Advertisement

Former Keating Aide to Be Sentenced

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Judy J. Wischer, the former top aide to imprisoned Lincoln Savings & Loan defrauder Charles H. Keating Jr., will be sentenced Monday in federal court for her role in the 1989 failure of the Irvine thrift.

Federal prosecutors won’t say yet what kind of sentence they are recommending for Wischer, but her attorney, Donald C. Randolph, who is seeking probation for her, said that he was pleased with the prosecution’s recommendation.

He said she provided “extraordinary cooperation” to the U.S. attorney’s office, the FBI, the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision, the Resolution Trust Corp. and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Advertisement

The RTC said that her aid led to the recovery of $80 million, which is part of $280 million that the agency recovered in civil actions against those who worked for Keating or his American Continental Corp. in Phoenix. Keating was chairman of now-defunct American Continental, Lincoln’s parent company, and Wischer was president.

Wischer, along with other top aides and an array of outside professionals, helped Keating loot Lincoln and bilk nearly 22,000 American Continental investors, including about 17,000 Southern Californians, of more than $285 million.

Wischer, who was indicted with Keating and others in both state and federal courts, pleaded guilty in 1992 to bank and securities fraud and agreed to testify against Keating in federal court.

Advertisement

By that time, Keating, 70, already had been convicted of securities fraud in state court and sentenced to 10 years in prison. But Wischer was the key witness against him at his federal racketeering and conspiracy trial. He was convicted in federal court as well and sentenced to 12 years, seven months in prison, which he is serving concurrently with the state term.

Advertisement