You are wrong. The S&L directors had duty to ensure that the officers of the organizations followed all applicable laws relating to their industry. And you are right, many did nothing, because they were too stupid to know better. They had no idea that they should not be sitting on a board when they did not understand the business.
And if they were not guilty of fraud, they were guilty of 'going along for the ride.' The real reason they were sued was because there was a TON of fraud in that industry. I have never seen such disregard for law. Let's see, where do I begin? Huge loans to 'pals'. Floating overdrawn checks (for directors) and not recording the liabilities. Insider deals. The list goes on. I know because I saw if first hand...I audited S&Ls - and not for the federal government.
It was sad, because some of the directors were good people, but got caught because they thought that sitting on a board meant nothing. But if they had it rough, that was nothing compared to what the employees and the depositors suffered.
It sounds like you sat on one of those boards.