A KEY POLISH BANKER DEFECTS; LINKED TO SPYING FOR WARSAW

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606760005-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: October 22, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 :CIA-RDP90-005528000606760005-3
NEW YORK TIMES
~:R:ICi:T"? APP+'rRED 22 OCTOBER 1982
OPT PAGE -"~
A. ~~y Polish Banker ~efe
finked to Spying f or ~-~tlar~aw
By HQWARD BLUM
The highest-ranlring Polish banker is told friends he had been schecitiled to re-
i the United States, who American ot5- turn to Poland in August, had vanished.
cials say was also a Polish spy, has de- The mystery surrounding Mr. Tree-
; fected to this country, axording to Gw- mean was heightened when officials at
ernment offidals and intelligence Bask Handlawy, responding to inquir-. ~
.sources. ; ies from business associates, said they
The banker, Andrzej Treumaaa, and ~ did not know Mr. T`reumann's where-
his wife and daughter are is P~~~"e ~~ shouts.
ctutody in the Washington area while At the time, neighbors in the Flushing
he is interviewed by agents of the Cen- I apartment house ? where the banker
tsal lmelligeace Agency sad the Fed-'i bv~ ~d the T*K~R+Ann family had not
ersl Bureau of investigation, according been saes for weeks.
to Government offidals who have had ~ is ),ate August, however, Bank Hand-
accxss to debriefing reports.. ~ lawy mailed a anasentence notice to
Mr. T~eumann was the repns~seeata- American basks stating that Mr. Treu-
j Lve in North America of Beak Hand- ~ mean bad "terminated his activities as
lowy, the foreigA-trade bank that man-', our represeatsttve in the United
' ages the bulk of Poland's debt to the i ~ States,"
W est. He lived with his family in Flush- ~ Calls at the time to Mr. TYeumaan's
i ing, Queens, and his office was at 406 ;apartment were answered by Eugene
Park Avenue. ` Szewczyk, who Baia he had temporarily
Loading a Double Lice
The details of Mr. Tr+eumann's espio-
nage activities and the reasons for his
decision to defect are tightly guarded
secrets.
Otfidals said they gild not discuss
the case on the record because it in-
wlved inteIligencematters.
However, based an interviews with
Government otfidals, Mr. 'IYeumana'S
associates in internatiaara] banking sad
his neighbors in Queens, a picture
emerges of a cor~deatious banker who
~Fas apparently leading two lives.
Those two lives apparently began to
unravel to late July. Mr. T~eumana
stopped going to the office, and reparrts
began dreulating is the banking oont-
muniry that Mr. Tr+ettmaan, who had
replaced Mr. Tr eumaan as Bank Hand- .
lowy's representative. Mr. Szewcryk
has since been replaced by another offi-
dal, Vladimir Lewida.
United States Government offidals
now oontlrm that Mr. Treumann, who
acted as a representative is the negotia-
tions aver the rescheduling of the pay-
ment of Poland's S26 billion debt to the
West, has defected.
'Pleasant, Open Fellow'
Mr. Treumean joins a growing list of
his coimtrgmen who have defected to
the United States since martial law was
declared in Poland. These defectors in-
clude the former Ambassador to the
United States, Romuald Spasowski, and
the former Ambassador to Japan,
Zdzislaw Rurarz.
Mr. Treumena's defection, according
to these offidals, is particularly sigaifi-
cast since Mr. TYnvmsaa, who has been
in New York for two and a half years,
was also a highly Placed spy for the Poi-
ish intelligence service.
Charles F. Meissaer, a State Depart-
.. went negotiator in the loan discussions
with Polish officials, described Mr.
Treumann as "a very Pleasant, open
fellow" whose function appeared to be
"more of a conduit than a policy
player,"
'Used to Annoy Hardlioe:s'
A backer who has known Mr. Tree--
maaafor many yea. gave a similar de-
scription: "Andrzej Treumaan's per-
sonalitysad style are very western ori-
ented. He had a candid sad open style of
doing business in the Nest rather rhea
the Eastern European style of subter-
fuge and game playing. He used to
annoy the hardliners, his masers, with
his style sad his easy t9T}fit{?~ry wlth
westerners." .
Mr. Treumaan came to New York is
1979 to open the North American ot5ce
of Bank Haadlowy, with headquarters
rin Warsaw, Bank Haadlowly is the com-
mercial bank that, under the guidance
of the Polish Ministry of Finance, has
handled the negodatioas over resche-
duling the payment of Poland's foreign
debt. Poland owes about t26 billion to
Western governments and banks, in-
cluding 51.6 billion to the Federal Gvv-
ernment and SI.4 billion to American
hanks.
Before opening the office, Mr. Tree-
mann had been a senior ofSdal 01 the
bank in Warsaw, sad American offi-
cials said Mr. Treumaan had had a?
hand in arranging some of the larger
Western loan to Poland in the mid-
1970's. He is listed in a directory of Pol-
ish officials, published by the C.I.A. in
1879, as holding the post of deputy direct
for of general operations as of July 1978.
Mr. Treumaaa, who is believed to be
in his early 40's, lived wfth his family at
the Skyline Towers apartment building
at 43.23 Coldea Street.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 :CIA-RDP90-005528000606760005-3