After a brief hearing, Superior Court Judge Lance AIto--best-known for presiding over the trial that found O.J.Simpson innocent of slashing to death his wife and one of her malefriends--allowed prosecutors to formally withdraw theirsecurities-fraud charges against Keating. Now 76 years old,Keating's role as chief of the defunct Lincoln Savings and Loan inIrvine and its parent American Continental Corp. eventually becamethe "poster boy" for the thrift industry's greed andnear-collapse.

Thousands of investors, many of them seniors who lived inSouthern California, lost an estimated $285 million when Keating'sfinancial empire finally buckled in 1989. The government'sresulting bailout of Lincoln Savings, at $3 billion, was one of themost costly ever.

Government prosecutors had accused Keating of overseeing--andsometimes even orchestrating--several shady multimillion-dollarreal estate deals, as well as nefarious investments in currencytrading and corporate takeovers. Though Federal prosecutors had wonan earlier conviction against Keating, it was overturned on appealbecause the jury had heard about an earlier state court convictionand discussed the verdict as they deliberated over the Federalcharges.