Capital Briefs: OTS Accuses Former Ohio Thrift Exec of Lying

The Office of Thrift Supervision last week charged the former general counsel and acting president of an Ohio savings bank with lying to the agency about the thrift's business plans.

The thrift regulator wants Clark W. Wideman, who was an officer of Jefferson Savings Bank, West Jefferson, Ohio, from 1988 to 1990, banned from the industry and barred from practicing law before the thrift regulator.

Mr. Wideman filed a change-in-control application with regulators in 1987 that said Jefferson Savings Bank would have little or no growth in the following three years and would be operated as a traditional thrift. Instead, under new owner Ronald E. Scherer, Jefferson embarked on a land- buying spree that ended up costing the thrift $3 million, the thrift regulator charged. The $66 million-asset thrift survived the losses; the OTS forced Mr. Scherer off its board in 1993.

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