Goland Charged With Attempting to Hide S&L; Stake

Federal prosecutors Wednesday charged Los Angeles businessman Michael R. Goland with conspiring to conceal the ownership of a Santa Monica thrift that he acquired using money borrowed from state Sen. Alan E. Robbins (D-Van Nuys).

Goland, who was sentenced Monday in a separate case for making illegal campaign contributions in the 1986 U.S. Senate campaign in California, is charged with trying to hide his majority ownership of Viking Savings & Loan Assn.

A 20-count indictment charges Goland, 43, and business partner Clifton A. Sherwood, 46, of Castro Valley, Calif., with conspiring to secretly purchase shares of the thrift for $1.5 million by enlisting 10 friends and business associates to pose as independent investors.

Prosecutors contend that Robbins loaned Goland $900,000 to close the deal in December, 1986, giving Goland 56.5% ownership of Viking. Robbins, who built medical office buildings and apartment buildings before his election to the state Senate in 1973, faces no charges in the indictment and “is not a target of the investigation,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. George B. Newhouse, who is prosecuting the case. The indictment was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Goland, Sherwood and their attorneys were unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Reached at his office Wednesday evening, Robbins confirmed that he loaned Goland $900,000 but declined to describe the reasons for the transaction.

“If it was for any surreptitious activities with respect to the savings and loan, that was certainly without my knowledge,” said Robbins, who added that he has worked with Goland in three partnerships developing apartment buildings and is still a partner with Goland.

The indictment charges Goland and Sherwood, former chief executive of Goland’s Balboa Construction Co., with conspiracy and making false statements to the now-defunct Federal Home Loan Bank Board and Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. The agencies at the time approved changes in ownership of thrifts.

Goland believed that regulators would reject an application to acquire Viking that named him as a major shareholder, the indictment charges. Before the purchase, Goland had expressed interest in purchasing at least three thrifts in Texas, Pennsylvania and California, prosecutor Newhouse said.

Within two days of acquiring Viking in December, 1986, Goland installed a new president and loaned Robbins $100,000, according to the indictment.

Viking, then a one-branch thrift on Wilshire Boulevard, was purchased in April, 1989, by Westside Bank of Southern California. Westside paid $370,130 for Viking, which was designated by regulators the month before as a troubled thrift.

Newhouse declined to speculate on Goland’s motives for the purchase. The thrift could have provided a vehicle for funneling political contributions, because S&Ls; are subject to looser campaign financing rules.

A federal judge Monday sentenced Goland to three months in a “jail-like facility” and ordered him to perform 1,000 hours of community service for violating federal election laws.