Sunbelt Savings Gets $464-Million Award in Fraud Lawsuits

A federal judge has awarded a Dallas thrift more than $464 million in damages stemming from civil fraud and racketeering lawsuits against the borrowers from an associate institution.

U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer ordered the award to Sunbelt Savings of Dallas on Sept. 28. The action was the result of lawsuits accusing borrowers of defrauding Western Savings Assn.

Western is one of eight insolvent Texas thrifts combined to form Sunbelt in 1988.

The lawsuits charged that Richard Dover and John Ballis illegally appropriated loans from Western Savings with the help of the savings and loan owner Jarrett Woods.

The Sunbelt lawsuit accused Dover and attorney John Riddle of completing a series of real estate transactions known as “land flips.”

The land flips raised the value of property, the lawsuit charges, and created illusory profits for Western Savings.

Ballis was accused of borrowing more than $55 million from Western Savings to acquire raw land for commercial and residential developments.