Source: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/NACJD/studies/6790?geography=Florida&permit%5B0%5D=AVAILABLE&fundingAgency%5B0%5D=United+States+Department+of+Justice.+Office+of+Justice+Programs.+National+Institute+of+Justice&dataFormat%5B0%5D=SAS&paging.startRow=1
Timestamp: 2016-09-25 18:36:50
Document Index: 501350177

Matched Legal Cases: ['arts 1', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 3', 'arts 4', 'art 4', 'art 5', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 3', 'arts 4', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 3', 'art 4', 'art 5']

(6 datasets; 1,945 KB)	Table of Contents
Fraud in the Savings and Loan Industry in California, Florida, Texas, and Washington, DC: White-Collar Crime and Government Response, 1986-1993 (ICPSR 6790) Principal Investigator(s):
Pontell, Henry N., University of California-Irvine. Department of Criminology, Law, and Society; Calavita, Kitty, University of California-Irvine. Department of Criminology, Law, and Society; Tillman, Robert, University of California-Irvine. Department of Criminology, Law, and Society
The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of
the factors that contributed to the epidemic of fraud in the savings
and loan ("thrift") industry, the role that white-collar crime played,
and the government response to this crisis. The researchers sought to
describe the magnitude, role, and nature of thrift crime, analyze
factors related to the effectiveness of law enforcement control of
savings and loan fraud, and develop the broader implications, from
both a theoretical and a policy perspective. Data consist of
statistics ... (more info)
statistics from various government agencies and focus on all types of
thrift, i.e., solvent and insolvent, that fell under the jurisdiction
of the Office of Thrift Supervision in Florida, Texas, and California
and all insolvent thrifts under the control of the Resolution Trust
Corporation (RTC) in Washington, DC. The study focused on Texas,
California, and Florida because of the high numbers of savings and
loan failures, instances of fraud, and executives being
indicted. However, as the study progressed, it became clear that the
frauds and failures were nationwide, and while many of the crimes were
located in these three states, the individuals involved may have been
located elsewhere. Thus, the scope of the study was expanded to
provide a national perspective. Parts 1 and 2, Case and Defendant
Data, provide information from the Executive Office of United States
Attorneys on referrals, investigations, and prosecutions of thrifts,
banks, and other financial institutions. Part 1 consists of data about
the cases that were prosecuted, the number of institutions victimized,
the state in which these occurred, and the seriousness of the offense
as indicated by the dollar loss and the number of victims. Part 2
provides information on the defendant's position in the institution
(director, officer, employee, borrower, customer, developer, lawyer,
or shareholder) and disposition (fines, restitution, prison,
probation, or acquittal). The relevant variables associated with the
Resolution Trust Corporation (Part 3, Institution Data) describe
indictments, convictions, and sentences for all cases in the
respective regions, organizational structure and behavior for a single
institution, and the estimated loss to the institution. Variables
coded are ownership type, charter, home loans, brokered deposits, net
worth, number of referrals, number of individuals referred, assets and
asset growth, ratio of direct investments to total assets, and total
dollar losses due to fraud. For Parts 4 and 5, Texas and California
Referral Data, the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) provided data
for what are called Category I referrals for California and
Texas. Part 4 covers Category I referrals for Texas. Variables include
the individual's position in the institution, the number of referrals,
and the sum of dollar losses from all referrals. Part 5 measures the
total dollar losses due to fraud in California, the total number of
criminal referrals, and the number of individuals indicted.
DS3: Institution Data
DS4: Texas Referral Data
DS5: California Referral Data
Persistent URL: http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06790.v1
Subject Terms: financial institutions, fraud, law enforcement, savings and loans associations, white collar crime
Geographic Coverage: California, District of Columbia, Florida, Texas, United States
Unit of Observation: Part 1: Case, Part 2: Individuals, Part 3: Single
RTC Institution, Parts 4 and 5: Referrals
Universe: White-collar savings and loan crime cases in the United
Interview data collected during this project are
not available as part of this data collection.
Study Purpose: The purpose of this study was to gain an
understanding of the factors that contributed to the epidemic of fraud
in the savings and loan ("thrift") industry, the role that
white-collar crime played, and the government response to this crisis.
