Ike’s Treasury Secretary Admits Evasion of Taxes

Former Secretary of the Treasury Robert B. Anderson, who President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said deserved to be President, pleaded guilty today to income tax evasion charges and illegally running an offshore bank.

Anderson, declaring that he was “deeply regretful,” admitted to evading tax on $127,500 in undeclared income in 1984.

Much of the money was paid to him for lobbying for controversial South Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church.

He also pleaded guilty to the illegal operation of an offshore bank, the Commercial Exchange Bank & Trust Ltd. of Anguilla, British West Indies.

Headed Treasury 1957-61

The 76-year-old Anderson was Eisenhower’s Treasury secretary from 1957 to 1961 and later a prominent businessman. In his memoirs, Ike said Anderson deserved to be President.

Facing up to 10 years jail, Anderson told U.S. District Judge Edmund Palmieri that he had recently undergone two operations and treatment for alcoholism.

The judge set May 7 for sentencing and U.S. Atty. Rudolph Giuliani said the government will ask that Anderson be sent to jail.

According to the indictment, Anderson was a principal of the Commercial Exchange Bank & Trust for two years ending in 1985.

During that time, government prosecutors said the bank conducted operations in New York City but failed to register with state and federal banking authorities. Depositors have lost at least $4 million.

Anderson pleaded guilty only for the tax year 1984 but admitted other tax transgressions for the previous year and faces civil fines for both years.

He said he received $80,000 in 1983 from a shell corporation for lobbying for the Unification Church. The money was given to him as a no-interest loan repayable in 1990 but the government said it should have been reported as income.

Anderson also set up his own numbered bank account at the offshore bank and asked for an additional $200,000 for services to the controversial church.

The money was paid in early 1984 but shortly afterward church officials demanded it back. He gave them $150,000, claiming that the balance had been used as expenses.

The government said that at least $29,000 should have been declared as income.

In 1983 and 1984, Anderson also received a total of $50,000 from the World Conference on Economic and Social Order, a group closely associated with the Unification Church. He failed to report that money as income, the government said.

The indictment said he acted as a lobbyist, consultant and advocate for the church.

It is also alleged that in 1983 and 1984 he set up a bank account with a woman with whom he had a “personal relationship” and falsely described her as the manager of a company he owned. He put $13,500 into the account for her and another unnamed woman friend.

Giuliani said Anderson, “claimed he could do things for the (Unification Church) and he could do some of these things in Washington. Anderson was guilty of a pattern of criminality.”