BIG CIA ROLE SEEN IN HONOLULU FIRM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00494R001100700189-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 5, 2011
• Sequence Number: 189
• Publication Date: December 27, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/07/05: CIA-RDP90-00494RO01100700189-1
; -1 1; r,;;i EARED
WASHINGTON POST
27 December 1984
JACK .1 EFERSON
Elor CIA Role Seen in K-~anaiai[u mirm
k2p
FT~x espite the Central Intelligence Agency's
U j~l attempts to wriggle out of the blame, I am
now convinced that the spy agency was
responsible for a Honolulu-based investment firm
that cost investors $11 million when it collapsed
last year. -
CIA spokesmen insist that the agency's- -
involvement in the defunct firm of Bishop, Baldwin,
Rewald, Dillingham & Wong was only "slight" and
"low-level."
From the evidence I've gathered over months of
investigation, the CIA either was up to its
cloak-and-dagger in the scandal or is guilty of
chronic and incredible stupidity.
',.y associates Dale Van Atta and Indy Badhwar
`?:'e had access to the secret CIA personnel file of
Ronald Ray Re?ald, the CIA contract employe who
headed Bshcp, Baldwin.
The file makes clear that three successive CIA
station chiefs in Honolulu worked closely with
Rewald, even though they knew that the company
he headed previously was forced into involuntary
bankruptcy, that he had declared personal
bankruptcy and that when he arrived in Hawaii in
1979 Rewald was on probation from a Wisconsin
conviction for petty theft and nonregistration of a
franchise.
Rewald's first CIA boss in Honolulu, Eugene
Welsch, used a Rewald firm as a cover for CIA
agents. According to a Rewald affidavit, Welsch
even helped set up Bishop, Baldwin.
The government has charged Rewald with
perjury for claiming that Welsch was involved in
setting up the firm.
Welsch's successor as CIA station chief, John
(Jack) Kindschi, not only gave Rewald and the firm
a wide variety of CIA assignments but also went to
work for Bishop, Baldwin when he retired from the
CIA in 1980. According to Rewald's affidavit, -
Kindschi also invested $185,000 in the company,
and his mother put in $112,000.
As station chief, Kindschi ordered Rewald's son,
James (also a CIA contract agent), to build a laser
gun. Ki.ndschi gave young Rewald top-secret CIA
information from the China Lake Naval Weapons
Center.
Rewald's third CIA station chief, Jack Rardin,
invested $1,700 in Bishop, Baldwin. A czse can be
made for Rardin's incompetence, according to
Rewald's interview with his attorney. Rardin once
turned over secret information to the Soviets
without even realizing it, Rewald said.
"Here's the station chief of the Pacific," Rewald
said, "and he gets a diplomatic pouch directly from
Washington and ... turns the entire darn pouch
over to the Russians on a ship that was leaving the
harbor. The ship started out of the harbor before
he read the instructions, only to find that in this
diplomatic pouch was an envelope for the Russians
and everything else apparently was classified
material ... and he had to go out, stop the ship,
retrieve the whole pouch. To this day we don't
know [whether the Russians] saw everything."
Footnote: The CIA won't comment on the
Rewald case, which is under litigation, and it
refused to help locate Welsch, Kindschi or Rardin
for interviews. The agency denied that Rardin
inadvertently gave top-secret data to the Soviets.
Approved For Release 2011/07/05: CIA-RDP90-00494RO01100700189-1