Jack Anderson’s Family Sued Over Korean Deal With a Northrop Link

Newspaper columnist Jack Anderson’s name has been added to the cast of characters involved in controversial business dealings between Northrop Corp. and the late South Korean political operative Chong Kyu Park.

According to allegations in a civil lawsuit, Anderson personally negotiated a deal with Park in 1984 in which members of his family were to jointly develop a Korean factory with Park.

Northrop agreed to buy products built at the factory and export them from South Korea, an arrangement that was supposed to help the Asian country finance the purchase of Northrop jet fighter aircraft, according to Raymond Howar Jr., a former director of the U.S. firm that entered into the joint venture.

The unusual deal collapsed and is now the subject of the suit filed in August, 1987, in Superior Court in Ventura County by Howar against the members of the Anderson family and Precision Computer Products, the Simi Valley electronics firm formed by Howar and members of the Anderson family.

Anderson is a syndicated newspaper columnist whose investigative writing is widely distributed to American publications. He denied in a telephone interview that he ever negotiated with Park, who died in 1985, or had any involvement in his family’s business dealings in South Korea. Anderson acknowledged that he knew Park but said his association was for journalistic purposes only.

A spokesman for Los Angeles-based Northrop said the firm had discussions with Precision Computer officials but apparently had no agreement with the firm. Northrop was involved in at least two other Korean ventures backed by Chong Kyu Park, who exerted wide political influence in South Korea and once served as the chief bodyguard to a president of that country.

The aerospace firm is under investigation by a congressional committee for the two other agreements that Northrop struck with organizations controlled by Park. The company has said it was a victim of fraud in the deals and is suing to recover funds. Investigators are looking into whether the deals violated the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Unrelated to Other Deals

In one deal, Northrop agreed to jointly build a hotel in Seoul and invested $6.25 million in the deal, which was supposed to offset any trade imbalances created by Northrop weapons sales to South Korea. In the second agreement, a company backed by Park was supposed to represent Northrop in selling jet fighters to the Korean air force for a commission of up to $55 million.

The purported agreement involving Precision Computer, Park and Northrop appears unrelated to the hotel and sales representation deals.

The suit brought by Howar names as defendants Kevin Anderson, Rodney Anderson and Peter T. Bruch, Anderson’s son-in-law, in addition to Precision Computer.

The suit claims that Precision Computer was formed in January, 1984, by Bruch and Howar, a Washington resident who said in an interview that he had been a friend of the Anderson family since childhood. Kevin Anderson and Rodney Anderson were elected to the board in June, 1984.

Howar alleges in the lawsuit that Precision Computer agreed with Chong Kyu Park in mid-1984 to transfer technology to produce computer printer ribbons in Korea. According to the suit, the deal provided that Precision would issue to Korean investors--led by Park--100,000 shares of Precision stock. In exchange, Park’s investors would pay Precision $360,000.

“Jack Anderson knew C. K. Park very, very well,” Howar said in the interview.

The deal was negotiated between Park and Jack Anderson at a meeting at the Beverly Hilton Hotel “in or about” May, 1984, according to the suit. Howar said he was excluded from the meeting but was informed afterward that an agreement had been reached.

‘Totally False’

Anderson said in the telephone interview that he may have been in Los Angeles during the 1984 Olympics held that summer, and that he may have met with Park and Bruch.

“Peter Bruch had his own Korean contacts. He had his own business. The fact that my sons are involved has nothing to do with me,” Anderson said. Bruch said in a telephone interview that Howar’s allegations are “totally false.”

Howar alleges in the suit that the Korean investors paid only $100,000 of the $360,000 they had agreed to provide to Precision Computer.

Howar claims that he lost $160,000 that he put up in a personal line of credit to finance Precision Computer. The suit, which alleges breach of contract, fraud and attorney malpractice, seeks damages of $3.77 million.

In his suit, Howar claims that Precision Computer funds were diverted to the personal use of Bruch; that his own Precision Computer stock was never issued to him; that Precision Computer’s telephone system and photocopier were purchased on credit personally guaranteed by Howar and that Precision defaulted on those loans, resulting in claims against Howar; that Bruch, as majority shareholder in Precision Computer, failed to exercise his fiduciary duties; and that Rodney Anderson, acting as legal counsel for Precision computer, practiced law in California when he was not licensed in the state.

Kevin and Rodney Anderson, in a legal answer filed in the suit, denied the allegations made by Howar or said they had no information about the allegations. Bruch has not answered Howar’s complaint.

Northrop is not specifically named in the suit, but the suit claims that “ . . . pursuant to agreements entered between PCP (Precision Computer) and certain American corporations that did business in Korea, the entire output of the Korean ribbon output had been sold. . . . “

Howar said in the interview that “Northrop’s role was to buy everything that manufacturing plant was going to produce and use it as an offset credit.” An offset credit refers to an arrangement in which the foreign exchange that a country spends to buy weapons is offset by another trade deal.

Rodney Perlman, Howar’s attorney, said he is currently attempting to determine the status of the purported agreements with Northrop and has made a demand for documents in his legal discovery.

Howar said he personally saw signed “purchase orders” by Northrop. Howar said the agreement had been negotiated with Donald Foulds, Northrop’s vice president for counter trade.

‘Personal Adviser’

“Bruch had conversations with Foulds,” Howar said. “These guys were intimately involved with C. K. Park.”

Foulds took early retirement from Northrop this year. He has declined to comment on Northrop’s South Korean dealings in the past and could not be reached Thursday at his Palos Verdes home. His attorney, Jan Handzlik, was out of town.

Howar also said that Jim K. Shin later became involved in the computer printer ribbon venture in an undisclosed role. Shin was a paid Northrop consultant who has emerged as a central figure in the aerospace firm’s dealings in South Korea.

“Shin worked for C. K. Park,” Howar said. “He was almost his personal adviser.”

The Times disclosed previously that, at the same time Shin was earning a reported $102,000 from Northrop, he signed an agreement with an organization controlled by Park to get 25% of its commissions from Northrop. Such dual deals represented a conflict of interest under Northrop’s internal policies, according to former Northrop executives who had protested the agreements at the time they were made.