RONALD REWALD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87M00539R001903000022-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 31, 2010
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: May 4, 1984
• Content Type: MEMO

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flh1 ERVIEW/.Victo . Lipman
Ron Rew
The embattled financial consultant talks at length about his attempted suicide,
his lavish lifestyle, and the name and operations of his controversial company
"A volcano is about to erupt in Ha-
waii, "said BBC correspondent Gavin
Ester near the end of a 30-minute tele-
vision investigative report shown
March 15 in England. Ester was not
referring to Mauna Loa or Kilauea:
he was referring to the explosive
revelations about Ron Rewald and
the consulting firm of Bishop, Bald-
win, Rewald, Dillingham & Wong
that, nine months after the firm'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 well as the
BBC-have been digging into the
Rewald case for months and appar-
ently finding evidence of a significant .
CIA connection. Locally, 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 firm's intelligence work.
According to numerous reports, not
only was Rewald a CIA operative
and Bishop Baldwin a CIA operation,
but the clandestine activities of both
the company and its leaders formed 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 far are:
^ Rewald and Bishop Baldwin served
as middlemen in a multimillion
dollar arms deal between Taiwan and
U. S. weapons manufacturers.
^ Rewald may have stolen the plans
for Japan's HSS T-the High Speed
Surface Transport train-and passed
them on to higher-ups in the CIA.
^ During the Falklands crisis two
Years ago, Rewald traveled to Argen-
tina, ostensibly to buy a bank and
polo ponies, but actually to determine
whether Argentina would default on
loans to the United States if it lost the
war.
^ Rewald used his Hawaii Polo Club
to court international figures such as
Filipino banker Enrique Zobel and
the sultan of Brunei to gain informa-
tion, for example, on the state of
mind of President Marcos or on the
likely course of oil prices.
These are just a few of the more
recent developments in an increasing-
ly intriguing but tangled storv. Some
of the 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 by cutting his wrists.
Aug. 1: In critical condition, Rewald
is taken to Queen's Hospital. Aug. 8:
Rewald is let out of the hospital and
promptly arrested, bail is set at Slb
million, highest in Hawaii's historv.
Aug. 16: Bankruptcy interim trustee
Thomas Hayes says Bishop Baldwin 's
money is "gone" and that it appears
Rewald was operating a "Ponzi
scheme. "Jan. 12, 1984: Circuit Judge
Robert Chang reduces Rewald 's bail
to $140,000. Jan. 31: Bail is posted
and Rewald is freed from prison.
Feb. 11: Rewald leaves Hawaii to
visit family in Milwaukee. March 1:
"I think it's obvious from my actions that I was
not viewing what was going on as a collapse of
the company. I sent my family off to the
Mainland without withdrawing even a dollar
from our Bishop Baldwin account. when I
could have taken out close to a million...
"I never reallt pretended-regardless of what's been said-to be a star football plater. I thought
I was great-until I reported to camp and found out that I wasn :. "
Photographs by Brett Uprichard unmnl 1 - -- +084 49
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Rewald returns to Hawaii. March 27:
Amid rising speculation of Rewald
CIA connection, Sen. Daniellnouye
asks for official explanation.
This chain of events Irby now well
known. What is much less known is
the character of Ron Rewald himself.
Is he a common swindler or a high-
level 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 for Rewald to steal investors'
money and get rich, or was it a front
for CIA activities? Was Rewald's
extravagance in surrounding himself
with polo ponies and limousines
evidence of wildly out-of-control
personal spending or was it part of a
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 Ray Rewald
was born on Sept. 24, 1942, in
Milwaukee, Wis., the son of a baker.
He has one sister. He attended South
Division High School in Milwaukee.
