IS HE A SPY LEFT OUT IN THE COLD?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605480109-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 30, 2011
• Sequence Number: 109
• Publication Date: May 1, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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ARTICLE LPPEAR~ HONOLULU
ON PAGE_b- ~~_ ~ ~~
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~~'~~~~~ /Victor Lipman
':4 volcano is about to erupt in Ha-
x?aii, "said BBC correspondent Gavin
Eller near the end oja 30-minute tele-
vision investigative report shox?n
March 13 in England. Eller was not
referring to Mauna Loa or Kilauea;
he was referring to the explosive
,revelations about Ron Rewald and
the consulting frrm of Bishop, Bald-
win, Rewald, Dillingham & Wong
that, nine months after the frrm's
collapse, are now hitting the airwaves
and printed pages across the country
and around the world.
The international and national
press-including investigative report-
ers from Australia, Japan and The
Wall Street Journal as x?e/l as the
BBC-have been digging into the
Rex~ald case for months and appar-
entlti?finding evide?ce oja significant .
CIA connection. Locallti?, KITV's
Larry Price has been pursuing the
espionage angle. since last fall, and
the Hawaii Investor's Bill Wood
recently published a long article
detailing the frrm's intelligence x?ork.
According to numerous reports, not
only x?as Rex?a1d a CIA operative
and Bishop Baldx?in a CIA operation,
but the clandestine activities of both
the cortpan}? and its leadersjormed a
network of information gathering,
influence- peddling and economic
deals. Are these cloak-and-dagger
reports fact or fantasy? It's too soon
to say, but among the major allega-
tions so jar are:
^ Rex?ald and Bishop Baldwlnserved
as middlemen in a multimillion
dollar arms deal betx?een Taiwan and
U. S. x?eapons manufacturers.
^ Rex?ald may have stolen the plans
for Japan's XSST--the High Speed
Surjoce Transport train-and posed
them on ro higher-ups in the CIA.
^ During the Falklands crisis twv
years ago, Rex~ald traveled to Argen-
tina, ostensibly to bu~? a bank and
polo ponies, but actuall-? to determine
x?hether. Argentina would default. on
loans to the United States fit lost the
war.
^ Rex?a/d used his Nax?aii Polo C/ub
to court international figures such as
Filipino banker Enrique Zobe! and
"t think it's obvious from m v actions that 1 x?as
not viewing what M?as going on as a collapse uj
ehe company. /sent m-,Iamily ojjto rhr
1Nainland xdrhnur K?irlr raN?irtg turn a dollor
fio~n our 8ithop Bold~rin account. K?hrrt /
could hove rakrrt out close to a million..."
the sultan ojBrunei to gain informa-
tion, jot example: on the state of
mind of President .Marcos or on the
likely course ojoil prices.
These are just a few of the more
-recent developments in an?increasing-
ly lniriguing but tangled story. Some
ojthe basic chronology is as follows:
July 29. 1983: On the day Channel
2 airs a report investigating Rewald
and his company, Rewald checks
into the Sheraton-Waikiki and at-
tempts suicide br cutting his wrists.
Aug. 1: !n critical condition, Rex?a/d
is taken to Queen's Hospltol. Aug. 8.-
Rewald is !et out ojthe hospital and
promptly arrested,? bail is set at SIO?
million, highest in Hax?aii's history.
Aug. 16: Bankrupts}? interim trustee
Thomas Hayes sq-?s Bishop. Baldx?in's
money is 'gone" and that it appears
Rex?ald x~as operatiog a "Pon_i
scheme. "Jan. 12, 1984: CircaitJudge
Robert Chang reduces Rex?a/d's bail
to 5140.000. Jan. 31: Bail is posted
and Rex?ald is freed from prison.
Feb. 11: Re-rald leaves;.: Hax?aii to
visit jami!}? in htilx?aukee: March 1:
"t nn?er reallr? pretended-regardless of what's brew said-to br a star football p/gYrr. /thought ;
t N?as great-until I reported to camp and found out that ! was+r't."
