LaRouche Says He Doesn’t Know Who’s Paid His Expenses Since ’73

Political activist Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr., insisting that he cannot pay a $200,000 court judgment, has told a federal judge that he is like a poor uncle, “traveling from place to place and relative to relative, who never asks who’s paying the bill.”

LaRouche’s attorneys are to appear in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., on Friday to appeal a magistrate’s order that LaRouche answer questions about who pays his personal expenses, from the heavily guarded million-dollar Virginia estate where he lives to daily bills for food and laundry.

U.S. Magistrate W. Curtis Sewell last month fined LaRouche $2,000 and ordered him to pay $200 a day until he provides the court with answers to those questions.

The court inquiry into LaRouche’s ability to pay could shed light on his multimillion-dollar empire and network of corporations and organizations.

$200,000 Judgment

The court’s inquiry arose after the NBC television network won a $200,000 judgment against LaRouche last year for interfering in the network’s business.

LaRouche maintained during the trial that he has no income, has filed no income tax returns for more than 10 years and pays none of his own personal expenses.

Responding in court to the filing of more than 150 financially oriented questions by NBC in legal discovery motions, LaRouche said he does not know who has paid his expenses since 1973. He also contended that groups associated with him have refused to say if they paid the bills.

Cites Threats

“During the time period . . . I have been ‘safehoused’ by friends and associates in many different places because of threats to my physical security,” LaRouche said.

“During this time, I have been the guest of many persons, including some foreign governments and political parties,” he said. “I have never asked my hosts for an accounting of this hospitality, nor have I asked them to account for their own sources of income.

“In certain respects I am like an impecunious uncle traveling from place to place and relative to relative, who never asks who’s paying the bill.”