Ex-Director of Heritage Bank Sued by FDIC

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has sued Irvine attorney Roger A. Saevig, a former director and general counsel for defunct Heritage Bank of Anaheim, claiming that Saevig is in default on more than $627,000 still owed on personal loans from Heritage.

According to the suit, filed Friday in Orange County Superior Court, Saevig stopped payment on five separate personal loans when Heritage was declared insolvent and closed by the state Banking Department on March 16, 1984. The complaint, which also names Saevig’s wife, Joy, as a defendant, seeks payment of $627,325 in principal plus accrued interest, court costs and attorney fees.

Saevig could not be reached for comment late Friday.

The FDIC filed the complaint in its role as receiver for Heritage. The bank’s assets are being liquidated to pay off Heritage creditors, including nearly 100 large depositors who lost about $7.5 million in uninsured deposits when the bank was closed.

Saevig, according to the claim, borrowed a total of $867,500 from Heritage in five transactions from Feb. 29, 1980, through Dec. 30, 1982.

During that period, Saevig was a major shareholder, director and corporate officer of the bank and its holding company, Heritage Bancorp, and his law firm was collecting large fees for legal work for the bank.

The first loan to Saevig, for $425,000, carried a 16.5% interest rate while the others all called for him to pay interest at the bank’s prime rate. All of the loans carried large balloon payments and all were due at various times this year.