THE TRAGEDY OF MARIO KOHLY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200070006-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 25, 1999
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: October 1, 1966
• Content Type: OPEN

STATI NTL
1 HR6M W Cuban . anti-communist lea r
IVni{~Q iiLy presently serving time on a F -
oral prison farm in Penns 1-
'nnrn in no- v 1 in n Washington lawyer's offs e,
PYRGHT
YRGHT
IA agents offcre ohly.$500,000 in American c r-
ency if he would nduce his 45,000-member and r-
round organizatio n Cuba to join in the abortive B y
f Pigs invasion. ohly declined because he righ y
eared that Castro ents had infiltrated the leadersl 'p
f this ill-fated Cl venture.
Then, late in 1 3, Kohly was arrested by Sec et
ervice agents in e York and charged with "count r-
eiting the current f a foreign government." He as
recd and sentence o serve two years in prison and in
anuary of this ye r he was given an additional year or
ontcmpt of cou .
Kohly's plan wa o sabotage the Cuban economy y
ooding Cuba wit $50 million of counterfeit peg s,
ut he was betra a to the authorities by a plan d
1merican agent. seems that Kohly had unwittin y
nfringed upon Pr ident Kennedy's secret agreem nt
vith Khrushchev, de at the time of the Cuban B-
ile crisis, to prote t Castro from Cuban exile pressu es
nd a corollary se t agreement with Castro made at
he time of the r teat of those Cubans caught in the
lay of Pigs trap.
Despite the fact at the United States has adhered to
astro's stipulatio to keep. Kohly out of circulate in,
astro now wants hly-dead! Recently the FBI e-
eived a tip from ply's organization that Castro as
ending one of h top assassins to America to
ohly. The FBI ified the Federal Bureau of Priso is,
which promptly tr ferred Kohly.from Lewisburg Pe ai-
:cntiary, a maxim security prison, to the prison fa
it Allenwood, a um security institution.
Not only is it ch easier for an assassin to kn ck
)ff Kohly at Alle ood, the frail, 66-year-old Ko y,
who is under a do t is care, has been assigned to work
at hard labor whe a he will be even more vulnerable to
assassination. A c rding to secret FBI informati n,
astro has gone a ut to get Kohly by giving his ag nt
lavish expense a unt plus a $75,000 fee upon c -
letion of the job!
Several Americ who, over the years, have hell ed
Kohly, have disap red or died mysteriously, includ ng
multi-millionaire b ding contractor, Louis Berlanti nd
his son, whose p to plane was last seen over L ke
Okeechobee, Flor -
, in. 1963. Berlanti, who had x-
tensive business i rests in Cuba confiscated by he
Castro governme , had given Kohly over $50,000 of
his own money a had been authorized by Gener is-
simo Raphael Tr o, the late Dominican dictator, to
Q withdraw $53 mil n of Dominican funds from a Now
York bank. Berl ti had $30 million with him w en
his plane disappea 1. The New York law firm of r-
mer Vice Presid Richard Nixon, representing he
Trujillo family, is ing to locate and recover the ss-
Brewster (R., Maine) asked the CIA to help the Kohly
organization overthrow the Castro regime and for a
while the CIA actively cooperated with Kohly.
Undercover CIA agents leased a $460 per month
house on 32nd Street in Georgetown, next door to the
home of CIA Director Allen Dulles, for Kohly's head-
quarters. The house had plenty of bedrooms where vis-
iting Cuban exiles who wanted to confer with Kohly
could stay overnight; also, it was an impressive place
where Kohly could ask anyone of importance to Wash-
ington without embarrassment. CIA operatives sold
Kohly on the idea that the best way to break the Castro
economy would be to flood Cuba with counterfeit
currency.
Richard Marrow, an engineer who was working elec-
tronic inventions on a CIA contract, came to Kohly
with'a batch of ten-peso notes that were perfect repro-
ductions of Cuban currency. The counterfeit plates were
made with the aid of expert engravers of the .U.S.
