The
Keating Five were five
United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major
political scandal as part of the larger
Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The five senators,
Alan Cranston (
D-
CA),
Dennis DeConcini (
D-
AZ),
John Glenn (
D-
OH),
John McCain (
R-
AZ), and
Donald W. Riegle (
D-
MI), were accused of improperly intervening in 1987 on behalf of
Charles H. Keating, Jr., chairman of the
Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of a regulatory investigation by the
Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB).The FHLBB subsequently backed off taking action against Lincoln.
Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed in 1989, at a cost of $2 billion to the federal government. Some 23,000 Lincoln bondholders were defrauded and many elderly investors lost their life savings. The substantial political contributions that Keating had made to each of the senators, totalling $1.3 million, attracted considerable public and media attention.