Keating Five

The so-called Keating Five were five senators in the U.S. Senate, who were accused in 1989 of corruption. This sparked as part of the so-called savings -and -loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, a major political scandal.

The four Democratic Senators Alan Cranston (California), Dennis DeConcini (Arizona ), John Glenn (Ohio ), and Donald W. Riegle (Michigan ) and John McCain (Arizona ) were accused in 1987 of improperly favor of Charles H. Keating (1923-2014) intervened to have. This was during that time chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was aimed at investigation of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board ( FHLBB ). As a result, the FHLBB refrained from further investigation and action against Lincoln.

Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed in 1989, what the federal government for rescue measures approximately U.S. $ 2 billion cost. Approximately 23,000 holders of Lincoln bonds lost their capital and many older investors their savings and pensions. The substantial donations that Keating had made ​​to each of the senators, a total of 1.3 million U.S. $, aroused the public interest. After a lengthy investigation, the Ethics Committee of the Senate in 1991 stated that Cranston, DeConcini and Riegle had intervened in considerable and unacceptable manner in the investigation of the FHLBB over Lincoln Savings. Cranston received a formal reprimand. The Senators Glenn and McCain were acquitted of the charge of improper conduct, but were criticized for their lack of judgment.

All involved senators finished their term of office regularly. Only Glenn and McCain stand for re- election, which both managed successfully. McCain later became the Republican candidate for the presidential elections of 2008.

• Political Affair (United States)
• Political history of the United States