AN INTERVIEW WITH REWALD - ON HIS TERMS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605480126-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 30, 2011
• Sequence Number: 126
• Publication Date: February 13, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/30 :CIA-RDP90-005528000605480126-1
t1U1VVLULU J1LiiC DULLi:LiIY \II~~~" ~uu~
13 February 1984 }LS W
By Chc-les l~emminger
Slur-BUUCtttt ~4rtter '
AEti Ronald Rewald speaks.
W }?ou listen. He compels you
>A.
He leans over, his voice intense.
His face can be vacant or ani-
mated. He can be witty. He can
make you laugh. He can make
you feel sorry for him.
An interview with Rewald is
done on his terms because he an-
savers only the questions he
wants to answer. He won't talk in
detail about the work of his
company, Bishop, Baldwin, Re?
Wald, Dillingham & Wong. He
won't discuss his consultants, the
CIA or his criminal case. (He has
+Ee~en indicted on two theft
.`charges. The amount of money
missing is $1? million, according
to federal banlu'upty officials.) He
won't talk about his suicide at-
tempt. Or about who may or may
not be out to kill him.
He makes you feel that he real-
t}? wants to tell you everything.
He wants you to. understand.
You feel his energy and en-
thusiasm as he talks and, sudden-
ly, it is eas}? to see how he at-
of
ou
l
An .Interview
with Rewald
-on His Terms
bath in and out of the United
Slates. But he wants any poten-
tisil assassins to know that noth-
i~ would be gained by killing
~I have been out for 10 days
and any information I had that
concerned anybody has. already
been given to my attorneys in
great detail, copied and re-
copied," Rewald said. "It is in
eirough hands that no point
would be served at this point .by
anything happening to me. I
don't feel that that is a concern. I
realize that everyone else is Para-
noid .about it. I couldn't even
cofie to work if I thought that
that was going to happen."
REWALD IS MORE concerned
REV~'ALD attempted to kill
himself last July 29 by cut-
ting his wrists in a Waikiki hotel
room. As he regained his strength
in-Queen's .Hospital, it took a
while for the reality of the situa-
tion to become clear. And even
when he was well enough to
leave the hospital, he Still didn't
realize the scope of what was
happening to him.
' When I was in the hospital, I
could see things were going -out
of~ Control with the company and
I didn't understand why certain
people I thought would take con-
trol didn't," Rewald said: "The
real panic for me was when 1 left
the hospital. It never dawned on
me that I would be arrested. I
assumed I would go home and
maybe get a good night's sleep
and go to the office the next day
and try and talk to the trustee
a>~i1 work. with him and .show
halt what was .going on.
?>`It was sort of strange. We
knew that there were police offi-
cers outside there watching the
door. VVe thought they were just
going to mobitor our activities. So
vte, brought one of them in and
skid, 'Look; I'm going to go home.
If you are supposed to follow me
or something, why don't you get
in the car with us or we'll ride
' with you, or whatever. And just
come with us. And we'll tell you
arge gr
traded such a
p ,with elfin back to Wisconsin to
adrtirers, from Island leaders to ~ g g
intzrnational figurF: ~. !see his family, which he has
It is easy to imagine film of the ~ court permission to do. He has
polo grounds. hobnobbing with been offered a job to help raise
potential investors. It is easy to money for the trip, even though
see him sitting back in his com- the airplane ticket may ~ be paid
fortable office convincing people the job is `white collaznor~blue
they should put money into his collar" because "I don't want to
coBu~s he for real? is he telling embarrass anybody. It's going to
the truth? Is he lying, but believ- Probably come out soon enough
ing he is telling the truth? There anyway. 1 am just grateful to
is no way to tell. So you just sit have the opportunity to. work. I
back and listen. am not giving financial advice for
a profession, if that is your next
I1CE getting out of prison question."
S two weeks ago, Rewald has Although it is possible to be-
been holed up in a corner of his ~ lieve that Rewald may be mis-
attorney's office, working on his leading. in some of his remarks,
defense against charges he stole !there is no, doubt that' he feels
money from two investors. strongly about his family.
He doesn't walk the streets be- ; He is asked: "What are you
cause of the possibility that some-
one would do him harm. In fact,
there were reports chat someone
had gotten a lob as a prison
guazd in an attempt to kill Re-
wald. The Attorney General's of-
fice has information about the al-
leged assassination attempt and
the person who supposedly was
to kill Rewald. But they have no
evidence to believe that there
actuall}~ was a plot.