Sometime in the early 1960s he ap-
parently made contact with the CIA
and did some work for it, spying on
radical groups at the University of
Wisconsin at Madison under the code
name of " Winter Dog. " He had a few
brief stints with professional football
teams in the mid-1960s. He pleaded
guilty to a misdemeanor involving
Wisconsin 's franchise investment law
in 1976. He ran a sporting goods com-
pany, which went bankrupt in 1976,
and shortly thereafter he filed for per-
sonal bankruptcy. He moved to Ha-
waii in 1977
Regardless of the outcome of the
Rewald story, there will be plenty of
work in it for lawvers. So far Rewald
has been charged by the state with
two counts of theft by deception. He
also is under investigation by the FBI
and the Internal Revenue Service. In
turn he has filed a multimillion dollar
suit against the CIA, and has also
sued Time Inc., Money Magazine
and Thomas Hayes for defamation
of character. In addition, because of
the large number of investors who
have lost money and the extreme
complexity of the case, many more
,lawsuits will probably be forthcoming.
According to Rewald, however, it
was against the advice of his
attorneys 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
Rewald's experiences in prison, a
depressing time for him since he was
unable to do much to help organize
his defense. "The hard part for 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 with other
prisoners, " he said, "and I certainly
wasn't mistreated by guards or
anyone else. The hardest part was
just being so very, very lonely-and
concerned for my family during that
period of time. "
Several times, when Rewald was
talking about his family and his
recent trip home, his eves filled with
tears. When asked if his wife and five
children were doing all right, he
responded, "They're not doing all
right. Back in,July when this whole
thing happened ! had gone in to work
like I would have any other day, and
that was the last day I saw my
children. I hadn't seen or talked to
them since. Now m y family is split up
and living with relatives. My oldest
son has moved to San Francisco and
is working there. My wife is working
as a nurse's aide. It 's not a good job, it
pays very little. They don't have a car
or an like that. Things are very
difficult. "
At the time Rewald was interviewed,
he was staving in a spare room at a
friend's house on Oahu. He said he
was down to his. last $6 and was
desperately looking for work. 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
story, although! at present any profits
Rewald made would 'go to Bishop
Baldwin 's investors.
Rewald did not answer CIA-
related questions (such material will
probably be the key element of his
defense), but he was quite willing 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 of events.
And if some of his answers seem
unconvincing or self-serving, what is
interesting is the picture that
emerges: hardly that of the dazed and
demoralized swindler whom the
public has repeatedly seen on film
footage shuffling in and out of court
and 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,
Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham &
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 set 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
no problem doing any type of
business we wanted under that
particular name. Sunny and I
participated in the choosing of that
name [Bishop Baldwin], but that's all
that I can say about it at this point.
HONOLULU: Someone else partici-
pated too?
REWALD: Yes.
HONOLULU: Who'?
REWALD: That gets into an area I
can't discuss.
HONOLULU: Why would you choose
kamaaina names to do business in
the Far East?
REWALD: I'm. sure because They
added credibility to the name.
HONOLULU: Did you feel uncomfort-
able with the name Bishop, Baldwin,
Rewald, Dillingham & Wong'?
REWALD: Sure. But you have to
understand that we never thought 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 domestically, it was used by
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meone in California: And f felt
ry uncomfortable with it being that
lose to home. And eventually it was
sed right here in Honolulu: Yeah, I
aw a lot of problems with that.
ONOLULU: Were you surprised
hat the name was used for so long
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we felt obligated to take on a client
from, we would have commingled
your money with all the money that
we had. We had no separate accounts
and everything we were doing was
really done together.' Are you asking
where would that money have been
ere in Honolulu and no one ever invested?
llingham? EWALD: And what types of invest-
ck v ......8
HONOLULdtd surpiise your - ilo to any number of up to 60
60
REWALD rued all . of us Y"`different businesses
We were partners
.
,
'!Really, in My"`3c pinion it wouldnt or had controlling interest of signifi-
'have made:an ifferenee what that ,carat partnerships, in something like
-have been.' _C any: It-would=_'t ioc and businesses-not only here
';Bishop, Baldwin; Rewald Dillingham-
.So. things we thought were very
.
