Veterans of '90s U.S. bank bailout see opportunity in current one

A tight-knit group of former senior U.S. government officials who were central players in the savings and loan bailout of the 1990s are seeking to capitalize on the latest economic meltdown, enjoying a surge in new business in their work now as private lawyers, investors and lobbyists.

With $700 billion in bailout money up for grabs, and billions of dollars worth of bad debt or failed bank assets most likely headed for sale or auction, these former officials are helping their clients get a piece of the bailout money or the chance to buy, at fire-sale prices, some of the bank assets taken over by the U.S. government.

"It is a good time to be me," said John Douglas, a partner in Atlanta at the law firm Paul Hastings and a former lawyer for bank regulators who helped create the agency that administered the last U.S. government bailout, the Resolution Trust Corp.

Some of these former U.S. government officials, like L. William Seidman, the first chairman of the RTC, are serving as advisers — sharing ideas with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. and the transition team for President-elect Barack Obama — even while they are separately directing investors or banks on how to best profit from this advice.