The researchers sought to describe the magnitude, role, and nature of
thrift crime, analyze factors related to the effectiveness of law
enforcement control of savings and loan fraud, and develop the broader
implications, from both a theoretical and policy perspective. Data
focus on all types of thrift, i.e., bank solvent and insolvent, that
fell under the jurisdiction of the Office of Thrift Supervision in
Florida, Texas, and California and all insolvent thrifts under the
control of the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) in Washington,
DC. Questions the project sought to answer were: (1) How many crimes
were committed at thrift institutions? (2) What were the costs
resulting from these crimes? (3) What types of financial institutions
were most vulnerable to fraud? (4) How many types of individuals were
most responsible for these crimes? (5) How many of these individuals
were prosecuted for their crimes, and once prosecuted, what types of
sentences were imposed?
Study Design: Data from three federal agencies -- the Resolution
Trust Corporation (RTC), the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the
Executive Office of United States Attorneys -- were combined to
present the most comprehensive view of fraud in the industry. The
Executive Office of United States Attorneys provided data about the
major prosecutions, the individual defendants in each case, and their
dispositions. The Resolution Trust Corporation provided data on final
referrals and the estimated loss to the financial institutions as a
result of these referrals. In addition to criminal referrals, the
Resolution Trust Corporation provided information on the financial
condition of all the institutions under its control. This allowed for
the examination of the relationship between selected features of
insolvent thrifts and the crimes that were committed. The main
objective of the data supplied by this agency was to obtain a better
sense of what constituted the crimes reported at thrift
institutions. The Office of Thrift Supervision provided Category I
referrals for the states of Florida, Texas, and California.
Sample: Four major sites were chosen for the study: California,
Florida, Texas, and Washington, DC. The first three sites were chosen
either because of the high numbers of savings and loan failures and
frauds in the 1980s or because of the high number of executives that
were being indicted. Washington, DC, was chosen because it is home to
numerous federal agencies whose staffs were available to be
(1) statistical data from the Office of Thrift
Supervision, the Resolution Trust Corporation, and the Executive
Office of United States Attorneys, (2) government documents relating
to financial institutions from June 1986 and government testimony from
February 1989 as well as congressional hearings and reports, (3)
newspapers, magazines, and academic journals relating to savings and
loan fraud (secondary sources)
Description of Variables: Part 1 consists of data about the cases that were
prosecuted, the number of institutions victimized, the state in which
these occurred, and the seriousness of the offense as indicated by the
dollar loss and the number of victims. Part 2 provides information on
the defendant's position in the institution (director, officer,
employee, borrower, customer, developer, lawyer, or shareholder), and
disposition (fines, restitution, prison, probation, or
acquittal). Part 3, Institution Data, describes indictments,
convictions, and sentences for all cases in the respective regions,
organizational structure and behavior for a single institution, and
the estimated loss to the institution. Variables coded are ownership
type, charter, home loans, brokered deposits, net worth, number of
referrals, number of individuals referred, assets and asset growth,
ratio of direct investments to total assets, and total dollar losses
due to fraud. Part 4 covers Category I referrals for Texas. Variables
include the individual's position in the institution, the number of
referrals, and the sum of dollar losses from all referrals. Part 5
measures the total dollar losses due to fraud in California, the total
number of criminal referrals, and the number of individuals indicted.
Spahr, Lisa L., Alison, Laurence J.
U. S. savings and loan fraud: Implications for general and criminal culture theories of crime. Crime, Law and Social Change.
41, (1), 95-106.
Deep in the heart of Texas and California: Savings and loan fraud in two states. Research in the Sociology of Work.
8, 73-92.
Calavita, Kitty, Pontell, Henry N., Tillman, Robert H.
Big Money Crime: Fraud and Politics in the Savings and Loan Crisis. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Calavita, Kitty, Tillman, Robert, Pontell, Henry N.
The savings and loan debacle, financial crime, and the state. Annual Review of Sociology.
23, 19-38.
Tillman, Robert, Calavita, Kitty, Pontell, Henry
Criminalizing white-collar misconduct: Determinants of prosecution in savings and loan fraud cases. Crime, Law and Social Change.
26, (1), 53-76.
Black, William K., Calavita, Kitty, Pontell, Henry N.
The savings and loan debacle of the 1980s: White-collar crime or risky business. Law and Policy.
17, (1), 23-55.
Tillman, Robert, Pontell, Henry N.
Organizations and fraud in the savings and loan industry. Social Forces.
73, (4), 1439-1463.
Calavita, Kitty, Pontell, Henry N.
The state and white-collar crime: Saving the savings and loans. Law and Society Review.
28, (2), 297-324.
Pontell, Henry N., Calavita, Kitty, Tillman, Robert
Corporate crime and criminal justice system capacity: Government response to financial institution fraud. Justice Quarterly.
11, (3), 383-410.
Fraud in the Savings and Loan Industry: White-Collar Crime and Government Response, Final Report. Washington, DC: United States Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.