600 Lincoln Investors Briefed on S&L; Inquiry

About 600 people who lost money in a high-interest bond investment scheme offered by the failed Lincoln Savings & Loan attended a rally Saturday at Walter Reed Junior High School in Studio City.

Investors were briefed on the progress of various investigations into the insolvent Irvine-based company and urged to write to their elected representatives, said North Hollywood attorney Harold Rosenberg, an event organizer.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, as well as state and federal agencies, are investigating the loan company and its officers. A request by Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner to impanel a special state grand jury was approved Thursday by Richard P. Byrne, presiding judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

“We also wanted people to know that these governmental agencies are getting more heavily involved,” Rosenberg said. “The people have been swindled and they’re entitled to their money back. That’s it in a nutshell.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lynn Miller told investors that Reiner’s office is working to bring Lincoln officials to justice. She said Lincoln principals may be ordered to provide financial restitution.

Rosenberg said he and others who lost money in the $300-million scheme, in which unusual, high-interest bonds were peddled to Lincoln’s largely elderly clientele, meet once a week to exchange information on the matter.

Federal regulators seized Lincoln last April, a day after the savings and loan’s parent company, Phoenix-based American Continental, filed for bankruptcy protection. About 22,000 people who bought short-term bonds were left holding near-worthless paper, authorities said.