Fugitive O.C. Banker Agrees to Return

A fugitive Orange County savings and loan executive, captured in Hong Kong in June after three years on the run, has agreed to return to the United States for sentencing on his bank fraud conviction, his lawyer said Monday.

Ottavio Antonio Angotti, who was chief executive of Consolidated Savings Bank in Irvine, faces a maximum 25-year prison sentence as well as indictments for jumping bail and for loan fraud and money laundering involving a separate thrift.

Regulators seized Consolidated in 1986. Angotti was convicted in 1993 of falsifying the thrift’s loan record to hide proceeds funneled to an Anaheim fireworks manufacturer. He disappeared after being dropped off at a hospital in San Diego.

Angotti, 60, is expected to be returned to California in one to three weeks, said his lawyer, Michael H. Artan of Los Angeles.

Artan said he and the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Atty. Richard Robinson, agreed last week on terms under which Angotti would return voluntarily.

“What happens in sentencing on the Consolidated case will determine what the U.S. attorney will do in the other two cases,” Artan said. Essentially, if Angotti receives a sentence that he and the government can live with, the lawyer said, he won’t pursue an appeal and prosecutors won’t proceed with the other actions.

Robinson wouldn’t comment about the terms.

It was unclear whether Angotti waived extradition or agreed to be extradited at his final Hong Kong court hearing Monday.

Consolidated was a tiny thrift that played a role in financing major deals, including the operation of Anaheim-based Pyrotronics Inc., then the state’s largest manufacturer of so-called safe-and-sane fireworks.

The thrift’s 1986 failure, at a cost to taxpayers of $43 million, also became a top-priority FBI case, in large part because of sole owner Robert A. Ferrante’s alleged dealings with associates of organized crime. Ferrante, a former Newport Beach developer, was acquitted of all charges stemming from the thrift’s failure.

Angotti and a Ferrante aide were acquitted of charges of illegally funneling nearly $12 million to one set of Ferrante-controlled companies, but were convicted of illegally funneling $1.6 million to Pyrotronics, which Ferrante also controlled.

After the pair won retrials, the aide, Raymond L. Arthun, pleaded guilty to reduced charges and was sentenced to 60 days in prison.

But Angotti went to trial and was convicted in early May 1993 of falsifying Consolidated’s loan records. Two weeks later, he was indicted with his older son in the separate fraud case.

While awaiting sentencing on the conviction and arraignment on the indictment, he was dropped off at a San Diego hospital in late May for cancer tests. He fled without checking into the hospital.

Angotti was captured June 19 by Interpol officers on one of several visits he had been making to Hong Kong, and has been in jail there since. He had been teaching international finance at Shenzhen University in China for the past two years, using his real name and an Italian passport, according to Artan and a Hong Kong news report.

In the second fraud case, his older son, Antonio M. Angotti, 37, a onetime Wall Street investment banker, was convicted of conspiracy, money laundering and making false statements to obtain a $480,000 loan on a condominium in a project his father was developing. He is serving 41 months in prison.

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Key Dates in Angotti Fraud Case

1986

* May 22: Irvine-based Consolidated Savings Bank declared insolvent and seized by regulators.

* May 23: FBI reveals it is looking into charges of wrongdoing at Consolidated and files a federal court suit against bank owner Robert A. Ferrante, Chairman/CEO Ottavio A. Angotti and seven others; suit seeks to recover millions of dollars in improper loans.

1991

* Feb. 14: Ferrante, Angotti and the rest are indicted for allegedly defrauding Consolidated of $13.5 million to make insider loans to family and friends; all plead not guilty.

1992

* June 10: Trial begins.

* Sept. 14: Two, including Angotti, are convicted of all charges; others are acquitted.

1993

* Jan. 8: Angotti granted a new federal trial.

* May 11: Angotti found guilty again.

* May 31: After being dropped off at a hospital for cancer tests, Angotti never checks in and drops out of sight.

* June 16: Federal judge issues fugitive warrant for Angotti’s arrest.

1996

* June 19: Angotti captured in Hong Kong and taken into custody to await possible extradition to the U.S. He had been teaching international finance at Shenzhen University in China for two years, using his real name and an Italian passport.

* Nov. 4: Angotti agrees to return to U.S. to face a possible 25-year prison sentence.

Source: Times reports; Researched by JANICE L. JONES / Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times