While Fighting U.S. Suit, Fitzpatrick Opens Irvine Branch of CBI Brokerage : BANKING / FINANCE

Dennis M. Fitzpatrick isn’t letting grass grow under his feet while he and co-defendants fight a $300-million negligence lawsuit filed by federal regulators over their role in leading Mission Viejo-based Beverly Hills Savings & Loan into insolvency.

Fitzpatrick founded a commercial mortgage brokerage in Los Angeles after he was ousted as chief executive of Beverly Hills 5 years ago, and he recently opened a branch in Irvine. CBI Financial Services Inc. set up shop with three employees in a low-rise office complex at MacArthur and Jamboree boulevards.

CBI, which also has a branch in San Jose, represents developers of shopping centers and other commercial projects. The company obtains financing for construction jobs and long-term loans.

CBI expects that it will pay $250 million in loans for its fiscal year, ending June 30, Fitzpatrick said.

He declined to discuss the lawsuit, saying he knows little about the 58 volumes of court documents that have been accumulated since the suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in 1986. Beverly Hills was declared insolvent and seized by regulators in April, 1985, 1 year after Fitzpatrick left the S&L.;

Beverly Hills Savings, which had one of the biggest S&L; deficits in the country, was revived Dec. 31 when Michigan National Corp. bought it, with regulatory assistance.