Hakim Boasted of Iran Arms Deals in 1983 Testimony

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Albert A. Hakim, the California businessman who allegedly helped channel Iranian arms profits to the Nicaraguan rebels, once boasted of his role in selling “millions and millions of dollars” in arms to Tehran in the 1970s and testified that he set up secret Swiss bank accounts to pay off government officials there, it was learned Monday.

Hakim’s 1983 testimony--in a largely unnoticed civil suit brought here by Olin Corp.’s Winchester arms division, one of his former clients--provides new insights into Hakim’s shadowy business dealings before the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1979.

Officials of Olin, a Stamford, Conn.-based diversified chemical and manufacturing company with more than $2 billion in annual revenues, refused to discuss the suit it brought against Hakim and another foreign agent seeking repayment of monies allegedly misspent. The suit was withdrawn last year by agreement of the parties involved.

Principal Focus

Since then, however, the activities of Hakim and one of his business associates, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, have emerged as a principal focus of the expanding investigation of the growing Iran- contras scandal.

Sources familiar with the investigation said last week that Hakim and Secord were involved with Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, a fired National Security Council aide, in carrying out covert arms sales with Iran and in channeling part of the proceeds to the rebels opposing the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

The sources said Secord “handled operational details,” such as arranging for airplanes to make the covert deliveries to Tehran, while Hakim “handled the financial details,” such as arranging for transfer of funds.

Not in Records

Records in the civil suit on file in federal court here make no mention of Secord or Stanford Technology Trading Corp., a Hakim firm that Secord joined after he retired from the military in 1983.

Hakim, who lives in Los Gatos, Calif., and whose companies have offices in the Silicon Valley, San Francisco and the Virginia suburbs of Washington, could not be reached for comment.

According to transcripts of a series of sworn depositions taken three years ago, Hakim testified that Olin’s business in Tehran included a $23-million contract to sell 20-millimeter ammunition to the Iranian armed forces and later obtaining a contract to build a large ballistics laboratory there.

Told of Moving Money

Hakim testified that he was experienced at moving money through international channels. “I caused accounts to be opened and the money to be transferred” to Iranian government officials and their relatives and friends, Hakim said.

To accommodate one official, whom he identified only as Khosrowdad, Hakim said, according to the transcript:

“It was his first situation that he got paid off in large sums, and for him we had to establish a bank account in Switzerland (and) make a transfer for him.

“And I recall his reluctance about putting his signature on the bank card, and that it took some time before it was done.”

Commander Executed

He apparently was referring to Gen. Manuchehr Khosrowdad, the commander of the Iranian air force who was executed after the fall of the shah.

In the depositions, Hakim said he handled “millions and millions of dollars worth of business” in Iran for Olin and other U.S. companies, which he did not identify.

Payoffs varied according to social status and governmental rank, he said. Starting at the bottom with “the $2,000 and the $5,000 guys” and ranging up to those who received $20,000 or more for approving an arms contract with a U.S. company.

Said He Told Officials

Although Olin officials have strongly denied it, Hakim testified that he personally informed such executives as G. A. Chandler, head of the Winchester division, and Peter H. Kaskell, former Olin vice president for legal affairs, “that there are payoffs involved and we need to take care of them.”

Hakim said payoffs were drawn from inflated Olin “commissions” that he deposited in accounts he had established at the Union Bank of Switzerland and in a branch of First National City Bank of New York City. Both accounts were in Geneva, he said.

“There were tens of other accounts like Olin within our own domain that we handled in more or less the same way,” he testified.

Robert L. Jackson reported from New Haven and Gaylord Shaw from Washington.