Investigation of LaRouche Fraud Schemes Reported

Preliminary findings by a grand jury showed that followers of Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. raised hundreds of thousands of dollars through nationwide credit card fraud, it was reported Sunday.

A federal prosecutor’s affidavit was quoted in the New York Times as saying the findings of a two-year investigation by a panel in Boston indicated that the LaRouche groups defrauded hundreds of thousands of people nationwide.

A spokesman for LaRouche, who has run for President three times and whose principal group is the National Democratic Policy Committee, called the investigation a “witch hunt.”

Several Agencies Involved

The grand jury investigation is one of several federal probes into the workings of groups linked to LaRouche, the newspaper said.

The FBI, the Federal Election Commission, the Internal Revenue Service and the Secret Service are looking at groups under LaRouche’s influence as well.

An affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston by U.S. Atty. William Weld’s office said the grand jury’s early findings “indicate an extensive nationwide pattern” of credit card fraud by LaRouche followers, the paper said.

The report quoted the affidavit as saying “hundreds of unauthorized charges apparently totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars” were made.

The document said LaRouche workers at stands in airports around the country would “solicit people to subscribe to magazines and other publications and encourage them to make this purchase by credit card,” the newspaper said.

Records Made Public

“When these individuals got the credit card bills,” the document said, “instead of $15, $20 or $25, they had $500 or in some cases several thousand dollar charges” on their bills.

Many of the records of the inquiries, normally kept secret, became public when they were filed in court in response to lawsuits and other legal actions that LaRouche has initiated against the government, the newspaper said.

Federal officials said LaRouche and his associates deny allegations of wrongdoing and have, in turn, accused some federal officials of being drug dealers, Nazis or agents of the Soviet KGB.