Accountant Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy

A Pacific Palisades accountant pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to one count of conspiracy in connection with a fraudulent loan transaction that regulators claim contributed to the collapse of Consolidated Savings Bank in Irvine in 1986.

Phil G. Gilbert, 34, was accused of conspiring with Consolidated Savings to disguise a $9.5-million loan to a Texas limited partnership in which the thrift’s chairman was a shareholder. Gilbert faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Consolidated made the loan to CB Financial Corp., an Oklahoma City company in which Gilbert was an executive vice president, and the money was then sent to the Forest Ridge Partnership of Texas. The money has never been recovered.

The loan would have been a violation of federal thrift regulations had it been made directly to Forest because Consolidated owner Robert A. Ferrante was a Forest shareholder and the partnership was a major Consolidated borrower.

Federal law prohibits financial institutions from making certain large loans to company insiders.

Federal prosecutors said the loan was funneled through a third party--CB Financial--in an attempt to conceal the transaction.

“To circumvent the regulations, they funneled the money through a straw borrower,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Gregory Schetina said.

Gilbert is the third person to be charged with criminal activity in connection with Consolidated’s failure. He is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 4.

In August, a Glendale real estate appraiser pleaded guilty to conspiracy for having prepared a phony appraisal that enabled Consolidated to conceal a fraudulent $500,000 real estate loan.

And last year, an Oklahoma City businessman was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to having defrauded Consolidated and another defunct Orange County institution, American Diversified Savings Bank in Costa Mesa.

Federal authorities have said more indictments are expected in the Consolidated scandal, which a congressional committee has cited as one of the nation’s worst examples of S&L; fraud.