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KeatingEconomics.com , a new site funded by the Obama campaign, exposes McCain's leading role in the 1980’s Keating 5 scandal. Testimony by a former federal bank regulator involved in the Lincoln Savings and Loan case forms the backbone of a documentary which is nothing less than a devastating indictment of the GOP presidential candidate.
“Fraud is the creation of trust and then its betrayal.” – William Black, PhD, former federal banking regulator.
In brief, John McCain was one of 5 senators (the infamous Keating 5) who took contributions from Charles Keating, head of Lincoln Savings and Loan, and then intervened on his behalf to stall regulatory investigation of what Black calls “the worst control fraud in our nation.”
Intervention by the Keating 5 caused a two year regulatory delay – two years that allowed Keating to continue to bilk elderly investors who, with Lincoln’s encouragement, invested $250 million dollars in high risk bonds. The bonds defaulted, Lincoln collapsed and more than 20,000 people lost their savings, at a cost to taxpayers of 3.4 billion dollars. The wider government bail-out of the savings and loan industry cost tax-payers 153 billion dollars by 1999, according to a FDIC report.
What did McCain know about Keating and Lincoln Savings?
“Senator McCain knew the facts because we had briefed him. He knew it was a criminal enterprise. He knew that what was being done was improper… He was uniquely in a position where he could have protested this and stopped this loss. But he did nothing.”
So testifies the regulator who was there, William Black. KeatingEconomics.com lists several background articles, but the video is the most damning document of all, in part due to Black’s intimate involvement in the case.
1 comment:
The evidence, from the admittedly “Liberal” New York Times, as well as the very “Liberal” PBS Online News Hour PROVES that this pathetic and unfounded attempt to smear McCain with the crimes of Keating is unmitigated BUNK!
1) Although McCain had dealings with Keating (who was a constituent in McCain’s district), McCain was NOT connected in ANY WAY to the CRIMES committed by Keating (and even The New York Times ADMITTED IT).
2) McCain did NOT support, IN ANY WAY, Keating’s request for regulators to ignore his violations (much less eliminate the regulations).
3) In FACT, even the New York Times admits that the Keating scandal ONLY involved Democrats (which is precisely why the Dems were so DESPERATE to lynch the ONLY Republican they could even REMOTELY connect to Keating)!
Quoting the New York Times:
“The special counsel to the Senate Ethics Committee has recommended that the panel clear two of the five Senators under investigation for their links to the savings and loan debacle, Congressional officials said today.
In a confidential report submitted to the committee on Sept. 10, the special counsel, Robert S. Bennett, concluded that there was not adequate evidence to merit a full-scale investigation of John Glenn, an Ohio Democrat, and John McCain, an Arizona Republican, several officials said.”
“If Mr. McCain is dropped from the investigation, the political implications could be significant: He is the only Republican under scrutiny, and Republicans could portray the scandal as a Democratic one.”
4) Quoting the very “Liberal” PBS Online News Hour:
“The Senate Ethics Committee concluded that Glenn and McCain's involvement in the scheme was minimal and dropped the charges against them. In August 1991, the committee ruled that the other three [DEMOCRATIC] senators had acted improperly in interfering with the Federal Home Loan Banking Board's investigation.”
Click here for the UNDENIABLE FACTS on what REALLY caused the current housing mess (AND the Keating related S&L mess).
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