,
i& Wong. .Of why
it was necessary or why the percentages
were offered at certain levels. But I'm
sure that that will all come out.
HONOLULU: So you're saying that it
was a deliberate preparation of
brochures that had those numbers on
them? And that it wasn't just some-
body's dumb mistake at a lower
level?
REWALD: I don't think they were
brochures. I think that representations
were made in those areas by people
who were working in another country
with someone. And it might be
wrong for you to assume that those
safeguards might not have been
provided for some people under
certain circumstances.
HONOLULU: Some people not in the
United States?
REWALD: Possibly. I don't think I
should go into that any more.
HONOLULU: After the company's
collapse, why was no one else arrested?
REWALD: I don't understand why 1
was arrested.
HONOLULU: Did you ever ask that
question?
REWALD: Again, you have to under-
stand that I don't think that I should
have been arrested. I don't think that
anybody else should be arrested. I
think that there are a lot of people
who are hurt because they've lost
their savings and I think what should
have been done was everybody should
have gone to work and made sure
that everybody got their money back.
There didn't have to be a crime there
just because everybody couldn't get
their money back at that particular
moment. Because the thing was
knocked into an involuntary bank-
ruptcy and the trustee [Hayes] that
came in there hasn't operated like
any other trustee I've ever seen.
HONOLULU: What do you mean by
that? Why hasn't the trustee "operated
like any other trustee" you've ever
seen?
REWALD: I feel he's been a spokes-
man for everything from the CIA to a
prosecutor in his handling of my
personal accounts, my business and
my affairs. It was my expectation that
an administrator or trustee would step
in and just do whatever was necessary
in liquidating assets and bringing
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ppt+aon television you-might-:
feet little diffeiet tyi knowing than
your children -wen it,AiOm~ beings
exposed to this.
for almost a year I n?attempt-
ing to end my car a had plans
that we had made as a family
involving going back to the Main-
land and traveling with the children
before they all grew up, and for
almost a year it was a very, very
frustrating time. I was always told:
Look, another couple months and
you can go, but it was apparent at the
end of J my that l had as many obliga-
tions with the company as I had the
previous September, and my involve-
ment wasn't going to end in the next
30 days or 60 days or probably six
months. It was a very, very depressing
time for me.
HONOLULU: Let me get this straight.
When you had your family put on an
airplane and told to leave, you
planned to have them come back
within a short period of time?
REWALD: I'd thought that they
would be able to return to Hawaii.
HONOLULU: And that was on the
afternoon of July 29?
REWALD: I gave those instructions
after I had heard what was said in the
report. And I prayed that when I
watched it that night it might be
different and that I could contact
them and say, you know, I'm coming
home. I wasn't positive at that
moment what I was going to do. I
wanted to see how bad it was.
HONOLULU: So then you saw the
TV report?
REWALD: I saw it and I thought it
was pretty bad.
HONOLULU: Where did you watch
it?
REWALD: I watched it at the Shera-
ton-Waikiki.
HONOLULU: Had you already
checked in?
REWALD: I had checked in. I had
purchased a Bible and -checked in.
And I sat there for a couple of hours
before it came on. And when it came
on I watched it.
HONOLULU: Why did you check
into the Sheraton-Waikiki under the
name "Ronald Imp"-your wife's
maiden name?
REWALD: I thought there was the
possibility that some of the security
people for the company might be
concerned about me, and [just didn't
want them finding me before every-
thing was over with.
HONOLULU: Not to belabor a pain-
ful moment, but did you consider
jumping out the window or were you
beyond rational-
REWALD: No. I did. 1 wrote a letter
to my wife. I walked over to the
window but there were tons of people
down there so I couldn't jump out the
window. So I tried it a different way.
HONOLULU: What did you write in
that letter to your wife?
