F.B.I. probes ‘plot’ to cheat Gadaffi

Press, 2 October 1979, Page 9

F.B.I. probes ‘plot’ to cheat Gadaffi

NZPA Washington The United States Justice Department has conducted an extensive, covert investigation for eight months to determine whether there is an elaborate bribery plot under way, designed to secure approval from the Carter Administration for the sale of military and commercial aircraft to Libya, the department says. The investigation, department officials said, had focused on the possibility that the militantly Arab Government of the North African country had conspired with Robert Vesco, the fugitive financier, and others to bribe John White, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and senior officials in the White House to ensure release of the aircraft to Libya. The Justice Department, according to sources close to the investigation, is almost certain, on the basis of evidence gathered to date, that no bribes were taken by Mr White or White House lofficials. i

) However, the department. ! the sources said, believed 1 that the scheme could well! be a complex confidence) > game designed to trick, the) ■ Libyans into providing! : money for bribes that were ■ never paid. Mr White, in an interview. ! said that he had been ■ offered no bribes. ■ Mr Vesco fled the United States nearly a decade ago ■ after he was charged with ■ bilking stockholders out of ; millions of dollars in an ■ international swindle. i He is reported to be living lin the Bahamas, and ret peated attempts to reach i him by telephone and interi view him in connection with - this investigation have been ; unsuccessful. > The covert phase of the . investigation ended late last week when agents of the . Federal Bureau of In- > vestigation questioned some : people, including Mr White. Sources close to the in- : vestigation said that Mr ' White had been under covert : surveillance during the iniquity.