That’s $3.4 Billion. Not million. Billion.
That is how much theft Sen. John McCain tried to help cover up from his friend and benefactor Charles Keating who had greased McCain and other senators with more than $1 million in political contributions. But that did not include the family vacations McCain’s family took with the Keating’s.
And the gifts.
And the campaign cash.
And the private jets.
And whatever side deals, property and cash these senators quietly scored.
So while everyone in D.C. now is offering tributes to John McCain — no one seems to remember the time he tried to make sure his pal could rip off billions from hard-working Americans who deposited their money in Lincoln Savings and Loan. Americans who lost their cash — and taxpayers who were on the hook for guaranteeing that money.
Credit Barack Obama for raising this scandal — a debacle McCain and his spin doctors have worked so hard to bury — in 2008 when he ran against McCain for the presidency.
Obama actually rolled out a website and made a documentary slamming McCain for his involvement. “McCain intervened on behalf of Charles Keating with federal regulators tasked with preventing banking fraud, and championed legislation to delay regulation of the savings and loan industry – actions that allowed Keating to continue his fraud at an incredible cost to taxpayers,” the site said.
The Facts: Keating was sentenced to prison and required to pay more than $1 billion in civil penalties after being convicted on fraud, racketeering and conspiracy charges centered around his running of Lincoln Savings and Loan, which he bought in 1984. On April 14, 1989, Lincoln was seized by the government at an eventual taxpayer cost of $3.4 billion, then the most expensive thrift bailout in history. Lincoln and Keating became national symbols of the savings-and-loans collapse of the ’80s – much as lending firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have symbolized the current financial meltdown.
McCain had been friends with Keating since the early ’80s – their families vacationed together several times, according to previous CNN reporting. Keating was an early financial supporter of McCain’s political career and donated to his campaigns repeatedly over the years. Keating’s first company, American Continental, was headquartered in Arizona, the state McCain represents. McCain became one of the so-called “Keating Five” – five U.S. senators investigated over accusations they tried to interfere in a federal investigation of Keating’s role in the savings-and-loan’s collapse.
In January 1985, while in the U.S. House, McCain co-sponsored a resolution that would have delayed the effective date of proposed government limits “on direct investment in real estate, service corporations, and equity securities by federally insured savings and loan associations.” He was one of the early sponsors, although a majority of Congress eventually signed on to sponsor it. The legislation would have impacted Keating’s business, but would have regulated the entire industry, not specifically Lincoln Savings and Loan.
McCain also wrote several letters to government regulators and other officials regarding the issue. One, dated Jan. 30, 1985, to White House chief of staff James Baker, called the proposed regulations “unwise,” saying the effort “flys (sic) in the face of our recent efforts to remove the hand of government from the affairs of private enterprise.”
On April 9, 1987, McCain and the other senators attended a meeting with federal regulators investigating Keating. McCain has since said he regrets doing so. “He asked me to help him,” he said during an October 2002 interview with Chicago’s WGN-AM radio station. “I said I wouldn’t do certain things. He called me a wimp. I threw him out of my office, but I still went to a meeting with four other senators with a group of regulators.” READ MORE:
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