Scope and Content Note
The American Continental Corporation Records consist of correspondence files, architectural and land use plans, promotional and advertising materials, environmental impact reports, regulatory reports, trial records, attorneys records and financial records relating to the corporation and a number of its' subsidiaries. The records extend from approximately 1971 to 1993 and consist of the following series: Relevant Files, Irrelevant Files, Federal Grand Jury Files, MDL-834 Trial Records, and Other Corporate Records.
Series I: Relevant Files consists of ACC corporate records that ACC counsel and officers of the court deemed relevant to the litigation collectively known as MDL-834. The functional origin of the records within this series cannot readily be determined with consistency, however as the materials were packed in boxes they were assigned box number codes that reflect the provenance of the materials. These codes are:
- RB Boxes: Stored at ACC Warehouse
- XB Boxes: Legal Department
- YB Boxes: Accounting Department
- ZB Boxes: From Executive Level Offices
Series II: Irrelevant Files consists of ACC corporate records deemed not to be relevant to the MDL-834 litigation. The box number codes given above also apply to Irrelevant series materials.
Series III: Federal Grand Jury Files consists of ACC corporate records seized or photocopied by the FBI for use in grand jury proceedings relating to the failure of Lincoln Savings and Loan, an ACC subsidiary. These range in date from 1971 to 1991 and include correspondence, architectural drawings, land use plans and real estate valuations, promotional and advertising materials, regulatory reports, legal filings, attorneys’ records, legislative lobby records, statistical analyses, and financial records. They pertain to the American Continental Corporation, the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, the American Continental Mortgage Company, other American Continental subsidiaries, subcontractors, customers and trading partners, as well as the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.
Series IV: MDL-834 Trial Records consists of information relating to the adjudication of a series of securities fraud cases collectively known as MDL-834 at the United States District Court, Arizona District, Judge Richard M. Bilby presiding. The series includes deposition transcripts and videotapes, exhibits, and teleconference proceedings. Reproduction of deposition videotapes has been restricted in compliance with the July 10, 1995 order of Judge Bilby (see Restrictions statement). This series is divided into the following subseries: Sub-Series A: Trial Transcripts, Sub-Series B: Deposition Transcripts, Sub-Series C: Deposition Videotapes, Sub-Series D: Filings/Exhibits, Sub-Series E: Teleconference Proceedings, and Sub-Series F: Miscellaneous.
Series V: Other Corporate Records houses files delivered to Arizona State University Libraries that did not appear in the Relevant or Irrelevant document inventories. This series has been divided into a number of subseries based upon the box number codes assigned to them (see under Relevant series above) and the archivist's inspection of the file contents. These subseries are: Sub-Series A: Corporate Accounting, Sub-Series B: Corporate Counsel, Sub-Series C: Corporate Counsel: Case Files, Sub-Series D: Corporate Counsel: David I. Thompson, Sub-Series E: Corporate Counsel: Mark S. Sauter, Sub-Series F: Corporate Counsel: Robert J. Kielty, Sub-Series G: Corporate Counsel: Ronald M. Stoll, Sub-Series H: Corporate Counsel: Scott A. Siebels, and Sub-Series I: Executive Offices.
When requesting materials, researchers must provide the applicable box number; series and subseries name(s); and series and subseries accession number(s) so that the correct box(es) can be identified.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1971-1993
Language of Materials
Material in English
Access Restrictions
Distinctive Collections and Archives (the Department) has implemented special procedures to protect the privacy rights of American Continental Corporation (ACC) customers, insure the continued integrity of the American Continental Corporation Records Collection (the Collection) and provide our patrons with prompt and efficient access. All users of the Collection are required to read and complete an Access and Use Agreement (available at https://libguides.asu.edu/ld.php?content_id=43252431) before access is granted.
