Will Tide of Indignation Surface at Sentencing?
When fallen financial whiz Daniel W. Dierdorff pleaded guilty to two felony counts last July, news about troubled thrifts like his defunct Sun Savings & Loan Assn. was confined mostly to the business pages.
Recently, however, the nationwide S&L; collapse and billion-dollar federal bailout have become a front-page, film-at-11 scandal, and calls abound for stiff prison sentences for the finaglers. Will the news explosion and rising public outrage mean a stiffer penalty for Dierdorff at his sentencing Monday?
Dierdorff’s attorney, Peter Hughes, thinks not. He says federal Judge John S. Rhoades is not going to be influenced by headlines. “I might not say that of all judges, but it is certainly true of this judge.”
Besides, he says, the fact that hundreds of other thrifts collapsed when a go-go cycle went bust shows Dierdorff and Sun were not alone. He says the federal government, by deregulating the industry, in effect encouraged thrifts like Sun to make risky loans to rev up the economy.
Still, several pre-sentencing letters to Rhoades suggest making an example of Dierdorff, 52, the former wrestler and sports booster who built San Diego-based Sun into one of the state’s fastest-growing S&Ls; before it was declared insolvent in 1986 with $100 million in loan losses. Some of the letters come from financial industry insiders.
The first was Rod Tompkins, a top executive with Great American First Savings Bank in San Diego, who suggested that Rhoades impose “substantial time” in prison for Dierdorff. Since then, California S&L; Commissioner William Crawford has recommended “stiff justice.”
“We are amazed at the difficulties in obtaining convictions and penalties despite the expenditure of millions of dollars by regulatory agencies, the FBI and U. S. attorney’s office,” Crawford wrote. “Somehow, a proper message has to be sent to members of the financial services community that wrongdoing will be dealt with sternly.”
San Diego financier Tom Stickel wrote to Rhoades: “I find it very hard to imagine that many San Diegans . . . would support Dan Dierdorff. Mr. Dierdorff would do anything, including breaking the law, to gain a competitive advantage.”
Federal prosecutors are seeking a 10-year prison sentence. Hughes thinks probation and public service are appropriate. Rhoades indicated in a hearing Thursday that jail time is a “distinct possibility.”
Hughes won a minor victory in the hearing when Rhoades said he will not consider a deposition Dierdorff gave to federal regulators. In it, he discusses his declining life style since the Sun collapse.
“We have not lived in the lap of luxury” in recent years, he said in the deposition. “We haven’t bought any stadium boxes. I’m not buying any new Ferraris this week. I don’t dress in $500 Brooks Brothers clothes.”
Classy For-Sale Pitch
It’s not unusual for neighborhoods to have a major street lined with parked cars with for-sale signs. It’s a way to find a buyer and avoid paying for a newspaper ad or selling to a dealer.
Even when it’s following a trend, Del Mar likes to be a little bit better. Among the would-be bargains parked along Del Mar Heights Road is a late-model Rolls-Royce.
Cookie Credit Line
Merger mania continues, but the impact is largely hidden from the public. Corporate parentage doesn’t seem to show at the consumer level. Not so, however, with the free-cookie policy at the former Safeway grocery at 30th and Howard in North Park.
For years, a kid could grab a free cookie every time he entered the store, no questions asked, no parents needed. But then Safeway was bought out by Vons.
Now, kids must have a “Vons Cookie Credit Card” and be accompanied by an adult. Vons corporate spokesman Leanne McKenzie says the chain isn’t trying to save cookies, just make sure cookies aren’t being eaten by kids who are allergic to sugar or whose parents object.
“It’s a safety precaution,” she said.
