SEC BARS HAWAII BROKER WHO CLAIMED CIA TIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605490163-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2010
• Sequence Number: 163
• Publication Date: December 14, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/09/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605490163-9
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WASHINGTON POST
14 December 1984
SEC Bars Hawaii broker
Who Claimed CIA 'Vies
Securities Fraud Alleged
By Nancy L. Rosa
Wa& ington Pat staff writer
Securities broker ` Ronald R. Re-
wald, whose Honolulu firm allegedly
bilked investors out of $20 million
while claiming ties to the Central
Intelligence Agency, yesterday was
permanently barred from the in-
vestment business by the Securities
and Exchange Commission.
Bishop, Baldwin, Rewaid, Dilling-
ham & Wong, which operated be-
tween 1977 and 1983, drew cus-
tomers from the ranks of senior
military officers and CIA personnel
stationed in Hawaii by promising a
20 percent return on investment.
Bishop Baldwin has declared
bankruptcy and the CIA connection
surfaced at a bankruptcy hearing,
when it was discovered that the
agency paid $2,700 in phone bills for
several firms operating out of its
offices. (The CIA-Bishop Baldwin
link came up again this year when
accused spy Richard Craig Smith,
who allegedly turned over the iden-
tities of U.S. double agents to the '
Soviet KGB, claimed he worked for
the CIA and gave the brokerage
firm's telephone in Honolulu as his
designated contact number.)
In a subsequent lawsuit filed
against the CIA, Rewald claimed
that the CIA helped finance Bishop
Baldwin as a front for conducting
intelligence operations on the
movement of capital to and from
communist countries. He said the
CIA had established an operating
budget of several million dollars and
that the agency used Bishop Bald-
win's checking accounts.
The CIA acknowledged that it had
"a slight involvement" with the Ho-
nolulu 'brokerage, but denied that
the agency ever owned, controlled
or invested in Bishop Baldwin. "The
CIA was-not aware of and has abso-
lutely nothing to do with Ronald Re-
wald's alleged appropriation to him-
self of the funds of the company or
its investors," a CIA lawyer said.
According to reports filed in
bankruptcy court by bankruptcy
trustees, Rewald spent $250,000
on luxury cars, $66,000 on boats,
$82,000 on jewelry and art, $154,-
000 on travel, $102,000 on rela-
tives, $225,000 for domestic ser-
vants, and $541,000 on horses and
polo 'club expenses. Sunlin L. S.
Wong, president of the firm,
pleaded guilty in July to mail and
securities fraud. His indictment said
that Bishop Baldwin invested only
$630,000 of $21.3 million en-
trusted to it by clients.
In its order, the SEC charged Re-
wald with mail and securities fraud
in connection with Bishop Baldwin's
sale of more than $17 million in un-
registered securities. Among other
things, the SEC said, Rewald failed
to tell investors of his prior criminal
record, falsified his academic cre-
dentials and the history of Bishop
Baldwin, and failed to disclose the
use of the funds or payment of com-
missions:
The SEC barred Rewald from
associating with any regulated se-
curities entity.
Approved For Release 2010/09/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605490163-9