In the Access and Use Agreement the user agrees not to publish or publicly present in any fashion personally identifiable financial information derived from the Collection regarding individuals that have purchased real estate, financial services, stocks or bonds from ACC. However, permission for publication of personally identifiable financial information will be extended if the user can provide to the Department documentary evidence that the information in question has already been made public through prior publication or through inclusion in the official records of the State of Arizona or the Federal Government. Compilations of statistics including financial information that do not identify individual customers will be reviewed on a case by case basis and may be approved for publication by the Head of Distinctive Collections.
The user also agrees to hold any personally identifiable financial information (e.g. credit reports) of ACC customers confidential and agrees to hold harmless Arizona State University, the Arizona Board of Regents, the State of Arizona and their officers and employees from all claims, damages and costs, including attorney's fees arising from the users use of and access to the Collection, and all claims of violation of privacy rights of individuals represented in the Collection.
To view this collection, make an appointment at least five business days prior to your visit by contacting Ask an Archivist or calling (480) 965-4932. Appointments in the Wurzburger Reading Room at Hayden Library (rm. 138) on the Tempe campus are available Monday through Friday. Check the ASU Library Hours page for current availability.
Patrons are limited to examination of one box at a time and are asked to use paper markers to maintain the original position of a folder or document within the box. Ask reference staff for instructions in marking materials for photocopying. All other Reading Room policies (e.g. use of pencil) apply to use of the Collection.
Reproduction or publication of all trial deposition videotapes (except those of Jack Atchison) was restricted until January 1, 2004. A copy of Judge Richard M. Bilby's July 10, 1995 court order regarding access to deposition transcripts and videotapes is available from the head of the Distinctive Collections.
When requesting materials, researchers must provide the applicable box number; series and subseries name(s); and series and subseries accession number(s) so that the correct box(es) can be identified.
Copyright
The Arizona Board of Regents retains copyright to this collection for and on behalf of the Arizona State University Library. Requests to publish, display, or redistribute information from this collection must be submitted via our online application.
Historical Note
All citations refer to Binstein and Bowden, Trust Me: Charles Keating and the Missing Billions (New York: Random House, 1993) unless otherwise indicated.
Events Chronology: American Continental Corporation
- 1976 August 5
- Charles Keating resigns from American Financial Corporation of Cincinnati and purchases an AFC subsidiary, Continental Homes of Arizona, Inc. He moves his family to Phoenix in the fall. (pp. 137)
- 1978
- Keating forms American Continental Corporation and is named chairman. (Arizona Republic, 9/16/89, pp.A2)
- 1982 October 15
- President Reagan signs Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act, the major deregulatory legislation for the thrift industry. (pp.160)
- 1983 September 30
- ACC completes merger agreement with First Lincoln Financial Corporation, owner of Lincoln Savings and Loan. (pp.166)
- 1984 January 1
- American Continental Corporation and Affiliates Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) established. (pp.239)
- 1984 February 22
- Keating (ACC?) assumes
formal possession
of Lincoln Savings and Loan. (pp.170) - 1984 March 5
- Lincoln Savings and Loan invests in the Uplands, a real estate development near Austin, Texas in cooperation with John Connally and Ben Barnes. (pp.181)
- 1984 May 15
- Keating meets with Toufic Aboukhater and his sons to discuss possible Kuwaiti investments in Estrella and the Phoenician Resort, two new projects. (pp.186-187)
- 1984 October 5
- A subsidiary of ACC buys $8.3 million shares of Gulf Broadcasting, initiating a hostile takeover bid. (pp.198)
- 1984 December 31
- Crescent Hotel Group of Michigan, Inc. (CHG/M, an ACC subsidiary) purchases the Hotel Pontchartrain in Detroit for $19,500,000. (pp.55-56)
- 1985 January
- Conley Wolfswinkel receives $70.8 million loan from Lincoln for his Rancho Vistoso development in Tucson. (pp.202)
- 1985 January 31
- Under the leadership of chairman Ed Gray, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) rolls back the limit on direct investments by thrifts and makes it retroactive to December 10, 1984. Lincoln is now out of compliance with the FHLBB regulation. (pp.220)
- 1985 March 31
- Hotel Pontchartrain Limited Partnerships (HPLP) purchases the Pontchartrain from CHG/M (pp. 56-57).