REWALD:.Well, I'm sure it never
would have crossed my wife's mind
that I would have attempted suicide
...I wrote the letter more as an
attempt to make sure that my wife
". We sent letters to Belli,
Edward Bennett Williams,
F Lee Bailey and I think
someone in Texas named
Racehorse Haynes..."
and my children knew that I loved
them and that I wasn't doing this
because of anything they did. I just
wanted them to understand that.
HONOLULU: How did you feel when
you woke up in the hospital? Were
you relieved to be alive?
REWALD: I was very disappointed.
HONOLULU: You were disappointed
to be alive?
REWALD: At that point I was, yes.
HONOLULU: What has changed
since then so that you are no'longer
suicidal?
REWALD: Obviously, many, many
months. I would be less than honest if
I didn't indicate that in the early
months it just seemed very hopeless.
All the time my bail was at $10
million, there seemed very little
reason to go on. I felt as if I was never
going to get an opportunity to ever,
ever tell my side of it. I'm not sure
that I will now. But nonetheless when
they finally did lower my bail, I.
thought, "At least I'm going. to have
an opportunity to get out and help
put things right even if I can't say
what happened." It's given me some-
thing to work for. And obviously
having been back to Wisconsin has
given me a lot.
HONOLULU: Was it on that trip
back to Wisconsin that you met with
attorney Melvin Belli?
REWALD: Yes. That went very well.
I'd talked to him on the phone prior
to that but I had not met him. And I
had no idea whether I was going to
see him for. 4S minutes or an hour. As
it turned'' out,-, it was many, many
hours-several days=and we would
have lunch and dinner together. I had
heard so much about him that I
didn't know how extensively he was
going to get involved in this thing. I
assumed he was going to turn it over
to some law clerk or associate and
that he'd maybe shake my hand and
that would be the extent of it But
that wasn't the case at all. He got very
involved in it; he looked over every-
thing I had. He made me feel very,
very good.
HONOLULU: How did Belli happen
to get involved with this case?
REWALD: We had sent letters to a
number of attorneys asking if they
would be interested in helping me,
saying we had absolutely no money
to pay any attorney-however, it
would be an interesting case for the
right attorney. And we got letters
from all four people we'd sent them
to, I think, saying "Thanks but no
thanks." We got a letter from Belli
saying that he would have taken it,
except that someone else had come in
the day ahead of us and hired him to
represent them against me. So he was
in effect about to sue me. But they
had investigated the case for this
client, and after investigating it for a
while they contacted us and, with the
help of that client, who is Dr. Frigard
[a Bishop Baldwin investor], felt that
the emphasis should be turned around.
We indicated that we still wanted his
help and now he's representing Dr.
Frigard and me.
HONOLULU: Against the CIA?
REWALD: Yeah.
HONOLULU: Was your reason for
sending a letter to Belli the fact that
he is a "name" attorney?
REWALD: Again, our intention was
not to sue the government. This isn't
why we were contacting these attor-
neys. We were looking for attorneys
who would defend me, both crimi-
nally and. otherwise.. But we..knew
there were some interesting things in
this case for the right attorney. So we
sent letters to Belli, Edward Bennett
Williams, F. Lee Bailey and I think
someone in Texas named Racehorse
Haynes, who had all come very
highly recommended. And once Mr.
Belli's office got back to us and said
that they were indeed interested in
representing me, we felt very good
about that.
HONOLULU: Federal Judge Martin
Pence has said that you cannot sue
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the CIA on the investors' behalf. Are
you justgoing to sue the CIA on your
own behalf? Or are you still thinking
things over?
REWALD: This hasi affected the
lawsuit at all. We've Q d the CIA on
behalf of Ron Rewald; on behalf of
my wife, on behalf of my children.
We also did it on behalf of the
employees and the investors. All this'
has done is said that the poor
investors are out of the picture. In
fact, I would not have sued the CIA if
it wasn't for the investors. Under
absolutely no circumstance would I
have sued the CIA on behalf of my
wife and my children. If arrange-
ments could have been made to
return the money to the investors,
that would have been fine. That's all I
cared about. Even though, because
of the trustee's efforts, the investors
are not included in this lawsuit at the
present time, I'm still suing the CIA
and telling the investors that any
money we recover is going to go to
them.
