KGB Agent Contesting Suit, Lawyer Says

One of three Soviet officials granted visas to come to the United States to contest a $413,000 libel judgment against their government on behalf of a Palo Alto businessman is a KGB agent, the businessman’s lawyer claimed Thursday.

Attorney Gerald Kroll of Los Angeles, who won the default judgment for Raphael Gregorian because the Soviet official newspaper Izvestia called him a spy and wrecked his medical equipment import-export business there, said it is “outrageous” for the U.S. State Department to issue the visas.

In a declaration filed with U.S. District Court here Thursday, Kroll said he had been informed that one of the three being allowed to come here in connection with the Gregorian case is Anatoly Nizenko, whom he called a colonel in the Soviet intelligence organization.

‘Absolutely Incredible’

“It’s absolutely incredible that the State Department would allow this type of individual to enter the country,” the attorney told reporters. He declined to say how he knows Nizenko is a KGB agent, but said he got it from “several sources.”

He insisted that no visas should be granted until a court sets an evidentiary hearing actually requiring the presence of the Soviets.

The Associated Press said it had been told by two U.S. officials who demanded anonymity that Nizenko has been granted a visa to testify in the case.

State Department spokesman Charles Redman said in Washington only that visas had been granted to three officials of the Soviet Bank for Foreign Trade to come to the United States as “potential witnesses” in the Gregorian case.

Redman said, however, that the State Department has a policy against commenting on reports about foreign intelligence agents.

Information ‘Confidential’

Attorney Kroll said he had been informed that Nizenko “listed my name on his visa application as one of the individuals he intends to come see.” Kroll said the State Department refused to tell him whether that is true, claiming the information is “confidential.”

“I intend to write the inspector general at the State Department to find out if in fact a visa application was granted to an individual to come see me without telling me,” Kroll said angrily.

Kroll also said the FBI called on him Wednesday to ask that he notify them if he learns of Nizenko’s whereabouts in the United States. “They are very interested in him,” Kroll said.

The attorney said the State Department and the U.S. Department of Justice are siding with the Soviets in the running legal battle over Gregorian’s attempt to collect the default judgment granted last July by U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon after the defendants failed to appear in court.

The Soviets did not begin to contest the case until after Kroll attached the Russian language typewriter of Izvestia’s Washington correspondent and persuaded Kenyon to freeze more than $450,000 (to cover judgment and interest) of Soviet Bank for Foreign Trade funds on deposit at Bank of America’s international trade division in New York.

Reopening Case Urged

In early December, the deputy assistant secretary of state responsible for Soviet relations urged Kenyon to reopen the libel case and defer any judgments in the interest of arms control talks and other foreign policy affairs.

The Justice Department moved in New York to block release to Gregorian of the New York funds ordered frozen by Kenyon.

Spokeswoman Sondra McCarty denied that the State Department is siding with the Soviets, but said it is simply U.S. policy to seek a full hearing in cases involving suits against foreign countries.

On Jan. 28, Kenyon is to hear arguments on a motion by attorneys for the Soviets asking that the default libel judgment be overturned and on whether the frozen funds should be released to Gregorian.

New York attorney Martin Popper is seeking on behalf of the Soviets a fast decision on the funds and a hearing on the motion to overturn the original default libel judgment. He filed in New York a document declaring that the Bank for Foreign Trade has already lost $2 million because of the freeze and continues to lose at the rate of $70,000 a day because of a hampered ability to carry on normal currency exchange and import-export operations.

He claimed that the Bank for Foreign Trade is an independent entity and that none of its assets belong to the Soviet trading companies targeted by Kroll.

In the meantime, Izvestia’s editorial board has filed a slander suit against Gregorian. Kroll complained that the State Department has been trying to have legal papers served on his client “at American taxpayers’ expense” in connection with that suit.

He said he knows of no legal authority for that kind of assistance.

Times staff writer John Kendall contributed to this story.