- 1985 April 1
- ACC receives $10.9 million from Gulf Broadcasting in a settlement allowing the sale of Gulf to Taft Broadcasting and ending ACC takeover bid. ACC ultimately profits 50 million on the deal. (pp.199)
- 1985 July 10
- Keating meets with Senator John Glenn and agrees to raise $200,000 for Glenn's National Council on Public Policy and to raise moneys to address Glenn's campaign debt. (pp.225)
- 1985 November 22
- Keating meets with Shannon Fairbanks (FHLBB chairman Ed Gray's chief assistant) regarding Gray's support for
the corporate interests and activities of Lincoln Savings ...
(pp.233) - 1986 February
- ACC hires Jones, Day, Reavis and Pogue to help prepare for a federal audit of Lincoln scheduled for that spring. Attorneys review and update loan files. (pp.243)
- 1986 March 14
- FHLBB San Francisco office agrees to ACC plan for tax payments allowing Lincoln to
upstream
tax obligations to ACC on a quarterly basis with ACC holding money in escrow until tax is due. (pp.246) - 1986 July 3
- FHLBB San Francisco examiners meet with Lincoln executives at Phoenix. Keating makes inflammatory statements regarding the length of FHLBB investigation and incompetence of their staff. (pp.248-251)
- 1986 November 7
- Lee Henkel is appointed by President Reagan to the FHLBB. (pp.271)
- 1986 December 18
- In his first FHLBB meeting Henkel proposes reversing the limitation on direct investments by thrifts previously enacted (see January 31, 1985), which would bring ACC back into compliance. (pp.272)
- 1986 December 19
- FHLBB San Francisco files
a 407 ordering an investigation of the alleged file stuffing and backdating uncovered in the audit of Lincoln in the spring of 1986.
The investigation will determine whether a criminal referral to the Justice Department should be made. (pp.272) - 1986 December 24
- A Wall Street Journal front-page article reveals ties between Lee Henkle, his proposed FHLBB reform and Lincoln. (pp.273)
- 1987 January 28
- Keating meets with Senator Don Reigle of Michigan to enlist his help with reversing Ed Gray's FHLBB reforms. (pp.279)
- 1987 March 31
- Lincoln sells one thousand acres of land from the Estrella development to West Continental Mortgage Corp. (WESCON, an ACC subsidiary) for $14 million. (pp.283)
- 1987 April 2
- Ed Gray meets with Senators DeConcini, Cranston, Glenn and McCain at DeConcini's office regarding the FHLBB investigation of Lincoln. Gray agrees to arrange a meeting between the senators and representatives of the FHLBB San Francisco office. (pp.284)
- 1987 April 9
- Mike Patriarcha and other representatives of FHLBB San Francisco meet with Senators DeConcini, McCain, Glenn and Riegle. Senator Cranston visits briefly. (pp.288-289) Patriarcha indicates their office is sending a criminal referral to the Justice Department re: Lincoln practices. (pp.290)
- 1987 June 30
- Ed Gray retires as FHLBB chairman. M. Danny Wall is sworn in as chair the following day. (pp.297)
- 1987 July 23
- FHLBB chief examiner William L. Robertson writes chairman Wall recommending that Lincoln be put into receivership. Wall demotes Robertson that same day and places Darrell Dochow as chief examiner. FHLBB staff meet with Lincoln representatives regarding litigation threatened by Lincoln over leaks of confidential FHLBB audit information. (pp.300)
- 1988 May 5
- FHLBB meeting re: Lincoln Savings and Loan. (pp.42, 47-48, 59, 62-63, 66-67)
- 1988 May 20
- FHLBB and ACC sign Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which allows ACC to be reaudited by staff from Washington DC, discards previous audits from the San Francisco FHLBB office, forgives all previous Lincoln actions taken before the MOU and moves Lincoln from San Francisco FLHBB jusridiction to another district. (pp.66-68)
- 1989 February 3
- Bush administration officials inform M. Danny Wall and William Seidman (Head of FDIC) of their plan to reorganize FHLBB into the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), while reassigning management of thrift bailout funds to FDIC. (pp.345)
- 1989 March
- FHLBB completes another examination of Lincoln and gives notice that Lincoln must increase its' reserves. FHLBB officials again consult with attorneys regarding the potential seizure of Lincoln. (pp.349)
- 1989 April 4
- FHLBB notifies Lincoln that it must add $50 million to it's cash reserves. (pp.349)
- 1989 April 13
- ACC and eleven subsidiaries file for Chapter 11 protection from creditors. (pp.350-351)
- 1989 April 14
- Lincoln Savings and Loan is seized by
federal regulators.
