ACCUSE 2 TOP ITT AIDES OF PERJURY ON CHILE ACTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030068-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2011
• Sequence Number: 68
• Publication Date: March 21, 1978
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/08/17 :CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030068-8
?~'-" ARTICLE APPEARED _ NEB ORK DAILY NEWS
ON ?AGE~_ 21 March 1978
_ ~ ~
By JOSEPH VOLZ
S~'ashington (News Bureau}-The Justice Department yesterday
charged two top officials of International Telephone & Telegraph Corp.,
Edward J. Gerrity, 54,, of Larchmont, N.Y., and Robert-Berrellez, 58,
of,. Chatsworth, Calif., with lying to a Senate subcommittee ? in 19 i 3
about ITT's work with the CIA in Chile.
'
The two men were charged with six
. counts of perjury, obstructing govern-
ment procedures and making false
statements in connection with the -1973
investigation by a subcommittee of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
into ITT's activities.- in the 1970
pcbfikfntal election in Chile.
Gerrity is a senior vice president
and former chief lobbyist of the big
conglomerate, and Berrellez is south-
west regional public relations director
and a former corporate official in Latin
America_
Geneen Not Named
ITT-Chairman Harold S. Geneen,
who also had been a target in,the jus-
Lice Department's- perjury investigation,
was not named in yesterday's action,
and the department said in a statement
that "no other actions ... are contem-
plated."
As:~ed why Geneen, a major force in
the formerly close cooperation between
ITT and the CIA in Latin America, was
not cited, -the acting deputy attorney
general, Benjamin Civiletti; replied:
"The law-doesn't depend upon (whether
to prosecute) senior or junior officials,
it depends upon the evidence_.?
Civiletti also was asked: about the
severity' of the felony charges placed
against Gerrity and Derrellez in light of
the Justice Department's -action in ac-
cepting abargained "no ..contest" plea
from former CIA Director Richard bi.
wing from similar misleading or incor-
rect testimony before the Senate sub-
committee. Helms got, poly a $2,000 fine
in that instance, and is now a
consulant on Iranian affairs here. He is
a former U.S. ambassador to Iran.
In the Helms case, Civiletti said, the
bargained plea was accepted because of
fear that national security secitets might
be disclosed if a trial were held. The
two ITT officials did not have the same
access to the nation's secrets a5 Helm's,
he said.
The. action against Garrity and
Bsrrellez came on the last day that
charges could be brought befaiye the
five-year statute of limitations expired
Geneen's case was within two weeks of
that expiration date.
Allthree m~~n testified at the Senate
-subcommittee hearinbs that ITT had
not acted in any substantive way to pre-
vent the election of Rlarxist Salvador '
Allende hs president of Chile in 1970.
Ge~en, for example, testified on April ~
1, 1973, that he had twice offered .funds
to the U.S. Government to be used
against Allende but that the CIA de- I
dined. i
However, in late 1975, it was dis-
closed that both the CIA and the ITT
had funded Allende's election oppo-
nents, and that ITT had given at least
$350,000 to support Allende's opponents
in the 1970 elections. Allende was killed
in a September 1973 coup.
If convicted on all counts, this maxi-
mum penalty would be 30 years in
prison amd $33,000 in fines for Gerrity
and Berrellez. There is little likelihood
of any such penalty, however, even
upon conviction. ,
Approved For Release 2011/08/17 :CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030068-8