GOP NATIONAL CONVENTION : But Senator Did Not Appear at Seminar Urging Overseas Investments : Quayle Reportedly Agreed to Aid Tax Haven Isle

Three years ago, Sen. Dan Quayle, George Bush’s vice presidential running mate, agreed to appear on behalf of foreign officials seeking to lure American companies and individuals to invest in the Isle of Man, a well-known tax haven, according to a former official of the Isle of Man Parliament.

A full-page advertisement urging American businessmen to meet Quayle at an offshore investment seminar ran May 6, 1985, in the New Yorker magazine. However, apparently because a schedule conflict arose, Quayle did not appear at the seminar.

The ad invited the businessmen to take advantage of investment opportunities in the Isle of Man, a 221-square-mile island off the northwest coast of England that is a semiautonomous dependency of Great Britain, to avoid paying U.S. corporate and capital gains taxes and to take advantage of low personal income taxes.

Although it is not illegal to invest abroad, and although Quayle was apparently not to be paid for his expected appearance, tax experts said they found Quayle’s involvement puzzling because such investments tend to deprive the U.S. Treasury of tax revenue.

No Response From Ticket

Officials of the Bush campaign did not respond to inquiries about Quayle’s involvement. Calls to Quayle’s press secretary were not returned.

The New Yorker ad said: “The island’s environment has attracted some 17,000 companies and a growing number of financial institutions. Now is the time to find out why. On 13th May, before an invited audience from New York’s economic and legal community, the Hon. Dan Quayle, United States senator from Indiana, introduces ‘The Offshore Opportunity’--Day One of the Isle of Man’s Business Mission to America.”

Another section of the ad declares of the Isle of Man: “Financially, it’s the offshore opportunity of 1985--with benefits which include personal income tax at 20%, no corporation tax, no wealth or capital gains taxes and no death duty.”

The coordinator of the program was Donald M. Byck, a New York public relations agent. He has worked for the Isle of Man both as an agent of the New York-based firm of Robert W. Bloch International and of his own firm in Middletown, N.J.--Don Byck Associates--according to foreign agents registration documents on file at the Department of Justice.

Agent Tells of Doubt

Byck, an industrial development expert, said it was unclear whether Quayle “even agreed to” appear at the seminar. He said that the New Yorker ad was done by a London public relations firm and that other ads done for the event had not mentioned Quayle. Byck said, though, that he had not dealt directly with the senator.

But Robert Quayle, the former clerk of the Isle of Man Parliament and no relation to the senator, said in a telephone interview Thursday that the senator had agreed to make an appearance gratis. However, Robert Quayle said, the senator ultimately said he could not attend because he had to be in Indiana for a Bush visit to his state.

Charles Morley, former chief investigator for the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and now a private consultant to banks and the Drug Enforcement Administration, was critical of any involvement Quayle might have had in attempting to get U.S. citizens to invest in the Isle of Man.

“I find it ludicrous that a senior U.S. politician--anyone in Congress--would lend their name and credence to a seminar on investing in the Channel Islands or other known secrecy haven,” Morley said in an interview Thursday.

‘Seems to Be No Benefit’

Elliot Rosen, a spokesman for Tax Analysts, an Arlington, Va., public interest group, said: “It seems a little inappropriate, because there seems to be no benefit to the United States to encourage such action by U.S. citizens and I would think there is an appearance on the part of the officeholder of lending the credibility of the U.S. government to such investment that provides no benefit to the U.S.”

A Justice Department attorney who has worked on a number of tax fraud cases and who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “Why would he be speaking to a group that wants to beat the tax man?”

Robert Quayle said he was responsible for initiating the Isle of Man’s contact with Dan Quayle in 1980. He said he saw a story in Time or Newsweek about Quayle’s Senate campaign in Indiana. “Quayle is an Isle of Man name,” he said. He said that as clerk of the Parliament he made it his business to get in touch with people of Manx descent living in other countries.

St. John Bates, current clerk of the Isle of Man Parliament, said Sen. Quayle’s links to the island are from Manx ancestry. He said Quayle’s great-grandfather was a Manx woodworker who emigrated to the United States some time in the 19th Century. He said Quayle was unaware of his Manx heritage until Robert Quayle contacted him after he was elected to the Senate.

Visit to Washington Told

Robert Quayle said he visited Washington in 1981 for a national prayer breakfast and arranged to see the senator. “Since then we’ve been good friends,” he said.

At the Manx government’s invitation, Bates said, Sen. Quayle in 1982 attended the annual celebration of Tynwald Day, a commemoration of the Isle of Man’s Parliament, founded by Vikings, which the Manx assert is the world’s oldest Parliament in continuous operation. Bates said Quayle’s wife, father, mother and other family members also attended the ceremony.

Robert Quayle confirmed that in 1985 the island sent a delegation of government officials and businessmen to the United States to solicit investment. “We’re a small country, always looking for business. It was hoped that the senator because of his Manx connections would come and make an appearance.”

He said Sen. Quayle met with a Manx choir that visited Washington and said the senator received Manx government officials when they came to Washington and arranged a tour of the Capitol building. But he said Sen. Quayle did not contact any U.S. government officials for them. “There has never been any suggestion that we’ve attempted to make use of Sen. Quayle for the Isle of Man’s benefit,” he said.

Investment Held Increased

Bates said investment in the Isle of Man by U.S. interests, especially banks and insurance companies, has been increasing in recent years. But he said he had no specific figures.

Bates said Quayle “can be described as a very good friend of the island in Washington.” Asked if he thought Sen. Quayle’s ascendancy to the vice presidency might benefit the island, Bates said that “it can’t do us any harm, I think. I suppose it’s a bit like Jack Kennedy being good for Ireland when he was elected. It’s a link.”

He said the Manx Parliament sent a note of congratulations to Sen. Quayle’s office in Washington after learning that he had been selected by Bush.

Staff writers Robert Jackson and Mark Lawrence in Washington contributed to this story.