S.U.P. secretary denies receiving money from expelled Soviet envoy

Press, 18 April 1980, Page 1

S.U.P. secretary denies receiving money from expelled Soviet envoy

PA Auckland The secretary of the Socialist Unity Party (Mr G. E. Jackson) strenuously denies having received any money from the former Soviet Ambassador, Mr Vsevold Sofinsky. His denial yesterday came after the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) named Mr Jackson as the man who received a substantial sum of money from Mr Sofinsky. In a television programme on. Wednesday evening • Mr Jackson denied receiving any funds, but asserted that the Russian envoy had given him a bottle of vodka. Asked at a news conference yesterday why he had decided to disclose the identity of the S.U.P. official said to have received the money, Mr Muldoon said: “Because I saw George Jackson on television last night telling lies, frankly.” Mr Muldoon said that it was “an awful long way” to go to Auckland to give Mr Jackson a bottle of vodka. He also said that he,

too, had received a bottle of vodka at Christmas, “but there wasn’t any cash with mine.” When a figure of $lO,OOO was suggested, Mr Muldoon said that Was “within range.” Until yesterday the Government had declined to identify the S.U.P. official alleged to have received the money, but Mr Muldoon said that there was no point in concealing Mr Jackson’s identity any longer because he. had identified himself. In Auckland yesterday, Mr Jackson, aged 71, said: “Since Mr Muldoon has called me a liar, I will not call him that . . . but he is. “Suggesting that _ Mr Sofinsky made the trip to Auckland to give me a bottle of vodka is a distortion of fact.” Mr Jackson said that he had received a telephone call from the former Soviet Ambassador’s office in Wellington just before Christmas last year. He could not recall the exact date. “He said that he was coming to Auckland, and he wanted to see me at the

motel,” Mr Jackson said. At the prearranged time he drove to the Birkenhead motel where Mr Sofinsky, his wife, and a Russian Embassy official were staying. “He talked about the weather and the advantages of living in Auckland,” Mr Jackson said. “Mr Sofinsky gave me a bottle of vodka, which had some caviar on top in some cardboard.” It was possible that the caviar could have been mistaken for money by New Zealand authorities. “He sent Mr Sofinsky home on the basis of a report from the Security Intelligence Service. He took the report to the Intelligence Council and the Cabinet, and had it endorsed. “I deny ever receiving money from Mr Sofinsky,” Mr Jackson said. “No money changed hands in that motel. “The Russians have never given money , to the S.U.P. They have said that regularly.” Mr Jackson also deniedthat Mrs Sofinsky or the other Embassy official had

handed over any money. - He said that he believed he was probably under constant surveillance by S.I.S. agents. There were indications that somebody knew he was to meet Mr Sofinsky at the motel. The “Economist” newspaper’s “Foreign Report” earlier this year said that a trusted agent of the Security Intelligence Service was at the motel at the time. “A recording was made of a conversation in which Mr Sofinsky gave instructions on how the S.U.P. should use its' Soviet subsidy,” the report said. Confirming that the S.U.P. was conducting a membership drive, Mr Jackson said: “Mr Muldoon has given us a lot of publicity. We want to make the most of it.” He said that he had met “lots” of Russian Ambassadors to New Zealand over the years. Mr Jackson, a former railway worker, was chairman of the Communist Party of New Zealand until 1963. He is now fulltime secretary of the Socialist Unity Party,