17 Foreclosures Sought by Santa Ana Firm : North American Wins Round on Alaska Properties
North America Savings & Loan Federal Savings Assn., the federally chartered savings institution created from the assets of the failed North America Savings & Loan Assn., has won a round in its effort to foreclose on 17 Alaskan properties that ended up in a the hands of Rebecca S. Thrall, sister of the woman accused of helping to defraud the Santa Ana-based S&L; of up to $40 million.
A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in Anchorage, where North America S&L; put $59.1 million into real estate loans, has removed 17 properties covered by some of those loans from the control of Thrall’s RST Property Investments, which has filed a Chapter 11 petition to reorganize its debts.
Judge Herbert Ross put the properties, which are believed to be generating $65,000 a month income, in the hands of an outside receiver.
Thrall was an independent loan processor and the S&L;’s conduit in Alaska from 1984 until last summer, when regulators were pressuring the S&L; to get out of its Alaska investments.
The oil glut in states with energy-based economies such as Alaska has wreaked financial havoc on residents, forcing financial institutions to take huge loan losses. Of the amount North America Savings invested in Alaska mortgages, loans totaling $27.3 million, or 12.4% of its assets, are delinquent or in foreclosure.
Properties Transferred
Thrall had taken over 17 properties from borrowers who could not make mortgage payments but has failed to make the payments herself since last spring, North America FSA claims. At least one of those properties was obtained through a forged deed, the new S&L; alleged in the bankruptcy court action.
Thrall transferred the properties to her RST Property Investments just before the company filed its bankruptcy petition on Dec. 29, said Peter Bartlett, the new S&L;’s lawyer in Anchorage.
Ross said in open court last week that he planned to seek a U.S. attorney’s investigation into possible fraud and forgery in connection with the bankruptcy filing.
Thrall’s sister is Janet F. McKinzie, the confidante and business manager of North America S&L;’s late owner, Duayne D. Christensen. Christensen died in a car crash hours before state regulators seized his institution on Jan. 16.
