Keating 5 // Current

McCain Did Not Disclose Keating Business Deal To Investigators

The New Republic published an explosive story Saturday evening detailing how John McCain, in all likelihood, leaked information to investigators of the Keating Five scandal that was designed to help his image at the expense of the other four Senators involved.

If the allegation is true -- and TNR makes a healthy case as to its veracity -- it would mean that McCain violated Senate rules and could have been expelled from that body.

"All five senators -- including McCain -- had testified under oath and under the U.S. penal code that the leaks did not come from their camps," Sahil Mahtani reports. "The leaks were also prohibited by rules of the Senate Ethics Committee; according to the rules of the Senate, anyone caught leaking such information could face expulsion from the body."

But this is not be the only instance in which McCain defied the rules of the Senate when seeking to absolve himself of any wronging in the Keating affair. Public records in Arizona reveal that the Senator was also dishonest in discussing the extent of financial transactions he and his family had with the disgraced Savings and Loans chief.

In a three-and-a-half hour interview with investigators on February 13, 1990, McCain told the Ethics Committee that "other than the Fountain Square project [a property deal in which Keating and McCain's family were jointly invested] there were no other financial dealings between him or his family and ACC [American Continental Corporation]."

This, it seems, was not true.

In 1983, the company owned by the McCain family -- specifically his wife Cindy and father-in-law Jim Hensley -- bought a property in Mesa, Arizona, owned by ACC, only to sell it back two months later.

According to property records (pdf), on May 26 of that year, Keating's ACC "conveyed" Lot 188 of Laguna Shores Unit 8 to the Hensley/McCain's Western Leasing Company for the price of $75,000. On July 21, 1983, Western Leasing Company sold the lot right back to ACC for the same exact price.
The New Republic published an explosive story Saturday evening detailing how John McCain, in all likelihood, leaked information to... more

WhichWayIsUp
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1 month ago

Keating economics: John McCain and the making of a financial crisis

What about McCain's Keating 5 involvement? Fraud through deregulation which is exactly what McCain is calling for now, more deregulation!

He of all people should understand that deregulation only allows those less than honest and ethical businessmen to take advantage of the system.. that's what the whole Keating scandal was about! And it cost the public BILLIONS of dollars and countless job losses and bankruptcies.

It's likely part of McCain's previous deregulations that have led to our current financial crisis. More firms failing while the CEOs and other big wigs walk away with hundreds of millions in their personal accounts.

Why isn't more attention being brought to the Keating scandal?

And McCain and Palin keep pointing at Obama's supposed connection with William Ayers... What about McCain's close ties with Gordon Liddy??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpGdL1K46Hc
^^^Watch the Video: Letterman asks McCain about Liddy and he tries to lie about it saying, 'Um... I've met him... Gordon Liddys...?? Um....^^^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mncswlqo2D0
^^^ McCain's appearance on Gordon Liddy's radio show ^^^

McCain thinks he can defend his relationship with Liddy cause he's 'open' about it. Yet Obama has disclosed that his ties with Ayers are not as close as McCain keeps insisting they are, he served on a committee with him years ago along with other important people, dems and republicans, and he's now and influential college professor, that's about it. COME ON MCCAIN!! We can all see through your bullshit!!

And what's this crap about McCain's campaign conducting automated calls that blatantly slander Obama by twisting the facts about Ayers (and do so in a possibly illegal manner)?? McCain even said he was no longer going to continue his slander campaign and start talking about the issues... maybe he doesn't connect the actions of his campaign with himself??? Maybe he's just full of shit?

Obama should punch McCain in the gut over his ties with people like Libby and the whole Keating 5 scandal. I can't believe Obama has been able to hold back. Keating 5 is a BIG DEAL, especially in our current economic turmoil... plus we have his VP Gov Palin on abuse of power charges. Really, it's like the mountain calling the hill, 'Mr. Everest'....What about McCain's Keating 5 involvement? Fraud through deregulation which is exactly what McCain is calling for now, more... more

simplecj
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7 responses

1 month ago

MCCAIN and the Keating 5

Great new 13 minute documentary about McCain's key role in the S&L Keating scandal of the 80's that robbed people of... more

dixiefilms
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3 responses

1 month ago

Senate ethics panel cites Cranston in Keating Five case -- chicagotribune.com

There is "substantial credible evidence" that Sen. Alan Cranston violated Senate rules by intervening with federal... more

khaosworks
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1 month ago

KEATING ECONOMICS: John McCain & The Making of a Financial Crisis

This short documentary was released by the Obama-Biden campaign today. A shocking look at John McCain's past.

