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American Continental Corporation Records circa 1971-1993

MSS-134

Historical Note

All citations refer to Binstein and Bowden, Trust Me: Charles Keating and the Missing Billions (New York: Random House, 1993) unless otherwise indicated.

Scope and Content Note

The American Continental Corporation Records consist of correspondence files, architectural and land use plans, promotional and advertising materials, environmental impact reports, regulatory reports, trial records, attorneys records and financial records relating to the corporation and a number of its' subsidiaries. The records extend from approximately 1971 to 1993 and consist of the following series: Relevant Files, Irrelevant Files, Federal Grand Jury Files, MDL-834 Trial Records, and Other Corporate Records.

Series I: Relevant Files consists of ACC corporate records that ACC counsel and officers of the court deemed relevant to the litigation collectively known as MDL-834. The functional origin of the records within this series cannot readily be determined with consistency, however as the materials were packed in boxes they were assigned box number codes that reflect the provenance of the materials. These codes are:

Series II: Irrelevant Files consists of ACC corporate records deemed not to be relevant to the MDL-834 litigation. The box number codes given above also apply to Irrelevant series materials.

Series III: Federal Grand Jury Files consists of ACC corporate records seized or photocopied by the FBI for use in grand jury proceedings relating to the failure of Lincoln Savings and Loan, an ACC subsidiary. These range in date from 1971 to 1991 and include correspondence, architectural drawings, land use plans and real estate valuations, promotional and advertising materials, regulatory reports, legal filings, attorneys’ records, legislative lobby records, statistical analyses, and financial records. They pertain to the American Continental Corporation, the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, the American Continental Mortgage Company, other American Continental subsidiaries, subcontractors, customers and trading partners, as well as the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.

Series IV: MDL-834 Trial Records consists of information relating to the adjudication of a series of securities fraud cases collectively known as MDL-834 at the United States District Court, Arizona District, Judge Richard M. Bilby presiding. The series includes deposition transcripts and videotapes, exhibits, and teleconference proceedings. Reproduction of deposition videotapes has been restricted in compliance with the July 10, 1995 order of Judge Bilby (see Restrictions statement). This series is divided into the following subseries: Sub-Series A: Trial Transcripts, Sub-Series B: Deposition Transcripts, Sub-Series C: Deposition Videotapes, Sub-Series D: Filings/Exhibits, Sub-Series E: Teleconference Proceedings, and Sub-Series F: Miscellaneous.

Series V: Other Corporate Records houses files delivered to Arizona State University Libraries that did not appear in the Relevant or Irrelevant document inventories. This series has been divided into a number of subseries based upon the box number codes assigned to them (see under Relevant series above) and the archivist's inspection of the file contents. These subseries are: Sub-Series A: Corporate Accounting, Sub-Series B: Corporate Counsel, Sub-Series C: Corporate Counsel: Case Files, Sub-Series D: Corporate Counsel: David I. Thompson, Sub-Series E: Corporate Counsel: Mark S. Sauter, Sub-Series F: Corporate Counsel: Robert J. Kielty, Sub-Series G: Corporate Counsel: Ronald M. Stoll, Sub-Series H: Corporate Counsel: Scott A. Siebels, and Sub-Series I: Executive Offices.

When requesting materials, researchers must provide the applicable box number; series and subseries name(s); and series and subseries accession number(s) so that the correct box(es) can be identified.

Arrangement

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

Distinctive Collections and Archives (the Department) has implemented special procedures to protect the privacy rights of American Continental Corporation (ACC) customers, insure the continued integrity of the American Continental Corporation Records Collection (the Collection) and provide our patrons with prompt and efficient access. All users of the Collection are required to read and complete an Access and Use Agreement (available at https://libguides.asu.edu/ld.php?content_id=43252431) before access is granted.

In the Access and Use Agreement the user agrees not to publish or publicly present in any fashion personally identifiable financial information derived from the Collection regarding individuals that have purchased real estate, financial services, stocks or bonds from ACC. However, permission for publication of personally identifiable financial information will be extended if the user can provide to the Department documentary evidence that the information in question has already been made public through prior publication or through inclusion in the official records of the State of Arizona or the Federal Government. Compilations of statistics including financial information that do not identify individual customers will be reviewed on a case by case basis and may be approved for publication by the Head of Distinctive Collections.

