BANKING & FINANCE - June 13, 1995

Keating Witness Won’t Have to Pay $3.5 Million: Judith J. Wischer, the star prosecution witness in the federal fraud trial of Lincoln Savings & Loan boss Charles H. Keating Jr., won dismissal of an order to pay restitution to the government. Wischer, an accountant who became the president of Irvine-based Lincoln’s parent company, American Continental Corp. in Phoenix, had admitted to three felonies in a plea bargain. But Wischer told U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer she has no money to pay back, and the Resolution Trust Corp. took no position on her motion. Pfaelzer’s probation last October was the final sentencing in the most notorious of all thrift fraud cases. Unaffected by the dismissal ruling is $25 million she still owes as part of a settlement of a civil suit arising from the thrift’s collapse, said her attorney, Donald C. Randolph.