S&L; Demands Spiegel Return Costly Furniture

Columbia Savings & Loan filed a criminal report with federal authorities this month alleging that former Chief Executive Thomas Spiegel took an estimated $170,000 in office furnishings belonging to the Beverly Hills-based thrift, sources familiar with the report said Tuesday.

The disclosure is the latest in a bizarre series of twists involving Spiegel and Columbia, which was seized by regulators on Friday after suffering huge losses on its portfolio of risky, high-yield junk bonds.

Spiegel is already accused by regulators in a civil proceeding of squandering some $19 million in Columbia funds on such expenditures as personal travel, vacations and a collection of guns. They also are accusing him of causing Columbia to lose $29.2 million by building a lavish headquarters that the thrift never occupied. Spiegel strongly disputes the allegations.

The criminal report, filed Jan. 16 with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FBI and federal thrift regulators, was filed in the form of a so-called criminal referral. That is much like filing a police report over an incident. Federal regulations require S&L; executives to make a referral if they suspect a crime may have been committed.

The filing stems from a bitter dispute between Spiegel and Columbia over his removal of the furnishings earlier this month from a Beverly Hills office that the S&L; provided him after he resigned as chief executive on Dec. 31, 1989. The furnishings in dispute include desks, chairs, a conference table, some $30,000 in computer equipment and two rugs worth a total of $40,000, which Columbia officials complained were damaged when the rugs were slit to run computer cables through them.

Dennis M. Perluss, one of Spiegel’s lawyers, called the dispute a “tempest in a teapot,” and accused Columbia officials of “saber rattling” by threatening to push for criminal charges. Perluss said Spiegel has already returned some of the items. He added that everything will be returned to Columbia by the end of the week and predicted that would end the dispute.

“Columbia said they don’t think he’s entitled to keep the furniture. We said we think he is, but we’re not going to hassle with you about it,” Perluss said.

Federal officials with the Resolution Trust Corp., who are running Columbia now and are charged with trying to recover as much money as possible for taxpayers, are said to be concerned about getting the furnishings back. A Columbia spokesman declined to comment.

Columbia provided Spiegel $17,400 a month for office space and other expenses after he left the thrift. At the time the arrangement was made, he was to serve as a consultant to help Columbia sell its huge portfolio of junk bonds. But Spiegel and Columbia severed their ties in May.

Columbia officials argued that Spiegel is no longer entitled to the furnishings because he stopped consulting for the thrift last spring. Perluss said Spiegel believes he has a right to use the furnishings under his consulting arrangement, which does not expire until June.

Perluss confirmed that Spiegel finally moved from the office, which Columbia officials had been trying to force him out of, early this month after it became clear that Columbia would be seized soon by regulators. Perluss said Spiegel feared that he would no longer have access to his personal papers in the office if regulators took over Columbia.

Spiegel, who headed Columbia for 13 years before resigning, was one of the best clients of former Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond wizard Michael Milken. Columbia is now insolvent by more than $1 billion, mostly because the value of its junk bonds tumbled over the past 18 months. Spiegel has been told by federal authorities that he will probably be indicted soon in connection with his ties to Milken, who is scheduled to begin serving 10-year prison sentence in March for securities violations.