EX-AGENT LOST OUT IN REWALD'S FALL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605490091-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 30, 2011
• Sequence Number: 91
• Publication Date: August 24, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

G
Approved For Release 2011/06/30 :CIA-RDP90-005528000605490091-9
HONOLULU ADVERTISER (HI)
24 August 1985
~x-agent lost out in Rewald's fall
k -
'
Sy Walter Wright
~?A+aa Sldl wrUrr
iors~.te~
s money
mnt~er
A former undercover agent for the CIA
broke down on the witness stand yester-
day when he testified that his aced moth-
er lost S10l,000 to accused swindler Ron-
ald Rewald.
John G "Jack" Ktndschl, 3>j, choked
back tears when he said he had invested
the money in Blshop Baldwin Rewald Dtli-
inghat4.k ~am~~p~e~ e+hsit-~,
legally blfnd liir~'on Soda~`Sectuiiy.
. Kind~cltl_ then regained. pb?posurc
and"gyred scrods the etAa'Crgnm at Re-
wald l~yt Rewald, ort tria~'Etrt: ~. counts of
fraud. per}ury a#d tax evasion, didn't
' flinch under Kindschi's angry stare.
Kindschi denied Rewald's claim that he
and the CIA created Bishop Baldwin and
instructed Rewald to lie to get investors''
money to maintain a "cover" as a wealthy
~ businessman.
Kindschi said he and his wife them-
selves lost 1187,000 in money invested in
Rewald's Interpacific Sports and in Bishop
Baldwin, including tl 000 he invested
just weeks before the firm cxlllapsed in
July 1983.
All the money was his, none of it carne
from the CIA, and he has "given up all
hope" of getting any of it back, Kindschi
said.
He acknowledged Its began his business
dealings with Re~vaW in 1879.. while still
el~, s~reoe r>iw~
Res sporting goods
Kiadeelsi,: ~rha. joined dwin as
a consultant after retiring front the CIA as
field office chief here in 1960, also admit-
ted he had written Bishop Bdldwin's
glossy brochure and some economic re-
ports, and a press release. about the
company, but said he did it at Rewald's
direction and used only information that
Rewald supplied. _
On cross-examination, Rewald'a lawyer
-_ drew fire when he asked if Kindschi had
creative innovative statements. An agency
officer can't go around the world and
operate under the CIA flag or he is a dead
duck."
There was laughter and a few handclaps
from the courtroom audience, which in-
cluded some of Kindschi's former com-
rades in the CIA.
Pressed, Kindschi said he didn't consider
the H&H cover "a lie, for the reasons so
stated," and that Rewald was not "lying"
when he gave the H&H cover story be-
cause "he was working for the common
good...
Another such creative story, Kindschi
recalled, was the concealment for two
days of President Dwight Eisenhower's
heart attack in 1955, under the cover of
stomach [rouble.
Kjndschi also branded as a "false mis-
instructed Rewald to lie about a CIA
cover company called H&H Enterprises,
and if Kindschi himself had lied in earlier
refusals to disclose the extent of the CIA's
involvement with Rewald.
Kindschi described H&H as a "notional,"
a cover "even lighter" than ordinary com-
mercial cover, "lighter than air" and used
"to give mobility and security to an offi-'
cer" traveling abroad for the CIA. The
make-believe information given to Rewald
alunBt. t~iik mpae~iany, Kindschi said, was not
a tie, but a "creative story."
said ~I~epttty Public Defender Brian-
Tamanaha. "a lie for a good reason is a
creative story?"
"If 1 were a U.S. affiCer in an airplane
which had been 1s#jeiekefl by terrorists,"
Kindschi shot back, "I would become a
farmer or a school teacher almost immedi-
ately.
"At times. all governments must make
representation by Mr. (former Rewald
civil attorney Robert) Smith" an assertion
that Kindschi told Smith and others that
Rewald was not a CIA covert agent, but
that he, Kindschi, would lie to protect him
if he were.
"I said I would refuse to answer the
question, but I would not lie. I would wait
until I got proper instruction," Kindschi
said.
But Tamanaha showed the jury, by lead-
ing Kindschi through previous statements
to grand juries, lawyers and investigators.
that Kindschi had revealed varying de-
grees of information about Rewald's CIA
connection in the early stages of investi-
gation of the case.
Kindschi said he was testifying truthful-
ly in the trial, even about matters once
labeled secret but now disclosed under
court order in the Rewald trial.
Tamanaha also hammered at Kindschi's
failure to recall several checks he receiv-
ed, drawn on Bishop Baldwin and totalling
about $10,000, before the date he said he
began working for the company in March
1981.
Kindschi sacd he thought most of the
checks were dividends from his Interpacif-
ic Sports investment with Rewald, and
some may have been related to that firm's
lease of a brand-new Buick automobile for
_ him. _ _
Kindschi said he was making over
$4,000 a month and several other "perks"
including frequent travel allowances ai
Bishop Baldwin when the crash came. He
said he complained he didn't think he was
earning the salary. but that Rewald insist`
ed and "if they felt I was so alua e, who
am I to say no?" ~~
After all, as he said ~ewa d had once
cold him. "money is a renewable re~
source."
Approved For Release 2011/06/30 :CIA-RDP90-005528000605490091-9