Ex-Consolidated Chief Ferrante Hoped He’d Left His Past Behind : Indictment: After recently settling civil suits by federal regulators, he ‘thought the government would be rational,’ lawyer says. New charges open latest chapter in a long story.

Only two months ago, Robert A. Ferrante must have felt relief when he settled civil lawsuits with federal thrift regulators stemming from the 1986 collapse of Consolidated Savings Bank.

The Newport Beach developer was even working with them to recoup the losses at the defunct savings and loan.

But relief turned to rancor Thursday when a Los Angeles federal grand jury indicted Ferrante and eight associates. He is charged with 17 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and other wrongdoing in the failure of Consolidated.

“He thought he put all this behind him,” said Brian Lysaght, one of Ferrante’s lawyers. “There are no guarantees, but we thought that once the government was satisfied it would be rational. We were disappointed.”

Ferrante, who could not be reached for comment, once kept a very low profile. But in recent years as his name appeared in newspapers--often in notorious circumstances ranging from alleged assassination attempts to thrift failures--he hired a publicist to deal with the press.

A millionaire before he turned 30, Ferrante, now 41, had a flamboyant lifestyle and a mysterious past that became a topic of discussion among state and federal thrift regulators.

Ferrante said in previous interviews that he was born and raised in Orange County. He attended law school but did not graduate and never practiced law. Instead, he began working in real estate and eventually amassed personal wealth of $11 million.

Through various companies, he owned fancy cars, including a Ferrari, and a luxurious 105-foot charter yacht, the Avanti. Lysaght said Ferrante now owns a “smaller boat.”

Ferrante began doing real estate deals with his father-in-law, then branched off on his own. His major projects at the time included Brookside Village, a condominium conversion in Redondo Beach, and a 50% interest in North Coast Village, an Oceanside condominium complex. He had an office at Brookside.

His business style was reckless and secretive, at least according to a 1986 document filed in a divorce suit by his then wife, Carol Suzanne.

“In his business dealings, my husband has always used multiple corporations, general and limited partnerships in other persons’ names and other techniques to disguise the exact extent of his holdings,” the document said.

“It was and still is my husband’s policy to take extreme risks with money, even to the point of nearly being murdered because of its use,” she said in the document. She declined then to talk and could not be reached Thursday.

Her allegations hint at a possible cause for a near-fatal April 12, 1982, shooting of her husband.

After working late in his Redondo Beach office that night, Ferrante and an associate headed for their cars to leave. As Ferrante approached his car, a masked gunman using a silencer leaped out and fired a barrage of bullets. Six .22-caliber slugs hit Ferrante, one lodging near his heart.

Ferrante described his assailant but offered little further information, according to city police. Lysaght said that, for all Ferrante knew, he had simply come across a burglar. Later, according to the book, “Inside Job: The Looting of America’s Savings and Loans,” Ferrante said in a sworn declaration in connection with a soured partnership deal that he had been targeted by two former business partners with ties to the “Israeli Mafia,” which was believed to be headquartered in Los Angeles.

Regulators knew nothing about the shooting when they approved Ferrante’s request to open Consolidated Savings Bank in 1984. He put up $2 million to launch the thrift in Brea. After six months, the first president left and former Bank of America executive Ottavio A. Angotti was hired to run the thrift, which was moved to Irvine.

Consolidated quickly drew the scrutiny of regulators for questionable lending habits, while at the same time Angotti declared himself the representative of the state’s smaller S&Ls; by trying to win election to a quasi-regulatory post in San Francisco. He failed to win enough votes from his thrift colleagues.

In its brief life, Consolidated was often part of Ferrante’s other deals, investing in properties or lending money on major projects. Among the deals were:

* Control of Pyrotronics Inc., a major fireworks maker in Anaheim once run by convicted political corrupter W. Patrick Moriarty. Consolidated loaned the company money while Ferrante associates ran the company.

* Land acquisitions, which included the purchase of a former hazardous waste dump in Carson that proved the ultimate drain on the thrift’s capital.

* Transactions involving Charles Bazarian, a convicted loan swindler whose victims included Consolidated, and major deposit broker Mario Renda, a convicted defrauder of thrifts whose activities helped to destroy Consolidated and more than 50 other S&Ls; nationwide. Renda is alleged to have mob ties.

CONSOLIDATED CHARGES Former owner of failed Irvine thrift, eight associates indicted for fraud. A1

CHRONOLOGY 1984--Robert A. Ferrante founds Consolidated Savings Bank in Brea, putting up $2 million in capital. He later moves the bank to Irvine.

1985--Ottavio A. Angotti, president and CEO of Consolidated, tries to win a seat on the board of Federal Home Loan Bank in San Francisco, but he fails to win enough votes from other thrifts.

1986--Consolidated Savings is declared insolvent May 22 and is seized by state and federal regulators. FBI is asked to join the inquiry into Consolidated’s collapse. Regulators sue Ferrante, Angotti and others, alleging civil fraud related to the failure. In June, Ferrante begins a fight to regain control of the federally seized bank. In August, federal regulators close Consolidated and begin liquidating its assets. The failure is estimated to cost tax-payers $30 million.

1987--Ferrante files a $500-million counterclaim against the Federal Savings & Loan Insurance Corp.

1990--In August, Glendale real estate appraiser Harlan Wolfe pleads guilty to conspiring to falsify Consolidated Saving’s books. In November, Pacific Palisades accountant Phil G. Gilbert pleads guilty to conspiracy in a fraudulent loan transaction that federal regulators say contributed to Consolidated’s collapse. In December, federal regulators settle all civil lawsuits against the former owners and operators. Except for a $1.1-million payment by thrift consultant and lawyer Eric C. Bronk, the details are kept secret.

1991--On Feb. 14, Ferrante and eight others are indicted in the thrift’s failure.

Source: Los Angeles Times library Researched by: Dallas M. Jackson / Los Angeles Times