CIA SUBSIDIZES FOUNDATION AS 'SECRET CONDUIT'

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP75-00149R000600210049-3
Release Decision: 
RIFPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
November 17, 2016
Document Release Date: 
June 10, 1999
Sequence Number: 
49
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
September 1, 1964
Content Type: 
NSPR
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PDF icon CIA-RDP75-00149R000600210049-3.pdf97.1 KB
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{, LJ'D4~ 0.64d'for Release 2000/08/27 : 'QUIREI't 603,439 933,643 Edit Page Other Page lc.te: :SEP 1 1934 4% Subsidizes undation as ' l secret Conduit BY DANIEL RAPON)nT VAS1-1INGTON, Aug. 31 (1t'I). -- Rep Wright Patman drscloscd ,Monday that the Cell-. tral Intelligence Agency had' ^i?,-en money to a private, inundation which he said sere-~ ed as a ""secret conduit" fort. 1' agency. The Texas Democrat quoted' an unidentified CIA official as the intelligence aency; h:id an "arrangement" with the' j).1. Kaplan Fund of New York, C'idv from 1959 until sonic t.inic; this year. A 'D CONFIRMED Ilir Internal Revenue Serv-' Which is investigating thei f nm _ax--tempt status.' datioss_t confirmed' tTiaf the CIA had' :riven financial support to tlie'i i-dcplan Fund. But and IItS' ri nkesman said he knew of no' urking arrangement between- ihe two groups. Patman did not elaborate one i,lr, "etenient that the CIA had ed the fund as a "secret con-: It is known, however,- ha the agency uses existing ounclations, or occasionally cre tcs its own, as vehicles for in-, ring operations. The congressman said he was disclosing the CIA payments to the fund because be felt lie had oecn "trifled with'' in connec- tion with the case- The CIA, fol-' loving its tradition of secrecy, :ad no comment. a few persons in in,gton. A fund spokesman York would make no t ibut d money to charitable, He said he had asked his ~tE~r7a5~0449 ;6Qi021 049-ate specific ticularly in the New York City agency had given months the area. Patnian's subcommittee has been reviewing the tax-exempt in New status of certain foundations to see whether some of them comment Iare taking advantage of it. and indicated that none would he forthcoming, lie would say only that the fund's "philan- thropic activities are quite well known." Mitchell Rogovin, assistant to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, said that until Aug. l0, the date of the last Patman subcommittee hearing on the subject, he was the only pres- ent IRS employe who knew of the CIA-Kaplan relationship. Even the New York district office of the IRS, which is con- ducting the Kaplan investiga- tion, was not aware of CIA's tie-in, Rogovin said. LONG UNDII SCRUTINY Rogovin told Patman on Mon- day he had informed the CIA of the Revenue Service's in- terest in the Kaplan Fund. But he denied there was any ""ar- rangement" among the CIA, the IRS and the fund. If the CIA official told Pat- man otherwise, said Rogovin, "it was a poor choice of words." What seemed to bother Pat- man, apparently, was whether the CIA knew the Kaplan Fund was under the scrutiny of the IRS. PROBER THWARTED He explained Monday that he lead not planned to make pub- lic a matter touching on ""for- eign affairs" but indicated he The Revenue Service has was irked by his difficulty in been examining the Kaplan getting all the information he Fund for several years to de-(wanted about the case. termine whether it should be' permitted to retain its tax-, exempt status. The fund has' money to the foundation, and which CIA individuals had se- lected the fund. The agency did not provide the answers, Patman said. He then decided that breaking a confidence and making the is- sue public was the only way he could get meaningful informa- tion, he added. "I feel I have with," he said. (existed." Patman But Rogovin said he was "a little concerned" about doing so without the CIA's approval or without CIA representatives present. `INTEREST' DISCLAIMED Later in the day, Rogovin and Acting IRS Commissioner Ber- trand 11. Harding met privately with Patman and CIA represen- tatives. Afterwards, Patman said he was convinced that "no matter of interest to the sub- committee relating to the CIA that Kaplan had used the founda tion to further his business em- pire. He identified the financier as former president of thel Welch Grape Juice Co. and of, Southwestern Sugar and Mo-~ lasses Co. i The IRS does not discuss pup-i licly any tax case it is investi-; gating. But Patman asked the; service to supply the addresses and tax-exempt history of eight] foundations he said had con tributed a total of $923,950 toy, the Kaplan Fund between 1961 and 1963. ' "The addresses of these donors are not shown on the fund's tax returns, despite the fact that such information is required by Treasury Regula- tions,"' he. said. The donors were listed as the Gotham Foundation, the Michigan Fund, the Andrew Hamilton Fund, the Borden Trust, the Price Fund, the. Edsel Fund, the Beacon Fund and the Kentfield Fund. Harding said he would try to produce the information for the* subcommittee. TAX AIDS JOLT'EI) 'atm an's disclose at a public :caring of his House Small 13us- r.r?s snbconimitlce was they rre of sonic concern and eni ~,rr assnienl to Internal It", officials attending as %pparcntly, CIA's involve He'll with the Kaplan Furl a SeCApp` t6i/ PlAr Release 2000/08/27 CIA-RDP75-00149R000600210049-3