U.S. Atty. Seeks 25- to 30-Year Keating Term : Banking: Prosecutor says the former Lincoln S&L; operator lied so much at trial that he deserves extra punishment.

Federal prosecutors on Friday called for a prison term of 25 to 30 years for Charles H. Keating Jr., former operator of Lincoln Savings & Loan.

Keating, who came to personify greed and arrogance in the savings and loan industry, perjured himself so extensively during the trial that he deserves extra punishment for obstruction of justice, Assistant U.S. Atty. Alice C. Hill said in her 29-page sentencing memorandum filed in U.S. District Court.

Keating’s sentencing, scheduled for Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, will cap a four-year investigation and prosecution of him and others accused of looting the Irvine-based thrift and causing its 1989 collapse.

Keating, 69, is already serving a 10-year prison term for his 1991 state court conviction for violating California securities laws.

Lincoln’s failure was one of the costliest thrift debacles in the nation, costing taxpayers $2.6 billion. Keating’s own wrongdoing alone accounted for $962 million of that loss, federal regulators have said.

In addition, thousands of mostly elderly Southern Californians lost more than $250 million when Lincoln’s company, American Continental Corp., went bankrupt at the same time.

Listing his lies and other factors as reasons for a stiff sentence, Hill said Keating still displays an “absolute lack of remorse” for conduct that led to his conviction in January on 73 counts of racketeering, conspiracy and fraud.

“Despite the findings of two criminal juries that he is guilty of fraud beyond a reasonable doubt, defendant Keating still refuses to shoulder any of the blame for the devastation his conduct caused,” she wrote. “Instead, he continues to blame everyone but himself.”