Ex-Military Brass Reject Allen’s CIA Claim

People who say they were defrauded by a Newport Beach businessman they say masqueraded as a war hero put three retired military officers, including two generals, on the stand Thursday to dispute claims that he flew secret missions for the CIA and was shot down in Laos.

The former officers, including Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord and Brig. Gen. Harry C. Aderholt, systematically rebutted testimony by insurance executive Edgar Dale Allen that his plane was downed during a top-secret Air Force-CIA mission in 1963 and that he was held prisoner.

Secord, who held a variety of Air Force posts in Southeast Asia from 1962 to 1968, called Allen’s story “simply not credible.”

There is no mention of the mission or Allen’s captivity in his Air Force personnel file, nor was his name ever found among the thousands of names on official government POW lists. Allen, 69, contends the mission remains classified and has refused to speak in detail about it, claiming national security.

Several people who entrusted Allen with some of their life’s savings have testified that Allen spun tales of war heroism, of attaining the rank of colonel (his file shows he retired as a captain), and of earning a Harvard law degree to entice them into giving him money he said would be invested in annuities.

About a dozen investors have claimed in court documents that they were defrauded by Allen and his American Life Underwriters. They are asking Judge Robert W. Alberts to deny a bankruptcy petition that Allen has filed and to order Allen to repay them.

Allen and his attorney, Theodor Albert, argue that the investors’ funds were unsecured loans lost as a consequence of a failed business.

Allen filed for bankruptcy in 1997, listing about $2 million in secured and unsecured debts.

Allen said outside of court that Thursday’s testimony was skewed. He said CIA and Air Force officials would testify later in the trial on his behalf. He declined to name them.

“We’re going to have some very, very big people coming in,” Allen said.

Alberts ordered Allen to testify at 9 a.m. today about his alleged military and CIA activities. After Allen protested that lives could be endangered by the testimony, the judge agreed to allow him to be questioned in the judge’s chamber.

B.G. Burkett of Dallas, renowned for exposing fraudulent claims of veterans, coordinated the array of military might testifying Thursday. Burkett has testified twice previously in Allen’s bankruptcy trial, which began a year ago.

Attorney William R. Kennon, representing investors Jon and Jolene Illingworth of Tustin and several others, said he hopes to prove that Allen concocted bogus stories as a device to commit fraud.

“There are a whole bunch of real patriots who have gone out of their way to come here today and testify about someone who they can’t imagine is telling the truth,” Kennon said. “There’s nobody anywhere that has any information that supports [Allen].”

Among those casting doubt on Allen’s claims was Aderholt, an Air Force officer in charge of CIA air operations in Southeast Asia from 1959 to 1962. He also created the military’s Joint Personnel Recovery Center in Saigon in 1965, which eventually accounted for all military and CIA prisoners of war and those missing in action during the Vietnam War, he testified.

He said the list of downed fliers does not include Allen, an Air Force pilot. If Allen had been shot down as claimed, he would be on the list, Aderholt testified.

“No one who has claimed to be on the list and wasn’t has ever validated [that claim],” Aderholt testified. “There would be a record of anyone who was taken prisoner and came back.”

Secord, who headed tactical air operations in Laos from 1966 to 1968, said he was in charge of establishing the radar site in Laos where Allen claimed he was shot down.

In earlier testimony, Allen said that he was the “project officer” responsible for building the radar site in 1963. Secord said the radar wasn’t installed until 1967 and that he’d never seen or heard of Allen.

Another witness, Ed Dearborn, was in charge of CIA flights through Air America in Laos in 1964, and similarly testified that he never heard of Allen or knew about any crash involving a CIA mission in 1963.

The final witness, retired Col. John Oberg, commanded the Hickam Air Force Base unit that Allen claimed to have been assigned to in 1963 when the alleged secret mission occurred. Oberg said Allen was not a member of the Hawaii-based unit, but may have assisted unit personnel with duties such as obtaining sleeping quarters and food for pilots who landed at Hickam.

Oberg also rejected Allen’s claims that the unit flew top-secret U-2 spy missions over Laos. He said the unit had no aircraft of its own and participated in no secret operations.

The trial is scheduled to end next week. Allen has since opened a new company, Mega Agency Group, run out of the former offices of American Life Underwriters.