HONOLULU: Attorneys like Melvin
Belli cost a lot of money. How are
your lawyers getting paid?
REWALD: They're on a contingency
basis. First of all, the attorneys who
are involved in this are Melvin Belli,
Rod Klein of Sacramento and Rob-
ert Smith. All of these attorneys have
seen enough information or they
wouldn't have done something like
this. They're not publicity seekers,
they're not out just to make a name
for themselves. I'm sure they wouldn't
have approached this if they didn't
feel they would eventually win.
HONOLULU: You mean get paid?
REWALD: That's right.
HONOLULU: Right now they're not
getting paid?
REWALD: It's a tremendous expense
on their part. These attorneys have
committed an awful lot of money to
this effort. And these are not ignorant
men.
HONOLULU: When do you think the
criminal case will come to trial?
REWALD: So much of the informa-
tion we need is from people who were
in business with us, partners, business
associates, employees-many of
whom are in other countries. These
are not things that can be gotten by
going around town and picking up
pieces of paper.and setting up the
case. I believe a fair estimate on the
part of my attorneys is that it will
take them a year-and-a-halfjust to get
everything together-that is, if they
have the finances available. You
know, with $6,000 [the maximum for
Rewald's court-appointed criminal
attorney, Samuel P. King Jr.] you
can't very well go to Indonesia and
do much work.
HONOLULU: On the subject of
foreign countries-were you in
Argentina during the Falklands crisis?
REWALD: Yes.
HONOLULU: Can you tell us what
you were doing there?
REWALD: Just that it was business-
related. I can't give you any details on
that.
HONOLULU: Was Bishop Baldwin a
"... I never carried the ball
in the game. The most I
ever didI was run down the
field and tackle some-
body .. "
middleman for a Taiwan arms deal?
REWALD: I'm not free to discuss
that.
HONOLULU: ' Have you ever met
CIA chief William Casey?
REWALD: I couldn't discuss that
either.
HONOLULU: Have you ever met
former CIA chief Stansfield Turner?
REWALD: I can't discuss that.
HONOLULU: Did you ever meet
George Bush when he was head of the
CIA?
REWALD: Again; I can't comment
on that.
HONOLULU: What about Enrique
Zobel? He's been in Hawaii at the
polo club...
REWALD: Yes.
HONOLULU: What was the relation-
ship between Zobel and yourself or
Zobel and Bishop Baldwin?
REWALD: I can't discuss that either.
HONOLULU: What was your rela-
tionship with the sultan of Brunei? I
assume it has to do with oil-
REWALD: We were establishing a
very close relationship. When he was
here, I had dinner with him several
times but I can't go into any details
about what we were working on.
HONOLULU: Was-Nugan Hand Inc.
-the Australian bank and invest-
ment company whose investors lost
millions when its founder apparently
killed himself and the company col-
lapsed-connected to the CIA?
REWALD: I can't discuss it.
HONOLULU: Did you have anything
to do with stealing the plans for the
HSST-the Japanese High Speed
Surface Transport train?
REWALD; I have no comment on
that.
HONOLULU: Maybe we should
change gears and talk about your
football career...
REWALD: Yeah, sure.
HONOLULU: Did you go to''..South
Division High School in Milwaukee?
REWALD: Yes.
HONOLULU: Were you on the foot-
ball and track teams there?
REWALD: I was out for football for
three years. I only attended there for
three years. I believe I went out for
track one season and swimming one
season.
HONOLULU: You're listed as one of
the 10 free agents on a 22-person
rookie roster for the Cleveland
Browns in 1965. How did you get to
be on that roster? What kind of
tryouts did you have, to go through?
REWALD: They timed me, my speed.