(pp.351) - 1989 April 17
- FHLBB sends criminal referrals to US Attorneys and the FBI in Phoenix, New York City and Los Angeles. (pp.351)
- 1989 June
- FDIC investigator Michael Manning files preliminary finding with FDIC and FHLBB. (p.7)
- 1989 September 15
- On behalf of the RTC Manning files $1.2 billion RICO complaint at the US District Court at Phoenix. Named in the suit are Charles Keating, Charles Keating III, Judy Wischer, Robert Kielty, Robert Wurzelbacher, Robert Hubbard and Andrew Ligget. (pp.365; Arizona Republic, 9/16/89, pp.A2)
- 1989 November 16
Federal thrift managers, FBI agents, private security guards...
seize the Phoenician. (pp.370)- 1989 December
- M. Danny Wall resigns as chair of the FHLBB. (pp.369)
- 1990 August 22
- Judge Stanley Sporkin issues his decision upholding the FLHBB seizure of Lincoln Savings and Loan. (pp.383)
- 1990 August 24
- Charles Keating and five top ACC executives including ACC President Judy Wischer resign from the corporation. US District Judge Richard M. Bilby installs Tom Arnold (ex-president of Del Webb Corp.) as president of ACC while it is in receivership. (Arizona Republic, 9/23/90, pp.A2)
- 1990 September 19
- Charles Keating is indicted by a Califonia Grand Jury on forty-two counts of criminal fraud associated with the sale of ACC junk bonds. Keating is booked into Los Angeles County Jail since he cannot make the $5 million bond set by the court. (pp.385)
- 1990 October 18
- Charles Keating is released from prison after a federal judge lowers bail to $300,000. (Arizona Republic, 12/5/91, pp.A2)
- 1990 November 15
- The US Senate Ethics Committee opens the
Keating Five
hearings. (Arizona Republic, 12/5/91, pp.A2) - 1991 February 27
- The US Senate Ethics Committee finds
substantial credible evidence
of misconduct by Senator Alan Cranston. Other Senators receive less severe criticism. (Phoenix Gazette, 12/5/91, pp.A2) - 1991 August 2
- Keating's criminal trial begins at Los Angeles County Superior Court under the adjudication of Judge Lance Ito. (Phoenix Gazette, 12/5/91, pp.A2)
- 1991 November 5
- The Los Angeles Superior Court jury convicts Keating on seventeen of the eighteen counts of securities fraud. (Phoenix Gazette, pp.A2)
- 1992 April 10
- Charles Keating is sentenced to ten years in prison and $250,000 fine on criminal charges at Los Angeles County Superior Court by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lance Ito. (pp.404)
- 1992 July 11
- Another California court fines Keating $3 billion in a civil suit brought by ACC bondholders. (pp.405)
- 1993 January 6
- Charles Keating is convicted of seventy-three counts of racketeering, fraud and conspiracy at a federal court in Los Angeles. Charles Keating III (his son) was also convicted of sixty-four similar counts. (pp.416)
Full extent
1712 Box(es)
Full extent
1814 Linear Feet
Abstract
The American Continental Corporation Records consist of correspondence files, architectural and land use plans, promotional and advertising materials, environmental impact reports, regulatory reports, trial records, attorneys records and financial records relating to the corporation and a number of its' subsidiaries. The records extend from approximately 1971 to 1993 and consist of the following series: Relevant Files, Irrelevant Files, Federal Grand Jury Files, MDL-834 Trial Records, and Other Corporate Records. When requesting materials, researchers must provide the applicable box number; series and subseries name(s); and series and subseries accession number(s) so that the correct box(es) can be identified.
