Keating twice requested FBI assistance on behalf of his anti-pornography campaign but the bureau, still skeptical regarding Keating due to its early investigation, declined.[23][24] In 196465, Keating produced Perversion for Profit, a film featuring announcer George Putnam. It was a survey of then-available pornography, and asserted that pornography was linked to juvenile delinquency and decline in culture.[citation needed]
***
While officially an outside lawyer, Keating functioned as a public face for Carl Lindner and American Financial Corporation and the two were close associates on business as well as legal matters;[41] Lindner would sometimes refer to Keating as a "founder" of American Financial.[27] The company had easy access to credit lines, which allowed it to continually grow.[26] The web of transactions involving the company and its subsidiaries was large and complex, and one stock analyst stated in 1977 that he had "never come across a company that has so much strange paper on its books."[41]
Keating left his law practice in 1972 and formally joined American Financial Corporation, by now a $1 billion enterprise, as executive vice president.[48] Keating became Lindner's hatchet man, in charge of firing employees from newly acquired companies.[49] Within business circles Keating gained a reputation for aggressiveness and arrogance.[41] He took on an operational involvement in The Cincinnati Enquirer, the town's only morning newspaper.[37] He interfered in editorial decisions, such as adding coverage to high school sports that he or Lindner's sons were involved in. The paper was then sold to a group including his brother, William,[41] who had been a Republican congressman from Ohio's 1st congressional district in the early 1970s. Charles Keating was involved in American Financial's 1974 sale of Bantam Books,[50] and its decision that year not to enter the investment banking field.[51]
In 1975 and 1976, several stockholder lawsuits were filed against American Financial, and Keating was under fire for aspects involving unsecured loans, stock warrants, and the sale of the Enquirer.[41] The Securities and Exchange Commission launched a major investigation of the company and charged Lindner, Keating, and others with having defrauded investors and filing false SEC reports.[27][52] At particular issue was a $14 million loan that the SEC said was made on preferential terms.[10] Keating resigned from American Financial in August 1976, with conflicting stories regarding the reason and whether he remained close to Lindner or had a falling out with him.[8] [41][53]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Keating#Anti-pornography_activism
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)Last edited Wed Apr 2, 2014, 04:37 PM - Edit history (1)
That brings up a great idea...George Clooney could play him in the movie.
(on edit) Or Clooney could direct(it'd be better to have him behind the camera, as somebody who has a real feel for Cincinnati)and have
James Cromwell play Clooney-the resemblance is uncanny and Cromwell is politically aware enough to nail all the aspects of the character.
Mnemosyne
(21,363 posts)bangpath_root
(3 posts)If this keeps up he won't have anybody to go get shit faced with.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)...this crooked banker's slush-fund/bribery entanglements with Senator John McCain, probably also help save us from a ''President John McCain.'' However small that help might have been, we are forever in his debt. Sort of. Ha!
- And for this Charlie, me and all the dehydrated babies of the world thank you!
K&R
Downtown Hound
(12,618 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)alp227
(32,019 posts)Lodestar
(2,388 posts)Hope he comes back as an ant crawling on the floor at Wall Street.
Javaman
(62,521 posts)I think I need to put on my dancing shoes.
may he rot in hell.
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)Of course, McCain has kind words for him. Old neo-fascist bastards who cannibalize their own stick together.
mulsh
(2,959 posts)somehow gets over looked when writing about the criminal activites of Mr. Keating and Mr. McCain.
Grins
(7,217 posts)yurbud
(39,405 posts)closest to them.
politicat
(9,808 posts)And my condolences to his family.
Also, what is the contact info for Hell's Welcome Wagon? I have a rotten fruit and Escolar basket I need to send.
I was a very small child when the S&L destroyed my college savings. It wasn't much -- only a couple thousand -- but it also represented half of every birthday's cash and half of my allowance.
There are some obits I take great pleasure in reading. This is one.
TxVietVet
(1,905 posts)I'd gladly spend eternity in Hell if a bu$h is in the cell next to me.
People forget about the S&L collapse and how much taxpayers dished out to rescue them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savings_and_loan_crisis
Lars28
(84 posts)U.S. Senators Alan Cranston (D-CA), Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ), John Glenn (D-OH), John McCain (R-AZ), and Donald W. Riegle (D-MI).
McCain, as I recall, was the top dog in the conspiracy to help Keating resist the regulators.
hughee99
(16,113 posts)from the Ethics committee for involving themselves with the regulators or the investigation on behalf of Keating with Cranston getting the harshest slap (an official reprimand on the Senate floor). McCain and Glenn were "cleared of impropriety but criticized for poor judgement", whatever the hell that means.
Lars28
(84 posts)Because they allowed the S&L scam to go on long after it should have been stopped. Result: the bailout was much more expensive.
santamargarita
(3,170 posts)Heywood J
(2,515 posts)Haha, never mind. I know the answer to that one...