I don't remember all the details of it
but basically they were looking- for
running backs. I guess they had some
injuries or something of that nature.
HONOLULU: How would you de-
scribe yourself as a football player?
REWALD: I thought I was great-
until I reported to camp and found
out that I wasn't. I never was a good
football player. [ think that with a lot
of hard work and determination I
probably could have bounced around
from one team to another and stayed
on. They used to have something
called "taxi squads" in those days. I
think that I probably could have
always maintained some ability to
stay on one team's taxi squad, and
get on a specialty team from time to
time. But that's about the full poten-
tial I had.
I never really pretended-regard-
less of what's been said-to be a star
football player. In fact, shortly after
'78 1 didn't even follow football that
much, since the few. people I knew
who were active in it stopped playing.
I couldn't even tell you who the
champions are today. I don't know.
HONOLULU: Did you ever play in an
exhibition-season football game in
the National Football League or the
American Football League'?
REWALD: Surely, yes.
HONOLULU: How about regular-
season games?
REWALD: I played a couple times on
specialty teams but I never got to
carry the ball.
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HONOLULU: With who team did
you play?
REWALD: With Kansas- City and
with Baltimore,
HONOLULU: According to an article
in Money magazine, your high school
football coach said you had "limited
abilities as an athlete." The article
also said you rarely played in games
and did not win a varsity letter. Is this
true?
REWALD: It's not as simple as that.
First of all, there was a policy in the
school that, if you drove a car you
could not get a letter. And I drove a
car. Athletes were expected to walk,
no matter where they lived. But I did
drive a car and I wasn't eligible for a
letter. That's fine. I thought I was a
very good football player. And I
thought I played a significant amount.
I was not the school's football star,
but I did not pretend to be. In fact, I
grew an awful lot after high school
and my speed picked up after high
school. I joined the Milwaukee Track
Club and probably developed more
as an athlete after that.
HONOLULU: All of the newspaper
clips that we have about your foot-
ball career are clips about you
signing with a team or joining a
roster. Why are there no accounts of
you actually playing in games?
REWALD: 1 never carried the ball in
the game. The most I ever did was
run down the field and tackle some-
body. I admit that that's absolutely
true. Again, I want it to be made
perfectly clear that I did not go
around telling people I was a great
football star, because that's abso-
lutely not the case. If it had not been
for my children's scrapbook-my
son's scrapbook-I wouldn't have
found anything that even said that I
was a football player. Because I've
never kept anything.
HONOLULU: Like these clips?
REWALD: Yes. Regardless of what's
been said, you did not find football
trophies in my office, or plaques, or
team .pictures, or anything like that.
Now my son has a lot of this because
it meant a lot to him, because he's a
football player. It meant nothing to
me.
HONOLULU: Speaking of no tro-
phies being in your office, what
about the two Marquette degrees
that were on the wall?
REWALD: Now that's something
that I can't discuss because it involves
other work that was going on.
HONOLULU: You have told various
people-that jjott wentto Marquette?'
REWALD: I'm sure I did:.....
HONOLULU: But that's not true?
REWALD: I'm not saying that I'
didn't go to Marquette.
HONOLULU: Did you ever enroll at
Marquette University?
REWALD: As a matter of fact I did
attend Marquette, but not the years
and the places and so on that have
been identified. I don't want to
confuse you. I don't want to make it
sound like it's some great secret. The
fact of the matter is, it's an,area that
would be easier for me to say, "No. I
didn't"-and end it there. The fact is,
I did. But it's not been identified yet. ?
HONOLULU: Do you have a college
degree?
REWALD: We're in the same area
again. I can tell you that I attended
MIT, that I did indeed attend Mar-
quette. That I did have a couple of
years of law school. That I had
education' other than what's been
identified. But I can't give you any
details on that at this particular time.
I'm afraid it will all come out i:oon
enough.
HONOLULU: What are you doing
about looking for work these days?