Bureau of Engraving and Printing. While it is against
U.S. laws to counterfeit any foreign government cur-
rcncy or bonds, the CIA representative assured Kohly
that they had obtained U.S. Government "clearance"
for him to use the spurious pesos to subvert the Castro
economy. However, soon thereafter Castro changed the
printed design on Cuban currency, so this clandestine
operation promoted by the CIA was suspended.
After John F. Kennedy took office as President, Sec-
retary, of State Dean Rusk, McGeorge Bundy, Assis-
tant to the President for National Security Affairs and
Richard Bissell, Deputy Director of the CIA, prevailed
upon the new President to support another Cuban
exile group headed by Manuel Antonio de Varona, who
was later replaced by Dr. Jose Miro Cardona, a Cuban
judge who had joined Castro in the revolution and who
Castro put-in office as the first revolutionary Prime Min-
ister of Cuba. Later Castro kicked him out when he
decided to become Prime Minister himself. Cardona
came to the U.S. and was immediately embraced by the
State Department, and appointed coordinator of the so-
called Cuban Revolutionary Council that was supported
by CIA funds deposited in a Miami bank. This group
spent $40 million, on the abortive Bay of Pigs inva-
sion operations.
Cardona was thoroughly hated by the anti-Castro
Cubans because he drew up the harsh code of Castro
laws that led to the "blood baths" after Castro seized
power. Also, Cardona had seized $2 billions in U.S.
property in Cuba without making any compensation.
Under Cardona's direction the Bay of Pigs invasion was
doomed to failure from the very beginning since Cubans
despised and feared Cardona next to Castro.
The CIA and State Department tried to induce Kohly
to join forces with Cardona. He flatly refused. As a
further inducement the CIA agents in the office of
ICohly's lawyer, offered Kohly a briefcaso containing
$500,000 in American currency. With an outburst of
TATINl
 0
CPYRGHT
Sani
the o!lice.
Kohly then advised Richard Cardinal Cushing that
the projected Bay of Pigs operation was doomed to fail-
ure because of Cardona and several known Communists
who were high in his high command. His Eminence tried
unsuccessfullly to dissuade the President from support-
ing the ill-fated venture. Kennedy lived to regret his
decision. After the disaster, CIA Deputy Director Dick
Bissell, known as the "chief architect" of the Bay of
Pigs campaign, became the "fall guy." Kennedy fired
him and pressured CIA chief Allen Dulles to "retire."
But JFK took no punitive action against the other plot-
ters, including McGeorge Bundy and his hand picked
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Maxwell Taylor,
who gave his blessings, to the plot that violated the basic
principles of military tactics and logistics.
Meanwhile, the governments of Guatemala and Brazil
recognized Kohly as the official head of the de facto
government of Cuba in exile. It was then decided by
the high level policy-makers of the White House, State
Department and the CIA to discredit Kohly.
Bob Marrow came back to Kohly, saying he wanted
to help him without the assistance of the CIA. Marrow
said his wife could engrave the plates for the new Cuban
money but he needed $15,000 for expenses. Kohly got
$15,000 from Louis Barlanti for this purpose, which he
turned over to Marrow. Kohly was introduced to a
certain Annapolis, Maryland, attorney who said he
wanted to help overthrow Castro for patriotic reasons.
The lawyer assured Kohly that it was perfectly legal-
to manufacture counterfeit Cuban money as long as it
was used for the subversion of the Castro regime. He
introduced Kohly to "Bill Martin," an alleged printer
who later turned out to be a Secret Service Special
Agent working undercover. Martin said he was anti-
Communist and was anxious to overthrow Castro.
Marrow handed Kohly the new counterfeit money
plates. It was arranged for Kohly to secretly turn over
the plates to the printer, Bill Martin, in a hotel room
in New York. When he did, Martin and other Secret
Service agents arrested Kohly. He .was convicted of
conspiring to counterfeit Cuban currency and sentenced
to two years in prison. Last year Kohly was sentenced
to serve an additional year for contempt of court.
Mario Garcia" Kohly was framed and railroaded to
the penitentiary with the connivance of high-ranking
U.S. government officials.
Sanitized - Approved'For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000200070006-0