Plea Bargain Possible for Ex-Hughes Vice President : Court: The former aerospace executive is charged with with routing $300,000 in illegal payments to a top official of an international satellite consortium.

A federal court hearing in Washington is scheduled today in the criminal case of former Hughes Aircraft Vice President Paul Visher, who has been discussing a plea agreement with federal prosecutors and may enter a guilty plea as early as today, according to court records and sources close to the case.

Visher was charged in U.S. District Court in Washington last year with routing $300,000 in illegal payments from Hughes Aircraft to a top official of an international satellite consortium in an effort to gain the organization’s goodwill in the sale of Hughes’ spacecraft.

The 10-count indictment brought last September alleges that Visher authorized payments to several consultants in South America, who then passed the money back to Jose L. Alegrett, former deputy director of Intelsat, a multi-government consortium that operates a fleet of communications satellites.

Visher, 69, a resident of Gearhart by the Sea, Ore., could not be reached for comment. Visher, formerly of Malibu, worked for Hughes from 1956 to 1987. He served as deputy assistant secretary of defense in 1961 and 1962.

Visher’s attorney, Leonard Greenbaum, said last week that “there is nothing firm yet” with respect to a plea agreement. But sources close to the case said they expected the agreement to be entered today.

Visher and the U.S. attorney’s office filed a motion last month stating that the “parties have resolved most of the key issues that would result in pretrial disposition of this matter,” but the government had to secure approvals to the agreement.

The sources said a trial in the case is unlikely.

A Hughes spokesman said at the time of the indictment that Hughes did not expect to be charged. He added that Hughes had assisted in the investigation since 1987.

The indictment alleges that between 1974 and 1986--years when Hughes was seeking to sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of satellites to Intelsat--Alegrett received 200 monthly checks that totaled $300,000. In return for those payments, Hughes received “goodwill” and “information,” the indictment alleged.

Nonetheless, Hughes failed to sell any of the satellites.

But the indictment also alleges that Visher and Alegrett obstructed justice after Hughes and federal authorities began their investigation by creating false reports from the consultants to suggest that the money had been paid for legitimate purposes. The indictment alleges that the two men forged signatures on the reports.

Finally, the indictment says Visher caused the phony reports to be submitted to a grand jury in response to a subpoena.