Top Keating Aide Is Sentenced to 2 Years : Court: Andrew F. Ligget is given the prison term for his part the 1989 collapse of Lincoln Savings & Loan.

The chief financial officer in Charles H. Keating Jr.’s real estate and thrift empire was sentenced Monday to two years in prison for his role in the 1989 collapse of Lincoln Savings & Loan.

Andrew F. Ligget, who had pleaded guilty to three felony counts of misapplying $28.7 million in S&L; funds, also must pay $148,000 in restitution for the interest that the Irvine thrift lost because of his actions.

U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer, rejecting his plea for probation, imposed the sentence recommended by prosecutors. Asst. U.S. Atty. Matthew W. Frank said Ligget had not lived up to his plea bargain because he failed to explain candidly his own role in one of the nation’s biggest thrift disasters.

Pfaelzer ordered Ligget, 35, to report to federal authorities on Jan. 7 to begin serving his term. He also was sentenced to five years probation after his release from prison.

Ligget’s May, 1992, plea stemmed from charges involving him in an inter-company tax-sharing plan that pumped $94 million of Lincoln money up to its parent company, American Continental Corp. in Phoenix. Under such agreements, a parent company pays one consolidated tax bill, getting payments from its subsidiaries for their share of the taxes.

Ligget, however, ordered the transfer of a portion of the money an average of five weeks before it was due under the plan--in effect giving the parent company an interest-free loan. He said at the time of his plea that he knew the early payments were improper.

He did not plead guilty, however, to helping to create or knowing about the fraudulent nature of the tax-sharing agreement. Under the plan, Lincoln made a series of payments to American Continental for taxes, though the thrift itself never had owed any taxes.

Keating and his son, Charles H. Keating III, already have been sentenced to prison for their federal jury convictions on racketeering, fraud and conspiracy charges. Six other top executives and a major borrower, all of whom pleaded guilty previously, are to be sentenced over the next two months.

Others awaiting sentencing are former American Continental President Judy J. Wischer, former Senior Vice President and Keating son-in-law Robert M. Wurzelbacher Jr., former corporate lawyer Mark S. Sauter, former Vice President Bruce Dickson, former Lincoln Chairman Robin S. Symes, former Lincoln President Raymond C. Fidel and former Arizona real estate developer Ernest C. Garcia II.