Stich,R. Russell,T.C. Disavow: A CIA Saga of Betrayal. 1995

Stich, Rodney and Russell, T. Conan. Disavow: A CIA Saga of Betrayal. Diablo Western Press (P.O. Box 5, Alamo CA 94507, Tel: 800-247-7389), 1995. 392 pages.

Hawaii's biggest financial scandal broke in 1983. Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong was an international investment firm with 152 employees, 34 businesses in the U.S., and interests in 16 other countries. But suddenly investors lost their money. CEO Ronald Rewald, meanwhile, had limousines and bodyguards, and lived in a $2.4 million beach house. When he wasn't playing with the Sultan of Brunei at the firm's polo club, or lunching with Jack Lord, he was cutting deals with tycoon Enrique Zobel of the Philippines, or with Rajiv Gandhi, the son of India's prime minister.

At his trial, Rewald used the "CIA defense" -- the firm was set up by the CIA, and he was following the orders of the local station chief. This was all true (if not exculpatory), and Rewald had the CIA documents to prove it. Officials at Langley sweated and stonewalled at first, and then started playing hardball -- at one point, ABC News reported that the CIA had hired Scott Barnes to assassinate Rewald. Soon the Agency sent their own lawyer, John Peyton, to prosecute the case out of the U.S. Attorney's office and coach the compliant judge. Rewald's CIA documents never made it into the record; he was convicted of fraud and given 80 years. One month after the judge died in 1995, Rewald was paroled after serving ten years.
ISBN 0-9648005-0-0