Are you reading newspaper ads?
REWALD: I am. And I've talked to a
number of people. I'm restricted at
the present time to not going into the
investment consultant or advisory
area, and surprisingly these are the
only people who are calling me. I get
calls from people who want me to
work for them behind the scenes in
this area. But we have an agreement
with the Securities Exchange Com-
mission that I won't do that. So that
narrows it down a little for me. But I
wouldn't care; I would do anything,
just anything.
HONOLULU: What is it like for you
now to be walking around down-
town? What kind of reactions do you
get? Do people say, "Hi, Ron," or do
they sneer? Do they smile? Do they
recognize you?
REWALD: I think you'd be very, very
surprised; I was. At first, I had no
idea what to expect. I had been
reading many of the articles; my
attorneys would bring me copies of
what was in the press. It was just
'An interesting aside here involves Rewald's
football career. On a 1965 Cleveland Browns
rookie roster Rewald is listed as 23 years old
with an educational background of "no
college." But on a 1%7 Baltimore Colts rookie
roster Rewald is listed as 22 years old and gives
as his college Marquette.
62 HONOLULU/MAY 1984
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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/03/31 : CIA-RDP87M00539R001903000022-2 ---~
WCCIG,. mon[n slier mantis. W nen P
came out "06' tl at? prison I was
surrounded by bodyguards, and they
moved me every singt ight for four
or five days and t1 . sure that
just setting foot on t street would
be the end for me.
HONOLULU: Who supplied the
bodyguards?
REWALD: These were friends and
relatives who just were frightened for
me. And then one day I just said,
"Look, I can't take this anymore,"
and I just took the elevator out of
Bob Smith's office when everybody
had turned around, and went walking
up Bishop Street to the end and back
down through Fort Street Mall. And
it was just the opposite. People were
coming over and saying hello, and
shaking my hand and patting me on
the back and telling me to hang in
there. I'm sure that there are a great
number of people out there who
would like to get a baseball bat and
meet me on the street, but I haven't
run into those. And, you know, cars
will stop and people will wave and
just tell me to hang tough or stay in
there, and keep fighting. I don't know
why that is; I ca t'rexplaln it., If-I had=
read the papers and watched televi-
sion and listened to all this stuff for
six months, I wouldn't be saying hi to
this guy and telling him to hang in
there. I'd probably tell him to move
to another country or something like
that.
HONOLULU: If, when all the legal
battles are over, you're eventually
acquitted, what do you think you'd
like to do?
REWALD: Just lead a very, very
simple, private life with my family.
That's all I care about doing.
HONOLULU: In Hawaii?
REWALD: I would like that, except
I'm afraid I'm such a public figure
here that that may not be possible.
Right now I want very, very much to
have my family back here. I don't
know how they'll react. All my meals
these days are at McDonald's or Big
Boy or Burger King. I can't even go
into places like that without people
wanting to talk to me. I don't know
how my family will react to this type
of thing; it's not something we ever
had. I just don't know how it would
be. I love Hawaii. I don't know what
the opportunities would be here to
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HONOLULU: A lot of people were
afraid that if you got your bail, you'd
skip town.
REWALD: No one who knew me
thought that.
HONOLULU: There were also rumors
of Lear jets warming up at the
airport, loaded with millions ? .
REWALD: I've got about $6 in my
pocket, and that's every penny I own.
I've got a lot of passes that people
give me from Burger King. I've got
about three of those left, so I can get
free burgers, but once these passes
are gone [shows Burger King pass]
I'm going to have problems.
HONOLULU: If you do go back to
prison for, say, another five or 10 or
20 years, can you survive now with
the strength of your-
REWALD: Well, first of all, I won't
be.
HONOLULU: Are you sure?
REWALD: Yes.
HONOLULU: Can you sayr.,why
you're sure?
REWALD: We have enough of the
proof in our hands now to take care
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64 HONOLULU/MAY 19A4
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