BANKING / FINANCE : Keating, 2 Top Aides OKd to Negotiate Plan to Salvage American Continental

Charles H. Keating Jr. and two of his top aides were among five shareholders approved Friday as members of a shareholders committee that will negotiate a plan to salvage bankrupt American Continental Corp.

Keating, who had previously said that he would quit as the company’s chairman to be on the committee, will instead remain at the helm of American Continental, said James J. Feder, a Los Angeles lawyer for the company.

U.S. Trustee Virginia Mathis submitted the list of committee members to a federal judge overseeing litigation involving last year’s collapse of the Phoenix-based company and its Lincoln Savings & Loan unit in Irvine.

U.S. District Judge Richard M. Bilby must sign the order approving Keating and the others as members. The others are Judy J. Wischer, the company’s president; Robert J. Kielty, the company’s former general counsel and vice chairman; and two non-employee shareholders, Robert Ruppert of St. Louis and Robert E. Novascone of Scottsdale, Ariz.

Feder said that Mathis originally had objected to the shareholders committee because such panels traditionally have the same purpose as a creditors committee, which is to investigate corporate activities. It wouldn’t be appropriate for insiders to investigate themselves, she argued.

Keating, especially, could not be on such a committee while he remained the company’s chairman, Feder told American Continental’s lawyers.

But Mathis withdrew her objection after determining that the committee’s purpose will be limited to negotiating settlement of lawsuits and developing a reorganization plan. Keating will continue to receive $1 a year salary as head of ACC.