A report placed blame for Maryland’s thrift crisis.

Special state counsel Wilbur Preston said the near-collapse of 102 privately insured thrifts last May was caused primarily by a total failure of the state regulatory system and by thrift owners who exploited the system to use depositors’ money for their own ends. He said the state savings and loan division and the Maryland Savings-Share Insurance Corp. tolerated “insider deals, excessive fees, diversions of corporate opportunities and even criminal acts.”