American Notes Scandals

Financier Charles Keating's 68th birthday was not an occasion for celebration. Instead, a state-court jury in Los Angeles found the former head of California's Lincoln Savings & Loan, whose company sold $250 million in junk bonds to unwitting investors as it headed toward insolvency, guilty of 17 counts of securities fraud. Keating, whose $1.4 million in political contributions entangled five U.S. Senators in the S&L scandal, faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Last month the Senate reprimanded California Senator Alan Cranston for soliciting contributions from Keating while he was ! urging federal regulators to go easy on Keating's S&L.

Other troubles await Keating. He is the subject of a federal grand-jury probe of securities violations, a racketeering suit by the federal Resolution Trust Corporation and a civil suit by former Lincoln investors. His next birthday could find him back in court -- or behind bars.