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Rewald rrturns to Hawaii.l'.larch 27:
Amid rising speculation of Rewald-
CIA connection, Sen. Davie! Inouye
asks jot official explanation.
This chain ojevents isby now well
known. What fs much leu known is
the character ojRon Rewald himself.
Is he a common swindler or a high-
leve! spy doing national security
work? Was his firm of Bishop,
Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham &
Wong providing legitimate financial
services to clients, was it merely a
vehicle jot Rewald to steal investors'
money and get rich, or was. it a front
for CIA activities? Was Rew?ald's
extravagance in surrounding himself
with polo ponies and limousines
evidence of wildly out-of-control
personal spending or was it part oja
careful plan to attract, like moths to a
flame, international power brokers
to his select circle? The questions are
the stuff of which best-sellers are
made, but the answers are as yet
inconclusive.
Amid the swirl of rumors, a few
facts emerge. Ronald Rav Rewald
was born on Sept. 24, 1942, in
1l1ilK?aukee, Wis., the son oja baker.
He has one sister. Hz attended South
Division High School in Mil--?aukee.
Sometime in the early 1960s he ap-
parent!-? made contact ??ith the C1A
and did some work for it, spying on
radical groups at the Universit-? of
Wisconsin ar Madison under the code
name of "Winter Dog. " He had a je-+?
briejstints -,?ith professional football
teams in the mid-1960s. He pleaded
guilt}? to a misdemeanor involving
Wisconsin's franchise investment la--?
in 1976. He ran a sporting goods com-
pan-?, which x?ent bankrupt in 1976,
and shortly thereafter he filed for per-
sona! bankruptc}~. He moved to Ha-
k?aii in 1977.
Regardless of the outcome of the
Re-vald story, there --?i!l be plenty of
-+?ork in it for laK;vets. So jar Re-t?ald
has been charged by the state x?ith
tx?a counts ojthefi b-? deception. tle
also Is under investigation by the FBI
and the tnterna! Revenue Service. In'
turn he has filed a multimillion dollar
suit against the CIA, and has also
sued Time Inc., Money Magazine
and T7tomas Hayes for defamation
ojcharacter. In ccl:.iition. because of
the large number of innvestors who
havz lost money and the extreme
complexity of the case, many more
lawsuits will probably bejorthcoming.
According to Rewald, however, it
was against the advice of his
attorne}?s that he consented to this
interview, which was conducted over
several weeks. Present at the initial
and longest interview were editor
Brian Nicol, media columnist Tom
Jordan, assistant editor/photog-
rapher Brett Uprichard and myself.
We began by talking about
Rewa/d's experiences in prison, a
depressing time for him since he was
unable ro do much to help organize
his defense. "The hard part jot me
"...HONOLULU: Did
you steal the plans for the
HSST-the Japanese High
Speed Surface Transport
train?
REWALD: I have no com-
ment on that.
HONOLULU: Have you
ever met William Casey? .
REWALD: I can't discuss
that either ..."
was not contending -vith other
prisoners, " Ire said, "and I certainly
wasn't mistreated by guards or
an-?one else. The hardest part -+~as
just being so very, -?ery lonely-and
concerned for my jamily during that
period of time. "
Several times, -,?hen Rewald was
talking about his jamily and his
recent trip home, his eves filled -vith
tears. When asked if his wife and five
children N?ere doing all right, he
responded, "The-?'re not doing all
right. Back in Jul-? -vhen this x?hole
thing happened 1 hadgone in to -+?ork
like 1 N?ou/d have an-? other dat?, and
that ??as the last de-? ! sa-ti? m-?
children. t hadn't seen or talked to
them since. No?? m-? jamil-? is split up
and living ??ith relatives. ;tilt' oldest
sort has moved to San Francisco and
is x?orking there.:tl-? -.?ife is -.?orking
as a nurse's aide. !t's not agoodjob, it
pd-?s very little. They don't have a car
or anything like that. Things are very
dijfrcult. "
At the time Re-rald K?as interviewed.
he r.?as sta-?ing in a spare room at a
jrie?d's house on Oahu. He said he
-,?as dox?n to his last S6 and -vas
desperately looking for --?ork. Yet he
still dresses well-favoring suits and
ties and monogrammed shirts. And
there has been talk of books or
movies to be made from the Rewald
stor-', although at present any profits
Rewald mode would go to Bishop
Baldwin's investors. .
