Charles Keating - Legacy

Legacy

The Chicago Tribune's lengthy profile of Keating in 1990 said in summary:

To say that Charles Keating is a complex man seems a gross understatement. Some see him as an aggressive man who got desperate when the real estate market bottomed out and crossed the line between "business as usual" and fraud. Others see him as a con artist who finally got caught, a hyprocrite who masked his greed with phony piety.

Michael Binstein and Charles Bowden's 1993 book, Trust Me: Charles Keating and the Missing Billions, also presents Keating as a complex individual with contradictory tendencies, and concludes:

Charlie Keating built things, and, at some level that haunts anyone who looks over his records, he thought his schemes would work. He did not simply rob a bank. He broke a bank with his dreams. If he is simply a thief, why did he put the money into deals and projects instead of into his own pocket? If he is just a hardworking businessman simply trying to make a profit and create jobs, why the need for jets, fancy meals, big paychecks to his family? If he is such a devout communicant of his faith, why did he peddle hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of junk bonds to old people when he knew his empire was in serious jeopardy?

Keating steadfastly maintains that it was not his mistakes or criminal deeds but regulators' actions that were responsible for the major losses. A 2004 Milken Institute study also makes the claim that regulators' actions were responsible for the Lincoln failure and presents Keating's actions in a favorable light.

Some of Keating's 1980s judgement as a developer was later validated. The Phoenician became a successful hotel in the luxury segment, and the Estrella project achieved at least some of Keating's vision and was acquired again in 2005.

Following his release from prison, Keating moved in with one of his daughters in the Paradise Valley neighborhood of Phoenix. During the 2000s he began working as a business consultant and as of 2008 was involved in some successful real estate developments in the Phoenix market. He keeps a low profile in his business operations, and he declined comment during John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign when the Keating Five scandal was brought up again by the press.