Financier J. William Oldenburg, charged with bilking his Utah savings and loan out of $20 million, got the institution to approve a land deal without disclosing loans that clouded its ownership status, the S&L's former president testified Tuesday.

Oldenburg did not reveal that Utah-based State Savings and Loan would have to repay $16.5 million in loans on the property quickly in order to avoid losing 50 percent ownership in the land, said James W. Rossetti, former State Savings President. Rossetti has pleaded guilty to four charges in the case.The 1984 sale of 363 acres in Contra Costa County, northeast of San Francisco, is the heart of a nine-count indictment against Oldenburg, formerly a wealthy mortgage banker and owner of the Los Angeles Express of the now-defunct United States Football League before his main company went bankrupt.

He is accused of arranging the sale of the undeveloped land in the city of Richmond at an inflated price to benefit one of his companies at the expense of State Savings, which he also owned. The Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. took over State Savings in 1984 and sold the Richmond land for $5 million. The net loss to State Savings was over $20 million.

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