of these two men; preeminently they both built their empires on savings and loans.1
             Charles Keating exceeded Mr. Lindner’s expectations, which persuaded Mr. Lindner to extend an offer to the forty-eight year-old lawyer a position with American Financial in 1972 as the executive vice-president. Under Lindner’s supervision at American Financial in the mid-1970’s, Keating found a resourceful strategy to raise money from the public without the interference of the Wall Street underwriters. The success of this strategy resulted from sharp decline in profits that Lindner’s company was experiencing. Keating’s success revolved around him raising fifty million dollars for American Financial from the public without using an underwriting syndicate. This technique was quite uncommon for a corporate business of their size. Consequently, American Financial sold the fifty million dollars in debentures through local stockbrokers. These debentures were offered at a surprisingly high annual interest payment of eleven and three-quarters. As a result of the high payment, these debentures were promoted in cities where small savers were eager for high rates. Keating had
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