RTC to Settle With Lincoln Accountants, Lawyers : Litigation: Federal agency liquidating defunct thrift reaches agreements with most firms totaling more than $80 million.

The federal agency liquidating defunct Lincoln Savings & Loan has reached settlements totaling more than $80 million with most of the lawyers and the accountants that it has blamed for the Irvine thrift’s failure, sources involved in the litigation said Tuesday.

The information comes after the federal judge overseeing the case in Arizona decided Friday to close the door on adding additional defendants to the government’s $2.7-billion civil racketeering and bank fraud lawsuit.

Most of the settlements have been approved recently or are close to approval by the Resolution Trust Corp., which is liquidating Lincoln. The agency named or threatened to name the professional firms as defendants.

The bulk of the RTC settlements came from a $41-million deal with Big 6 accounting firm Ernst & Young, which was created last year by the merger of Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young & Co. The deal was crafted early this year but was only approved in recent weeks.

It was Arthur Young’s 1986 and 1987 audits of Lincoln and its parent company, American Continental Corp. in Phoenix, that were used to obtain federal and state approval to sell more than $250 million in American Continental bonds at Lincoln branches. Those bonds became worthless after the company and the S&L; collapsed in April, 1989.

The audits, along with written assurances from the accounting firm, were also used to provide five U.S. senators, including Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), with the ammunition to confront federal thrift regulators in 1987 to persuade them to conclude their lengthy examination of Lincoln’s financial condition.

Lincoln’s eventual failure has become the nation’s biggest to date, costing taxpayers $2.6 billion.

Among the other pending and approved settlements are:

* Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler, a New York law firm that helped Lincoln with its loan files and American Continental with its bond sales. The RTC has yet to approve a $22-million tentative settlement.

* Sidley & Austin, a major Chicago law firm that helped Lincoln with regulatory matters. A $7.5-million tentative settlement still must be approved.

* Mariscal, Weeks, McIntyre & Friedlander, a Phoenix law firm that handled much of Lincoln’s real estate transactions. It has settled for about $5 million.

* Arthur Andersen & Co., a national accounting firm that audited Lincoln’s and American Continental’s books in 1984 and 1985. In a confidential settlement, the firm has paid a small amount and agreed to submit certain issues to an arbitrator to determine if it should pay any more. The settlement also carries a maximum amount the firm would pay.

In addition, the RTC has reached settlements for small amounts--typically less than $500,000--with a number of others, including former federal regulator Lee Henkel and Tucson developer Ernest C. Garcia II, a major Lincoln borrower.

Pretrial discovery--the process of taking depositions and learning as much about each side’s case as possible--ended Friday. Former owner Charles H. Keating Jr. and other defendants are scheduled to go to trial March 2 in Tucson.

Keating currently is defending himself in a criminal securities fraud case in Los Angeles County Superior Court.