EX-CIA-OFFICIAL SAYS HE TRUSTED REWALD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605490096-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2010
• Sequence Number: 96
• Publication Date: August 23, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/09/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605490096-4
MILWAUKEE SENTINEL (WI)
23 August 1985
Ex-CIA-official says
he trusted Rewald
Special to The Sentinel
Honohiln, Hawaii - Former CIA
officer John C. Kindschi, of Madison,
Wis., testified Thursday that he had
"completely trusted" former Mil-
waukee businessman Ronald Rewald
when they started doing business in
1978.
Kindschi, 58, and retired, said he
had used Rewald to provide "light
commercial cover for CIA personnel
operating from an undisclosed Far
East location.
The cover consisted of a telephone
number and cable address set up in
the Honolulu office of Rewald's CMI
Corp.
Kindschi said Rewald later had
provided similar cover to another
CIA officer, C.L. Richardson, by
"hiring" Richardson as a consultant
with CMI.
Kindschi Identified cozens of de-
classified CIA documents describing
Rewald's relationship with the agen-
cy.
They included Kindschi's own
Sept. 12, 1979, cable to CIA head-
quarters in response to a request for
a new assessment of Rewald.
In the cable, Kindschi praised
Rewald highly and passed on claims
supported only by a few newspaper
clippings of past successes In the
sports and business world. Kindschi
described Rewald as a champion pole
vaulter and sprinter, professional
water-skier, professional football
player, hang-glider, pilot and scuba
diver.
In business, Kindschi said, Rewald
was the owner and operator of a
chain of 12 sporting goods stores
throughout the Midwest and a princi-
pal founder of an investment compa-
ny whose clients included widows,
corporate executives and Hollywood
personalities, including Elvis Presley.
Kindschi, a native of Platteville,
Wis., and a graduate of the Universi-
ty of Wisconsin - Madison, is a key
prosecution witness in the trial of
Rewald on 98 federal counts of
fraud, tax evasion and perjury.
Rewald has admitted taking $22
million from investors under false
pretenses, but has said the money
was used to maintain his CIA cover
as a wealthy businessman and that
he believed the CIA would reimburse
all funds spent on its behalf.
The perjury charges against Re-
wald are based on his sworn state-
ments that the CIA set up and direct-
ed the Honolulu Investment firm of
Bishop Baldwin Rewald Dillingham
& Wong. The other four names were
fictitious, taken from the names of
prominent Hawaii families.
Earlier Thursday, Kindachi's pred-
ecessor as chief of the public CIA
field office in Honolulu testified that
Rewald was a "walk-in" Who had
volunteered his services to the CIA
July 30, 1978.
Eugene J. Welch said Rewald had
shown promise as a citizen contact
for the CIA because he said he would
be traveling to Japan and China in
connection with his sporting goods
business.
But Welch denied Rewald's sworn
statements that Welch had helped set
up the Bishop Baldwin firm and its
fictitious history and offers of 26%
interest to investors.
Welch said he had met Rewald
only twice, then introduced him to
Kindschi when Welch retired from
the office.
Kindschi said he and his wife, Hel-
en, soon became close personal
friends with Rewald, Rewald's wife,
and their five children. The friend-
ship was based in large part on the
two men's Wisconsin background,
Kindschi said.
Approved For Release 2010/09/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605490096-4