New Counts Are Based on Televised Iran-Contra Testimony : Indictment Charges Secord With Perjury

In the first case to charge that an Iran-Contra figure lied to the congressional committees that investigated the scandal, independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh on Thursday unveiled a grand jury indictment accusing retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord of committing perjury and obstruction of justice in his televised testimony.

According to the nine-count indictment, which was voted by the grand jury April 7 but kept sealed to avoid influencing the trial of former National Security Council aide Oliver L. North, Secord lied repeatedly to congressional investigators in an attempt to conceal the profits he received from the sale of arms to Iran and Nicaragua’s Contras.

The charges are the second indictment for Secord in the Iran-Contra scandal. Along with North, former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter and Secord’s business partner, Albert A. Hakim, Secord was charged last March on a 23-count indictment alleging conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and other crimes in connection with the arms sales.

Prosecutors dropped the broad conspiracy charge against North because of potential problems with the disclosure of classified national security information but they still hope to prosecute other defendants on such charges. North was convicted of three of 12 remaining counts in the case last week.

The new indictment is the first from a second grand jury set up last year to investigate whether any of the key Iran-Contra figures lied in testimony after the scandal became public.

In addition to accusing Secord of trying to conceal his profits, the indictment also accused Secord of lying about plans to use profits from the arms sales to enrich North. Secord paid for a security fence at North’s home and planned to put $200,000 in profits from the arms sales into a fund to pay for the education of North’s children, investigators have said. In his testimony, however, he denied that North had received any personal benefit from the arms sales proceeds.

North was convicted last week of accepting the security fence. The plan for the education fund was never carried out.

By bringing the new charges, Walsh and his team of prosecutors appear to be stepping up the pressure on Secord to plead guilty to at least some of those earlier charges. Walsh declined to comment directly on that, telling reporters that the new indictment is not “a gesture.”

But Secord’s attorneys reacted angrily to the move. The new charges, defense lawyer Thomas C. Green said in a statement, show that Walsh “intends to go to extraordinary lengths to find some charge, however immaterial, for which Gen. Secord can be prosecuted.”

Secord and Hakim allegedly were the middlemen on whom North relied in setting up the mechanism for selling arms to Iran. North, Secord and Hakim allegedly used some of the profits generated by those arms sales to support the Contras at a time when Congress had prohibited the government from supplying such support.

Secord described the “enterprise” that he and Hakim established for the arms sales when he testified before the congressional investigating committees on May 7 and May 8, 1987. But, according to the indictment, his testimony was false in several respects.

Denies Ties

For example, Secord denied having an interest in a Swiss shell corporation that was set up to hide profits from the arms sales. In fact, the grand jury charged, Secord was the principal shareholder of the company, called Korel, which held money in its account for his personal use.

Similarly, Secord testified that in July or August of 1985, a few months after the arms sales began, he gave up all interest in further profits from the plan. In fact, according to the indictment, Secord “retained a personal economic interest in the profits” and used accountant Willard I. Zucker, who handled money for the operation, “to manage over a million dollars of profits allocated” to him.