LAWYER HERE IS INDICTED AS AGENT FOR TRUJILLO

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000300200021-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 15, 1998
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: May 14, 1957
• Content Type: NSPR

AL r
anied - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-0000
CPYRGH
T
Lawyer Here Islndicted
As Agent forTrujillo
John Joseph Frank, a 42-year-old Washington attorney, w o
at one time worked for the FBI and the super-secret Central I -
telligence Agency, was indicted here yesterday by a Federal gra
jury on charges of illegally acting as an agent for Generalissi o
Trujillo and the Dominican Republic.
The four-count indictment charged
lawyer, a graduate of the,
.Georgetown University Law
School, with; acting as an agent
for a foreign power without reg-
istering with the Justice De-
partment, a violation of the For-
eign Agents Registration Act of
19313.
It was issued by a District
Court grand jury, which -al-
legedly is probing the mysteri-
ous disappearances last year of
Jesus de Galindez, a Columbia
University professor? and out-
spoken political enemy of the
generalissimo, dictator of the
Dominican Republic, and Gerald
L. Murphy, a 23-year-old Ameri-
can pilot,
The professor, 42, vanished
one night in March, 1956, after
leaving his classroom at the uni-
versity in New York City. The
pilot, an employe of a Domini-
can Republic airline, has not
been seen since last December 3
in Ciudad Trujillo, where at
least one account pictured him
as boasting loudly that he knew
the details of the professor's
disappearance.
Arrested by FBI
Frank, who agents said lives of
7608 Columbia pike, Alexandria,
and used to have offices in the
800 block of Fifteenth street
iN.W., was arrested by three
agents of the FBI as he walked
with his attorney, Edward L.
Carey, at Seventeenth and I,
streets N.W. about 4 p,rft. It was:
just two months ago, on March
12, that he had appeared before
the grand jury.
Two of the four counts charged
Frank, "also known as John
Kane," with agreeing to act as
an agent and "solicited and ac-
the lean, stony-faced
cepted compensation" and "di -
bursed and dispensed mone
from and for the Dominican R -
public and "has unlawfully a d
wilfully "failed to 'file (as
agent of -a foreign principal) wi
the Attorney General. , . '
The other two charge +" e
acted within the United Stat s
and "within the District if
Columbia and elsewhere ..." s
an agent for Trujillo and "soli -
ited and accepted compensati q
from" the generalissimo.
The grand jury charged he h d
been in the business for thr
years, since May, 1954.
Pleads Not Guilty
Frank was arraigned at 5:
p.m., before District Court Jud
Richmond B. Keech. He e
tered a plea of not guilty.
trial date was set.
The arraignment was spark
by a vigorous dispute cover
ing bond, which the judge final 11
set at $10,000. It was post
shortly thereafter, and Frank if -
f
the courthouse with Mr. Car
and a second attorney.
Nathan B. Lenvin, a Just
Department attorney in char
of the grand jury investig&ti
had asked Judge Keech t
the bond at $25,000 on grond
that the case "has internationa
ramifications" and that Fran
might "flee the country."
"The Government knows," h
declared, "that the accused ha
made frequent trips" to Ne
York, Florida and the Dominica
Republic and may want to d
so again.
Mr. Carey replied that as
former FBI agent and as a mem
ber. of the District Bar Associa
JOHN JOSEPH FRANK
Indicted
- -AP Photo
Lion, Frank is "the most faithful
client I have ever had, and he'll
show up anytime anywhere he is
wanted."
No Comment
Outside the courtroom, Frank
referred all questions by report-I
ers to his attorney. Mr. Carey
said "no comment, no comment
at all."
The FBI said Frank, tall anti
ruddy, is a native of New Brit-
ain, Conn. He obtained his first
diploma at Georgetown in 1938
and his law degree in 1941.
He joined the Justice Depart-
ment on July 7, 1941, and served
as a special agent through May
FOIAb3b
went into private
department said,
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover,
in announcing Frank's arrest,
said the bureau investigation re-
vealed that the accused had
been acting as an unregistered
"attorney" .for Trujillo and the
Dominican Republic since "mid-
CPYRGHT
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000300200021-0