The user also agrees to hold any personally identifiable financial information (e.g. credit reports) of ACC customers confidential and agrees to hold harmless Arizona State University, the Arizona Board of Regents, the State of Arizona and their officers and employees from all claims, damages and costs, including attorney's fees arising from the users use of and access to the Collection, and all claims of violation of privacy rights of individuals represented in the Collection.

To view this collection, make an appointment at least five business days prior to your visit by contacting Ask an Archivist or calling (480) 965-4932. Appointments in the Wurzburger Reading Room at Hayden Library (rm. 138) on the Tempe campus are available Monday through Friday. Check the ASU Library Hours page for current availability.

Patrons are limited to examination of one box at a time and are asked to use paper markers to maintain the original position of a folder or document within the box. Ask reference staff for instructions in marking materials for photocopying. All other Reading Room policies (e.g. use of pencil) apply to use of the Collection.

Reproduction or publication of all trial deposition videotapes (except those of Jack Atchison) was restricted until January 1, 2004. A copy of Judge Richard M. Bilby's July 10, 1995 court order regarding access to deposition transcripts and videotapes is available from the head of the Distinctive Collections.

When requesting materials, researchers must provide the applicable box number; series and subseries name(s); and series and subseries accession number(s) so that the correct box(es) can be identified.

Copyright

The Arizona Board of Regents retains copyright to this collection for and on behalf of the Arizona State University Library. Requests to publish, display, or redistribute information from this collection must be submitted via our online application.

Access Terms

Administrative Information

Custodial History

These records were originally brought by ACC staff to the ACC Document Depository established in Phoenix in the Fall of 1989, numbered using alphanumeric codes referring to specific floors of the ACC office complex, and Bates stamped to insure that documents and file folders were complete. Boxes from a specific office complex floor were intended to be numbered consecutively with regard for their original order in the file cabinets. Attorneys and officers of the court subsequently identified individual boxes of the corporate records as "Relevant" or "Irrelevant" to the securities fraud litigation collectively known as MDL-834, which was adjudicated by Judge Bilby at the US District Court in Tucson. Federal Grand Jury proceedings in California regarding the failure of Lincoln Savings and Loan (a subsidiary of ACC) required original ACC documents, and so the FBI was permitted to remove some original files from the document depository and replace them with photocopies. These documents and other original materials have been identified as Federal Grand Jury Files.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], American Continental Corporation Records, MSS-134, Arizona State University Library.

Provenance

The American Continental Corporation (ACC) Records were received from ACC CEO Thomas E. Arnold with the assistance of consultant Ronald L. Clifton and ACC General Counsel William Rose in July, 1994 in compliance with the directive of US District Court Judge Richard M. Bilby. Other records identified as "MDL-834 Trial Records" were delivered separately from the courts' storage facility and from Stickley and Shutzman, the court reporting agency in Tucson.

Processing Note

The American Continental Corporation Records arrived at Arizona State University with a series of inventory notebooks (known as "indexes") produced by ACC staff. An automated document scanning and text searching system which was used at the ACC Document Depository was also received with the collection.

The inventory notebooks contained descriptions of the folders within each box of the Relevant and Irrelevant file series, and occasionally included information identifying the office of origin for the box described. "Bates Anomalies" given at the end of each box inventory listed errors in the page numbering stamped on each page of the corporate records during inventorying and scanning.

The inventory notebooks for the Relevant series have been disbound and the pages sorted in box number order and rebound. All of the boxes of Relevant files identified by the inventory notebooks have been retained. The inventory notebooks for the Irrelevant series were used in selecting materials for the archival collection. Based upon selection criteria developed by Arizona Collection staff, 193 of approximately 1200 boxes of Irrelevant files were retained for the ACC collection. The inventory sheets associated with the retained irrelevant boxes were then photocopied and bound.

The document text scanning system received with the ACC collection contained scanned copies of the Relevant and Irrelevant inventory notebooks as well as scanned copies of corporate records contained in the Relevant and Irrelevant files. When the scanning system arrived at ASU it was not operational and had not been used for at least one year. Representatives of the system designer and staff from ASU Information Technology were unable to restart the system. The hard drive from the system was shipped to a commercial data recovery firm in August, 1994 and files were returned to ASU on tape shortly thereafter. Software for the InfoBase portion of the scanning system and files including the scanned Relevant and Irrelevant inventory notebooks were recovered from the tapes.

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