Rewald did not answer CIA-
related questions (such material will
probably be the key element of his
dejense~ but he was quite x?illing to
discuss most anything else. Indeed.
he feels he has been virtually tried
and convicted in the press, and was
eager to relate his version ojevvnts.
And if some of his onswers seem
unconvincing orself-serving, x?hat is
interesting is the picture that
emerges: hardl y that of the dazed and
demoralized s-vindler whom the
public hos repeatedly seen on film
footage shuffling in and out ojcourt
artd prison-but more of a self-
assured businessman, diligently
gathering evidence to prepare for his
day in court.
HONOLULU: Did you and Sunny
Wong, choose the name Bishop, j
Baldwin. Rewald, Dillingham & i
Wong? ~,
REWALD: First of all, you would
never choose a name like that to do
business in Honolulu, Hawaii, unless
you had a Dillingham or a Bishop or
a Baldwin to go in there. That name
was chosen to sct up a company to do
business in Southeast .Asia and the
Far East. We had a company going at
that particular time called CMI,
which was perfectly good and we had
ao problem doing any type of ~
business we wanted under that
particular name. Sunny and [
participated in the choosing of that
name [Bishop Baldwin], but that's all
that I can say about it at this point.
NO\OLL;LI:: Someone else partici-
pated too?
RE1i~ALD: lees.
HOB OLt; LL': ~4' ho?
RE?'aLD: That gets into an area I ~.
can't discuss.
HONOL[;Ll:: ~t'hy would you choose
katnaai:na names to do business in
the Far East2 j
REWALD: I'm sure because chev
added credibility to the name.
HO~iOLGLt: Did you feel uncomfot2-
able with the name Bishop, Baldwin,
Rewald, Dillingham & Wong''
REWALD: Sure. But you have to
understand that vwe neverthought for
one second that it was going to be
used domestically. And it was first
used in California, and I was very
concerned when it was used there.
When I say "first used." it was
actually first used in the Far East.
But domesticall;; , tt was used by
Flp~p~
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~aea,ieotl,e in California-_And I felt we felt obligated to take on a cheat
very tltscomt`otta~ie wii;l if tieing th3t^~~~tom, we ~ would have commingtetl
close to home. And eventually it was your money with all the monry that
used right here in Honolulu. Yeah: I we had. We had no separate accounts
saw a lot of problems with that:?-~; and everything wt were doing was
HONOLULU: Were you surprised really done together. Are you asking
that the name was used for sv totlg'~+ where would that money have been
here in Honolulu and no one ever invested?
question ~ 'r~4p`lgaldwia.nr,:~:.=::HaD OLULU: Yes.
F Dillingh ?~ ~",~;_-'"~1~'~pLD: And what types of invest-
REWALD..,.._- .`'~---_:~
? ris+i-`~en~s would it have been put into? It
. -t. .s"'' -~~' have been anything from
HONOLUL-~jedidsuvpriseyouu~cs to any number of up to 60
REWALDe~ of :vim-~tTarent businesses. We were artners,
Really, izk~?t -~woti.Tdn ~~-~:o:liad controlling interest of signifi-
x have mad~:rtif~sellce whartha>~ =:=rst~:partnerships, in something tike
,?",'name of ~;p~tny`.w8s;:iE coultY,~ ?fvefior five dozen different corpora-
have beei~~'-~C~?PatiY_'Tt~wnu 'tias>~ and businesses-not only here
t,; have beeif~bettero??F- (: think, ~ tIis~~':-=T2.~i~awaii but all around the world.
Bishop. B:i __ -.Ira