Subpoena Sought for Walters in Silverado S&L; Scandal

A House subcommittee chairman said Wednesday he will ask that two former Denver developers be subpoenaed to answer questions about their finances and failed Silverado Banking, Savings & Loan.

Bill Walters, who has been living in an exclusive neighborhood in Newport Beach, and Kenneth Good defaulted on $132 million in loans from the former Denver thrift.

They had been scheduled to appear today before the House Banking Committee’s subcommittee on financial institutions supervision, regulation and insurance. But both refused to appear, forcing the subcommittee to cancel the hearing.

Subcommittee chairman Rep. Frank Annunzio, D-Ill., said Wednesday in a statement from his Washington office that he will seek a subpoena to force the two to testify.

Members of Congress want the two to explain how they can maintain affluent lifestyles after claiming in earlier congressional testimony to have a “negative net worth.”

Walters, through a trust benefiting his wife, owns a $1.9-million estate in Newport Beach, a $1-million desert retreat in the exclusive Vintage Club in Indian Wells, a $250,000 mobile home on prime oceanfront property near Laguna Beach, and expensive cars and memberships in exclusive country clubs across the nation.

Good has a $700,000 home in Tampa and a New York condominium. Good also stands to recover a $1.5-million Eagle-Vail golf course home he once owned.

“I am appalled by their actions,” Annunzio said. “Originally, they said they would testify voluntarily and I took their word in good faith. Now, at the last minute they say they will not attend. They falsely led the subcommittee to believe they would be in Washington on Thursday.”

Good and Walters are two key figures in the investigation of Silverado’s demise. Both invested in Silverado board member Neil Bush’s Denver oil company and then Bush, as a board member of the thrift, voted in favor of big loans for the two. Good and Walters subsequently defaulted on the loans.

Federal regulators closed Silverado in December, 1988. The thrift failure is expected to cost taxpayers up to $1 billion.

Annunzio said George Manning, Walters’ attorney, reported that his client’s life had been disrupted by his requested appearance before the subcommittee and that he would only appear if the panel met in a closed session.

“The American people have the right to hear everything involving the savings and loan scandal, and I will not be a party to any closed meetings to hear testimony from those who are responsible for this multibillion-dollar scandal,” Annunzio said.

Gil Thurm, Good’s lawyer in Washington, said Good could not attend the hearing because of a scheduling conflict.