Savings and loan figure Charles Keating dies at 90

In this Thursday, Nov. 14, 1991, file photo, Charles Keating Jr., adjusts his tie as he sits in a Los Angeles courtroom. AP

PHOENIX, Arizona—The financier who was disgraced for his role in the costliest savings and loan failure of the 1980s has died. Charles H. Keating Jr. was 90.

A person with direct knowledge of the death confirmed that Keating died but didn’t provide further details. The person wasn’t authorized to release the information and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The collapse of the thrift that Keating’s home construction company bought cost taxpayers $2.6 billion and tarnished the reputations of Arizona Sen. John McCain and four other United States senators who became known as the “Keating Five.”

Keating became a national poster boy for corporate greed as the public heard testimony of elderly bondholders who had lost their life savings.

Keating was convicted in state and federal court, but the convictions were thrown out and he agreed to a federal plea deal that freed him after nearly five years in prison.