Missing Funds From North American Savings Sought : S&L; Paper Chase May Lead to Panama

The continuing investigation into the affairs of the failed North America Savings & Loan Assn., its late owner and his confidante has produced a truckload of records seized in Costa Mesa and Riverside in the last 11 days and given federal regulators a trail that may lead to Panama.

In addition, court papers filed by the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. suggest that some people may be trying to conceal records of the Santa Ana institution, its late owner, Duayne D. Christensen, and his confidante-business manager, Janet F. McKinzie.

The FSLIC, one of the agencies probing alleged widespread fraud that led to the Jan. 16 collapse of the S&L;, is trying to locate more than $20 million it says was illegally siphoned from the Santa Ana institution by Christensen and McKinzie.

Christensen died in a single-car crash hours before regulators seized his S&L.; A lawyer for McKinzie, who has been hospitalized for the last few weeks, has denied that his client committed any wrongdoing.

In papers filed in Orange County Superior Court, the FSLIC said it was trying to find out specifically where $11 million in S&L; money went. That money, plus more than $500,000 in interest, had been replaced in the S&L;’s coffers with phony certificates of deposit drawn on the Bank of Alex Brown in Sacramento, regulators said.

At the Safe Harbor Self-Storage in Costa Mesa on Feb. 3, regulators seized 190 to 200 boxes, about 20 garbage bags and four file cabinets filled with business, financial and commercial records belonging to the S&L;, according to Orange County Superior Court documents.

At a Riverside company earlier this week, regulators said they seized more records detailing the association’s deals and the activities of Christensen and McKinzie. The company, Commercial Concepts Inc., is run by Jack Caldwell, who also operates Beven Co. Panama S.A., a Panamanian firm.

“These documents have been moved several times and are likely to be moved again,” Michael Lubic, one of FSLIC’s attorneys, said in a court statement supporting the request for a court order to seize the records.

Lubic, a lawyer with the firm of Mayer Brown & Platt in Los Angeles, also said in his statement to the court that Caldwell often travels out of the country and is “likely to leave the country soon.” Caldwell’s business “appears to be collapsing” as he has failed to pay salaries or rent in recent weeks, Lubic said.

Bad Checks Alleged

Caldwell also “recently passed several thousand dollars in alleged NSF (non-sufficient funds) checks,” the lawyer said.

Caldwell could not be reached for comment Friday.

Christensen told state regulators last year that he was trying to liquidate assets in Panama to get some of the $6 million the state was requiring that he put into the S&L; to stem its losses and dwindling capital. North America Savings lost $9 million last year and reported a year-end negative net worth of $1.5 million, which regulators have since estimated to be more than $6.5 million.

The FSLIC already has sued McKinzie, her mortgage company and Christensen’s estate, claiming fraud in misappropriating the funds and in covering up her actions. The federal agency already has a court order freezing about $100 million in securities and promissory notes belonging to Christensen and McKinzie, but lawyers are uncertain if any money remains in those assets.

Two of Christensen’s three children also have sued her, claiming that her alleged fraud, undue influence, duress and deceit led their father to name her as the sole beneficiary of a trust containing all his assets and of a $10-million life insurance policy. The children also have stated that they plan to contest their father’s will, which left everything to McKinzie.

The FBI and the state attorney general’s office are also working on fraud and embezzlement investigations. The state investigation focuses on McKinzie, investigators have said.