3 Indicted for Alleged Scheme to Buy 11 S&Ls; : Aide to Former Senator and 2 Businessmen Accused of Bribery, Conspiracy, Racketeering

Glen N. Mauldin, administrative assistant to former Sen. Chic Hecht (R-Nev.), has been indicted in Texas along with two businessmen on charges of bribery, conspiracy and racketeering in an alleged scheme to acquire 11 savings and loan institutions, authorities said Thursday.

Mauldin, who denied any wrongdoing, was named in a 22-count federal indictment unsealed in San Antonio that also charged the defendants with seeking to use Hecht’s office to further their investment plans on the island of Grenada.

Ray Jahn, an assistant U.S. attorney, said Mauldin, Washington lobbyist Vincent P. Lachelli and Houston businessman Darrell A. Tomblin were charged with corruptly promising Mauldin a 10% interest in their venture in return for his assistance in getting the Federal Home Loan Bank Board to approve acquisition by Tomblin’s group of 11 thrifts in Texas and other states that were “in poor economic condition.”

Hecht Not Charged

The plans did not reach completion, authorities said, and none of the institutions was actually acquired. The identity of only one of them was disclosed--Suburban Savings & Loan of San Antonio.

A fourth defendant, financial consultant William Murray Abroms of New Orleans, was charged with five counts of perjury on grounds he lied to grand jurors about the activities of the other three men.

Abroms was identified as a longtime associate of Tomblin.

Helen Eversberg, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, said Hecht “is not charged in the indictment and has cooperated with the FBI.”

Hecht, defeated in his Senate race last fall, has been named by President Bush as ambassador to the Bahamas.

Mauldin, aside from serving as Hecht’s administrative assistant, also was campaign treasurer of Hecht’s reelection committee, the indictment said.

Eversberg said Tomblin, who was also charged with extorting $250,000 from Suburban Savings of San Antonio, “made an application for control of this savings institution and others, and Mr. Mauldin was going to use his influence with the bank board to help accomplish it.”

Year-Long Investigation

The offenses charged in the indictment occurred between November, 1987, and November, 1988, Jahn said.

Authorities said the indictments follow a year-long investigation by FBI agents, federal prosecutors in San Antonio and Tampa, Fla., and attorneys from the Justice Department’s public integrity section in Washington.

Mauldin, Lachelli and Tomblin were also charged in the indictment with seeking to engage in the petroleum and fishing business on the island of Grenada through the use of “corruptly obtained political influence.”

Grenadan Officials Helped

According to the indictment, the defendants “would and did utilize the corruptly obtained influence of the office of a United States senator to obtain concessions from the government of Grenada, financing in the form of loans and grants and the intervention of various agencies of the United States . . . to further the defendants’ business plans.”

The indictment said Mauldin obtained a letter on Hecht’s official stationery “introducing the conspirators to the prime minister of Grenada and endorsing their business plans.”

Eversberg said Grenadan officials assisted the FBI in bringing this aspect of the investigation “to its logical conclusion.”