Ex-Lincoln S&L; President Faces Fraud Counts

A former president of Lincoln Savings & Loan was charged Friday with two federal securities fraud charges, setting the stage for another plea bargain that would make him a key witness against former thrift owner Charles H. Keating Jr.

Robin S. Symes, 38, who at one point was also chairman of Irvine-based Lincoln, is set to be arraigned Monday in U.S. District Court.

Federal prosecutors filed the two charges through a so-called information, rather than indictment, accusing him of fraud in two sales of risky bonds issued by Lincoln’s parent company, American Continental Corp. in Phoenix.

The bonds--$46,000 in one case and $50,000 in the other--were sold in January, 1988, to Brian R. and Carla N. Muller and Custode and Lucia Macro. Those couples are among thousands of small investors who lost more than $250 million after American Continental filed for bankruptcy on April 13, 1989. Regulators seized Lincoln the next day.

Lincoln is the nation’s biggest single thrift failure to date, expecting to cost taxpayers $2.6 billion.

The filing of an information typically signifies that a plea bargain has been reached.

Rudolph E. Loewenstein, Symes’ attorney, was out of town Friday and could not be reached, the lawyer’s secretary said.

If Symes follows the footsteps of Ray C. Fidel, who succeeded him as president and already has pleaded to two similar federal counts, he would also be expected to enter into a plea bargain next week in the state’s 21-count securities fraud indictment.

The state indictment was filed against Fidel, Symes, Keating and former American Continental President Judy J. Wischer. Trial on those charges is scheduled Aug. 2. Wischer has a motion pending to sever her case from that of Keating.