LaRouche Ex-Aide Guilty of Plot to Obstruct Inquiry

A former aide to Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. was convicted Thursday of plotting to obstruct a federal investigation of alleged credit card and loan fraud by the political extremist’s 1984 presidential campaign.

Roy Frankhauser, who faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, was the first of 19 defendants in the fraud and conspiracy case to stand trial.

LaRouche, five of his political organizations and six of his aides are scheduled to go on trial Monday. Three other indicted LaRouche aides have been granted later trials and three are fugitives.

The U.S. District Court jury deliberated for three hours before finding Frankhauser guilty of conspiring to obstruct justice. He was freed on personal recognizance pending sentencing on Feb. 9.

Frankhauser, 48, of Reading, Pa., a former member of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party, was a LaRouche security consultant for seven years until he left the organization in late 1986, about the same time the first indictment in the case was returned.

LaRouche was added as a defendant in July, charged with conspiring to obstruct the Boston grand jury investigation by ordering fund-raisers to leave the country, burn records and refuse to cooperate with investigators.

LaRouche, who has accused prominent world leaders of being Soviet agents and called for a quarantine of AIDS victims, is seeking the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination. He has run for President three times previously.

The 125-count indictment charging LaRouche, Frankhauser and the other defendants alleges that LaRouche followers nationwide raised millions of dollars by submitting fraudulent charges to the credit card accounts of prior LaRouche contributors and by securing loans with no intention of repaying them.

Prosecutors have said in court hearings that the money was to pay for LaRouche’s 1984 campaign.