ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 3, 1991                   TAG: 9104030107
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: DALLAS                                LENGTH: Short

FORMER S&L OWNER GETS 5 YEARS FOR FRAUD

Donald R. Dixon was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison and ordered to repay $577,000 for using money from his Vernon Savings & Loan Association to fund a lavish lifestyle and hire prostitutes.

Dixon, convicted of 23 counts of bank fraud, faced up to 120 years in prison and a $5.75 million fine.

Dixon, 52, Vernon's former owner, was convicted in December of illegally using depositors' money to pay for a California beach house and prostitutes.

Attorney General Dick Thornburgh called Dixon the "highest of the high fliers among the savings and loan crooks," and his trial had come to symbolize the fraudulent excesses in the troubled thrift industry. But U.S. District Judge Joe Fish said the six-week trial did not prove Dixon caused the thrift's $1.3 billion failure in 1987. - Associated Press 


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