In Brief: Core Charges in Alaska Fraud Case Rejected

A federal judge has dismissed the core of the charges against former officials of a collapsed Alaskan bank.

The charges against the former Alaska Statebank officials -chairman Ralph Whitmore, president H. Derrell Smith, and director William Swain - included conspiracy, bank fraud, and making false statements.

The order last Tuesday came six weeks after the dismissal of all counts against another former director, Anchorage attorney Robert C. Ely,in the same case.

The charges stemmed from Alaska Statebank's attempt to take over rival Alaska National Bank of the North during the 1980s. Alaska Statebank, once the state's seventh largest bank, was one of several aggressive players working in Anchorage's then-inflated real estate market. The bank, which failed in 1989, was one of 14 financial institutions to go under during the Alaska economic crash that began in the mid-1980s.

The remainder of the charges could be heard as early as May.

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