Arrangement
This collection consists of one thousand, seven hundred and twelve boxes divided into five series:
- Series I: Relevant Files
- Series II: Irrelevant Files
- Series III: Federal Grand Jury Files
- Series IV: MDL-834 Trial Records
- Series V: Other Corporate Records
Custodial History
These records were originally brought by ACC staff to the ACC Document Depository established in Phoenix in the Fall of 1989, numbered using alphanumeric codes referring to specific floors of the ACC office complex, and Bates stamped to insure that documents and file folders were complete. Boxes from a specific office complex floor were intended to be numbered consecutively with regard for their original order in the file cabinets. Attorneys and officers of the court subsequently identified individual boxes of the corporate records as Relevant
or Irrelevant
to the securities fraud litigation collectively known as MDL-834, which was adjudicated by Judge Bilby at the US District Court in Tucson. Federal Grand Jury proceedings in California regarding the failure of Lincoln Savings and Loan (a subsidiary of ACC) required original ACC documents, and so the FBI was permitted to remove some original files from the document depository and replace them with photocopies. These documents and other original materials have been identified as Federal Grand Jury Files.
Provenance
The American Continental Corporation (ACC) Records were received from ACC CEO Thomas E. Arnold with the assistance of consultant Ronald L. Clifton and ACC General Counsel William Rose in July, 1994 in compliance with the directive of US District Court Judge Richard M. Bilby. Other records identified as MDL-834 Trial Records
were delivered separately from the courts' storage facility and from Stickley and Shutzman, the court reporting agency in Tucson.
Processing Note
The American Continental Corporation Records arrived at Arizona State University with a series of inventory notebooks (known as indexes
) produced by ACC staff. An automated document scanning and text searching system which was used at the ACC Document Depository was also received with the collection.
The inventory notebooks contained descriptions of the folders within each box of the Relevant and Irrelevant file series, and occasionally included information identifying the office of origin for the box described. Bates Anomalies
given at the end of each box inventory listed errors in the page numbering stamped on each page of the corporate records during inventorying and scanning.
The inventory notebooks for the Relevant series have been disbound and the pages sorted in box number order and rebound. All of the boxes of Relevant files identified by the inventory notebooks have been retained. The inventory notebooks for the Irrelevant series were used in selecting materials for the archival collection. Based upon selection criteria developed by Arizona Collection staff, 193 of approximately 1200 boxes of Irrelevant files were retained for the ACC collection. The inventory sheets associated with the retained irrelevant boxes were then photocopied and bound.
The document text scanning system received with the ACC collection contained scanned copies of the Relevant and Irrelevant inventory notebooks as well as scanned copies of corporate records contained in the Relevant and Irrelevant files. When the scanning system arrived at ASU it was not operational and had not been used for at least one year. Representatives of the system designer and staff from ASU Information Technology were unable to restart the system. The hard drive from the system was shipped to a commercial data recovery firm in August, 1994 and files were returned to ASU on tape shortly thereafter. Software for the InfoBase portion of the scanning system and files including the scanned Relevant and Irrelevant inventory notebooks were recovered from the tapes.
Geographic
Topical
- Title
- American Continental Corporation Records
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Robert P. Spindler in December of 1994 (Revised in May of 2008)
- Date
- 2014
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding guide encoded in English.
Repository details
Part of the Greater Arizona Collection Repository
Contact
Arizona State UniversityP.O. Box 871006
Tempe AZ 85287-1006 United States
(480) 965-4932
archives@asu.edu