Ex-Officer at Hughes Unit Pleads Guilty : Aerospace: Paul Visher was accused of funneling illegal payments to a foreign consortium that was considering Hughes spacecraft.
Paul Visher, a former Hughes Aircraft corporate vice president, pleaded guilty Monday in connection with federal criminal charges that he funneled illegal payments to an international satellite consortium that was considering the purchase of Hughes spacecraft.
Under a plea agreement with the U.S. attorney in Washington, Visher--who was indicted in September--pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice. Sentencing was scheduled for March 12.
Elsewhere Monday, a former Hughes engineer was sentenced on kickback charges, and the company and a former manager were arraigned on conspiracy charges.
Visher, 69, is among the highest-ranking aerospace executives in Southern California to plead guilty to criminal charges. A Hughes employee from 1956 to 1987, he was a member of the Hughes policy board, a group of about 40 top executives at the company. Visher left Hughes briefly to serve as deputy assistant secretary of defense in 1961 and 1962.
Now a resident of Gearhart by the Sea, Ore., he could not be reached for comment.
Visher was charged in U.S. District Court in Washington 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 alleged that Visher authorized 200 monthly payments to several consultants in South America. The consultants, it alleged, then passed the money to Jose L. Alegrett, former deputy director of Intelsat, a multi-government consortium that operates a fleet of communications satellites.
The indictment also alleged 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 alleged that the two men forged signatures on the reports.
Finally, the indictment accused Visher of causing the phony reports to be submitted to a grand jury in response to a subpoena.
The plea agreement reached Monday provides Visher with broad immunity from further prosecution, sources said.
Separately, former Hughes engineer Donald Wright was given a $5,000 fine and three years probation after his guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to charges that he solicited kickbacks from Orange County subcontractors in exchange for qualifying them as Hughes suppliers on defense programs.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Stephen Mansfield said Wright laundered the kickbacks through a business known as Glenda’s Cleaning Co., which he operated from his home.
In the same court, Hughes Aircraft and former Hughes manager Donald Anthony LaRue were arraigned on federal charges that they participated in a conspiracy to falsify tests on electronic components at the Hughes Microelectronics Circuits division in Newport Beach. Both parties pleaded not guilty, Assistant U.S. Atty. George Newhouse said.
