Keating Five

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The so-called Keating Five were five senators in the US Senate accused of corruption in 1989 . This sparked a major political scandal as part of the so-called savings and loan crisis in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The four Democratic Senators Alan Cranston ( California ), Dennis DeConcini ( Arizona ), John Glenn ( Ohio ) and Donald W. Riegle ( Michigan ) as well as Republican John McCain (Arizona) were indicted in 1987 in favor of Charles H. Keating (1923-2014) to have intervened. He was chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association at the time , which was the target of an investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB). As a result, the FHLBB refrained from further investigation and action against Lincoln.

Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed in 1989, costing the federal government approximately US $ 2 billion in rescue operations. About 23,000 Lincoln bond holders lost their capital and many older investors lost their savings and retirement benefits . The substantial donations Keating made to each of the Senators, totaling US $ 1.3 million, sparked public interest. After a lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee found in 1991 that Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle had interfered in a significant and improper manner with the FHLBB's investigation into Lincoln Savings. Cranston received a formal reprimand. Senators Glenn and McCain were acquitted of improper conduct but were criticized for their lack of judgment.

All senators involved ended their terms of office regularly. Only Glenn and McCain stood for re-election, which both succeeded in doing. McCain later became the Republican candidate for the 2008 presidential election .

literature

  • Elizabeth Purdy: Keating Five. In: Lawrence M. Salinger (Ed.): Encyclopedia of White-Collar & Corporate Crime. Volume 1. Sage, Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi 2005, pp. 476-478 (preview) .
  • Rossen V. Vassilev: “Keating Five” scandal. In: Robert E. Dewhirst, John David Rausch (Eds.): Encyclopedia of the United States Congress. Facts on File, New York 2007, pp. 301-303 (preview) .

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