By William K. Black
(Cross-posted from Benzinga)
On April 2, 1987, four U.S. Senators met secretly with Federal Home Loan Bank Board (Bank Board) Chairman Edwin J. Gray in the offices of Senator DeConcini (D.AZ). Senator Donald Riegle (D. MI) was a surprise no-show. DeConcini was joined by Alan Cranston (D. CA), John Glenn (D. OH), and John McCain (R. AZ). Keating hired Alan Greenspan as a lobbyist to help recruit the Keating Five. The Senators held the meeting at the request of Charles Keating, who controlled Lincoln Savings (a California chartered S&L). Lincoln Savings would become the mostexpensive failure of the S&L debacle due to Keating’s political cronies and Keating became the most infamous S&L fraud. A week later, on April 9, all five Senators met with four of Lincoln Savings’ senior regulators. I took the detailed notes of that meeting. The Senators became infamous as “the Keating Five.” A quarter-century later, few remember what the meetings involved.