Rewald thinks there may be
people v ho want him dead. But
he won't say who. He knows he
has a lot of potential enemies
every time we are going to go
~ anywhere. .I am anxious to rest
for a day or so and then get to
work.' And they said, 'You are
to leave now? Hold it right
read
y
going to tell your family when
here, we are going to have to
'you see them? What are you azrest you."'
going to tell your children when gut it was more than an hour
they ask what happened?" later that he actually was taken
Tears suddenly fill his eyes. to jaff and by that time, the news
'I have tried not to even thipk media was there.
about it. 1 guess I won't believe it ?`It turned into a media event,"
until I see them.," he said. He ~ he said. "Every step from that
talks about a phone call he made ', .point on was more of a produc-
to his son in California. lion-than anything else. I couldn't
"He" got a job with a shoe
company," he said. ?"But I don't out having cameraseandrltght-
know any of the details. I talked bulbs going off."
to .him for the first time yester- Rewald still feels he was some-
iday just for a couple of minutes: shat railroaded by the media.
I It was the first time I had talked
to him since July. He was crying Continued
on one end, I was crying on the
other. VF'e didn't say anything for
about 10 minutes."
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But he has mellowed. He is not
angry at KHON-TV reporter ,
Barbara Tanabe for first going on
the air with disclosures that his
company was under investigation
last summer.
"People patted me on the back
and congratulated me for being
polite to Barbara Tanabe in court
the other day," he said. "I mean,
what did they expect me to do?
Punch her in the nose?"
ONCE in prison, Rewald began
to recover from the depres-
sion he had suffered before and
after his suicide attempt. Letters
front his family helped. And so .
did letters from various church
groups. And while he did not re-
ceive any "hate mail" from angry .
investors, he did get his share of ~
odd letters.
"I certainly saw a lot of strange
mail," be said. "People out there
writing my life story. Letters of
proposal. I can't explain any of
that. It was just unusual mail."
He had only a few visitors and
his attorneys tried to keep him
busy helping prepare his defense.
But there was little he could do
while in prison, he said.
"From inside there you have
access to practically no records,"
he said. "Occasionally an attorney
v-?ould bring in something to
work on and check over. You are
helpless to defend yourself. And I
realize that there are a lot of
people in prison who can't get
out to defend themselves. But
this is not a case where someone
held up a liquor store or a bank.
It is not cleartut. It involves a
tremendous number of transac-
tions, personnel and people and
events all around the world. To
assemble a defense for something
like that is not something you
can do in an absentee process."
EWALD used=to be ultracon-
servative. Although he won't
acknowlege it, it is believed that
Rewald in college worked for the
CIA, infiltrating .radical student
groups. The American Civil Liber- would rather be than the United
ties Union was seen as some States."
pinko outfit that catered to crimi- IF HIS LEGAL problems ever
oats. The government was always end and he is able to prove his
right. The system worked. innocence, Rewald said he would
Now, things have changed. He like to continue living in Hawaii.
finds himself granting interviews "I've become'a very public fig-
to national journalists considered
"leftist" by the far-right conserv-
atives he used to call soul-mates.
The Hawaii chapter of the ACLU
has come to his aid in an attempt
to have a federal gag order lifted
on CIA material from Rewald's
files. .
"I've always been a very con-
servative. person," Rewald said..
"Now I find help coming from
directions that I find somewbat
surprising. Aad 1 am very, very
grateful."
The American justice system
has become somewhat tarnished
in his eyes now. -
"Regardless of my 'intense'
criminal .background," be said,
ure," be said. "T ? can't walk down
~nizing my face. I have had no
control over that..I don't know
what effect that would have on
my family and my ability to stay
here and earn a living. If T am
given a fair opportunity to de-
fend myself.... I feel? I could. But
`this has been going on for a half
a year and it is not something
that is going to be repaired in a
matter' of days. or even 'a few .
~; 4weeks
Despite all of the years Rewald
has lived in Hawaii and all of the
referring to a misdemeanor fraud sever worn an '~alo)Iia shirt. It's
conviction in Wisconsin, "I cer- impossible to picture him sunning
tafnly have always had the high- ~ on a beach, exposed to the ele-
est regard for the law. ,I haven't ments.
had so much as a parking ticket He appears uncomfortable
in all the years I have been in when he takes off the jacket of
Hawaii.' But #t certainly has his three-piece, .pin-striped suit.
changed my perception of `you're Without the jacket, the dark,
innocent until proven guilty' and red scars on his forearms are vis-
things of that nature." .able. At the end of the interview;
As far as America in general, he pulls on his jacket and the
Rewald the super-patriot) his nc~.: scars are .once again hidden. And
changed. lanyone who saw Rewald a few
"I would never ai8ve ao-m~- minutes later- walking down the
where else," he said. "I have been- sidewalk would think they were
all around the world a number of looking just another prosperous
'.imes and there is no place I.; businessman. . ,, _ ?
local .people he has met, Rewald
still is a suit-wearer. It seems
possible to believe that he has
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