Prosecutor Ridicules Both Meese, Wallach : Calls Former Attorney General Incompetent or Corrupt in Closing Argument in Wedtech Case

A federal prosecutor told jurors Tuesday that E. Robert Wallach is “a man of two faces” and that his longtime friend, former Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, is “at best incompetent and at worst corrupt.”

In a closing argument at Wallach’s fraud and racketeering trial in Manhattan, associate prosecutor Elliott Jacobson asked for Wallach’s conviction in the Wedtech Corp. scandal and ridiculed Wallach and Meese for having told jurors that their close relationship never resulted in any “special favors” for Wallach.

Although Meese has never been charged with any crime, Wallach’s indictment is based on charges that he defrauded Wedtech stockholders of more than $500,000 by accepting concealed payments in return for using his influence with Meese to help the small defense firm obtain government contracts.

Rep. Biaggi Convicted

At least 15 persons, including former Rep. Mario Biaggi (D-N.Y.) and several company and New York state officials, have been convicted so far in the Wedtech scandal on bribery, conspiracy, stock fraud and other charges. Former White House aide Lyn Nofziger was convicted of lobbying violations on behalf of Wedtech last year but his conviction was reversed last month on grounds that a key section of the Ethics in Government Act is ambiguous.

Implying that Meese had lied under oath, Jacobson said that the former attorney general had testified for Wallach because they were “best friends” and because Meese has harbored “a strong bias” against New York federal prosecutors, who initiated the Wedtech investigation two years ago independently of Justice Department officials in Washington.

In referring to Wallach as having “two faces,” Jacobson acknowledged that the San Francisco attorney, who knew Meese from law school days at UC Berkeley, is a civic-minded man who has worked for conservation causes and for the rights of minorities. But Wallach’s “other side,” he said, is that “he wanted money and he wanted power. He had an incredible lust for money and power.”

Wallach testified last week that he first had tried to help the Bronx-based defense firm obtain federal contracts in 1981, without being paid for his services, because he believed that the largely Latino concern deserved an opportunity to succeed, especially with a Republican Administration that had courted Latino voters.

“It’s true Mr. Wallach volunteered his services in the beginning,” Jacobson said. But Wallach eventually received more than $400,000 in stock and other payments that brought his total receipts from Wedtech to $1.1 million, the prosecutor said.

“He went to work lobbying Ed Meese,” who then was White House counselor, Jacobson said.

“Suffice it to say that, where money is concerned, Mr. Wallach acted unethically and illegally.”

In picturing Meese as a kindred soul, the prosecutor reminded jurors that an internal Justice Department ethics investigation had found last January that Meese had “acted improperly” in his relationship with Wallach and in some of Meese’s personal financial affairs.

Meese quit government service last August after declaring that he had been cleared in an independent investigation conducted by court-appointed counsel James C. McKay. However, McKay’s report criticized Meese as having exchanged too many favors with Wallach and said that Meese may have violated some tax and conflict-of-interest laws as well. The department’s own internal inquiry ensued.

“Why couldn’t Meese have told Wallach: ‘Bob, I can’t talk to you about that because I have to deal with that as a government official?”’ Jacobson asked the jury. “Lawyers are supposed to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.”

The prosecutor added that Wallach, along with two co-defendants in the case, had concocted “a litany of lies” by creating false invoices to disguise Wallach’s lobbying payments as fees for legal services that he never performed for Wedtech.

Mario Moreno and Anthony Guariglia, two former Wedtech executives who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and bribery charges two years ago, testified as prosecution witnesses that the invoices were phony because “they were paying Mr. Wallach to exercise his influence with Ed Meese,” Jacobson reminded jurors.

“Because they headed an enormous criminal conspiracy, these two men know what happened. They were there. And their testimony was corroborated by accountants and other independent witnesses and by many, many documents,” he said.