'PLAYMATE': REWALD AIDED ME THROUGH DIVORCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00494R001100710141-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2010
• Sequence Number: 141
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00494RO01100710141-2
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`Playmate': Rewald aided
h divorce
By Walter Wright
Adc.,tr.., stiff w.rr..
When Cynthia Michelle'
Brooks appeared as Playboy,
Magazine's centerfold in April,
the important numbers were
34-23-34.
But when the former Hono-
lulu model testified in federal
court here yesterday, thee' ques-
tions were about other numbers
- big, numbers with dollar
signs in front of them.
Brooks, 33, took the stand be-
fore a standing-room-only audi-
ence in the trial of Ronald Re-
wald on 98 counts of fraud, tax
: evasion and perjury. U.S. Dig-
Judge Harold Fong, noting
the crowd, told her that her
-testimony "outdrew Jack
Lord," another celebrity wit-
ness in the case.
Brooks testified she invested
$18,000 in Rewald's firm and
A hat Rewald once gave her
:$3,000 to help her through her
divorce.
Brooks said Rewald told her
"he had more money than he
could ever spend in a lifetime."
She said she met Rewald at
:his Hawaii Polo Club, where
she went to get a chance to
ride horses by exercising them
for polo team members. "I was
holding a horse he was getting
on, and we just met," she said.
Brooks said Rewald offered
to give her money "all the
time" after they met. But she
said the $3,000 gift and Re-
wald's offer to pay the legal
fees for her divorce were the
Cynthia Brooks
Standing-room-only audience
only times she accepted. And
she said she later learned that
the $530 in legal fees was de-
ducted from her account at Re-
wald's firm, Bishop Baldwin
Rewald Dillingham & Wong.
Asked why Rewald pressed
money on her, Brooks said, "In'
my opinipn, Mr. Rewald always
seemed 'like he had great
wealth, and was always con-
cerned about my welfare." He
often said things like, "Let me
just write you a check" or "Do
Theresa Black
"Devastated" by lost money
you need anything?" she said.
Did she accept the money?
"No, no, no - because it
scared me," Brooks said.
But then in August 1982, she
said, "I came to him at that
time" and told Rewald about
her desire to move out of her
husband's house and into an
apartment of her own, and he,
wrote the $3,000 check.
Company records show
Brooks also received checks for
$2,000 and $5,000 from Re-
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 Approved For Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00494RO01100710141-2
wald's firm and that the
amounts were not deducted
from her account.
She testified she didn't
remember receiving or cashing
the $2,000 check, although she,
acknowledged that the signa-
ture endorsing the check look-
ed like hers.
She was not asked about the
$5,000 check.
Brooks' account was debited
for other withdrawals she
made, but showed an $18,000
balance - including Rewald's
promised 20-percent-plus inter-
est - when the company col-
lapsed in August 1983.
The trustee in the company's
bankruptcy is insisting that
Brooks repay $3,000 she with-
drew in May 1983 because all
payments within 90 days. before
a bankruptcy must be returned
to be shared equally with all
creditors.
Brooks is fighting the trustee,
and a bankruptcy judge took
the dispute under submission
Tuesday.
If she returns the $3,000, she
will have a' net loss of $2,456 in
her dealings with Rewald and
the firm, company records indi-
cate.
After their meeting at the
Polo Club, Brooks testified, she
got to know Rewald better,
seeing him occasionally at the
club.
Rewald told her of his invest-
ment program, with guaranteed
20 percent interest, tax defer-
red income and insured ac-
counts, she said.
She was skeptical, and even
declined when Rewald once
offered to open an account for
her with his own funds.
Then, in February 1982, she
and her husband gave Rewald
a check for $6.000 to open an
account.
Her father urged her instead
to open an IRA account, she
said, but Rewald discouraged
her from withdrawing her
money for that purpose, saying
she was getting a much bigger
return at Bishop Baldwin.
She said she thought Rewald
was "very keen. He seemed to
have the right answer for any
question. Every turn I made, he
was standing there with a rea-
son why' I should keep my
money there ... He was really
convincing."
In other testimony yesterday,
former insurance saleswoman
Jane Iinuma said Rewald paid
her more than $100,000 from
December 1980 to July 1983 to
be his traveling companion and
mistress.
linuma said Rewald at first
paid her $1,000 a month, but
increased the payments to
$2,000 a month within a few
weeks. She said he also paid
many of her expenses, includ-
ing doctor bills, school tuition
and car payments, and gave
her $20,000 for a European trip
in the spring of 1983.
Iinuma said she had put $65,-
500 of her own money into Re-
wald's firm, and then was
promised a 50 percent commis-
sion on about $120,000 of other
people's mean, ;jWe;.dbt ned
fW iatn iflq+~ttn nt" w R"yald.
The bankruptcy trust" .:has
taken action to xo e
money- . Eew.~d..gaye, a
and other wo who .aye
provided no not, al+Cb1": he
company.
!`^'?J 1.iwC:; .OW. dam: +
linuma. said tbat,aa?a-T lit
she owese trustee $55,000
and will lose her home.
Another investor in Bishop
Baldwin, widow Theresa Black,
testified yesterday she 'gave
Rewald more than $80,000 in
insurance proceeds she receiv-
ed when her husband and two
of her sons were killed in the
crash of their skydiving plane
in 1981.
The loss of the money, she
said, "devastated" her and forc-
ed her to leave Hawaii and
move in with relatives in Texas
because she can no longer af-
ford to live here.
Attorney Dana Smith, who
incorporated Bishop Baldwin
and several sporting goods
firms for Rewald, said yester-
day he knew nothing of finan-
cial statements claiming the
sporting goods operations were
worth up to $2 million.
Smith said someone had at-
tached letters from him to the
financial statements, and had
changed the date on one of the
letters.
Smith said the sporting goods
companies never made money
and seemed to survive only be-
cause Rewald kept loaning
them money drawn from Bish-
op Baldwin's checking account.
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