quantisation
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18 responses

1 month ago

Keating Five: McCain Lawyers Push Back on Obama Keating Five Charges

The McCain campaign pushed back hard against the new Obama attack over the Keating Five, arguing that the Arizona senator was... more

Apocalipstick
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1 month ago

KEATING ECONOMICS: John McCain & The Making of a Financial Crisis

Don't forget the Keating 5

Apocalipstick
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1 month ago

Obama campaign lauches McCain/Keating 5 website and documentary

It's been the ace up their sleeve all along. McCain's amplified negative strategy marked by Sarah Palin's... more

joebrilliant
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1 month ago

Is McCain a Crook? Keating 5

The controversial George W. Bush-sponsored poll in South Carolina mentioned John McCain's role in the so-called Keating Five scandal, and McCain says his involvement in the scandal "will probably be on my tombstone." What exactly did McCain do?

At Keating's behest, four senators--McCain and Democrats Dennis DeConcini of Arizona, Alan Cranston of California, and John Glenn of Ohio--met with Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, on April 2. Those four senators and Sen. Don Riegle, D-Mich., attended a second meeting at Keating's behest on April 9 with bank regulators in San Francisco.

Regulators did not seize Lincoln Savings and Loan until two years later. The Lincoln bailout cost taxpayers $2.6 billion, making it the biggest of the S&L scandals. In addition, 17,000 Lincoln investors lost $190 million.

In November 1990, the Senate Ethics Committee launched an investigation into the meetings between the senators and the regulators. McCain, Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn, and Riegle became known as the Keating Five.

(Keating himself was convicted in January 1993 of 73 counts of wire and bankruptcy fraud and served more than four years in prison before his conviction was overturned. Last year, he pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud and was sentenced to time served.)

McCain defended his attendance at the meetings by saying Keating was a constituent and that Keating's development company, American Continental Corporation, was a major Arizona employer. McCain said he wanted to know only whether Keating was being treated fairly and that he had not tried to influence the regulators. At the second meeting, McCain told the regulators, "I wouldn't want any special favors for them," and "I don't want any part of our conversation to be improper."

But Keating was more than a constituent to McCain--he was a longtime friend and associate. McCain met Keating in 1981 at a Navy League dinner in Arizona where McCain was the speaker. Keating was a former naval aviator himself, and the two men became friends. Keating raised money for McCain's two congressional campaigns in 1982 and 1984, and for McCain's 1986 Senate bid. By 1987, McCain campaigns had received $112,000 from Keating, his relatives, and his employees--the most received by any of the Keating Five. (Keating raised a total of $300,000 for the five senators.)

After McCain's election to the House in 1982, he and his family made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, three of which were to Keating's Bahamas retreat. McCain did not disclose the trips (as he was required to under House rules) until the scandal broke in 1989. At that point, he paid Keating $13,433 for the flights.

And in April 1986, one year before the meeting with the regulators, McCain's wife, Cindy, and her father invested $359,100 in a Keating strip mall.

The Senate Ethics Committee probe of the Keating Five began in November 1990, and committee Special Counsel Robert Bennett recommended that McCain and Glenn be dropped from the investigation. They were not. McCain believes Democrats on the committee blocked Bennett's recommendation because he was the lone Keating Five Republican.

In February 1991, the Senate Ethics Committee found McCain and Glenn to be the least blameworthy of the five senators. (McCain and Glenn attended the meetings but did nothing else to influence the regulators.) McCain was guilty of nothing more than "poor judgment," the committee said, and declared his actions were not "improper nor attended with gross negligence." McCain considered the committee's judgment to be "full exoneration," and he contributed $112,000 (the amount raised for him by Keating) to the U.S. Treasury.

a maverick huh? McCain needs to stop self-proclaiming his Maverick style and let the America people decide if he is truely maverick worthy.
The controversial George W. Bush-sponsored poll in South Carolina mentioned John McCain's role in the so-called Keating Five... more