Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 12, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 12, 1973
[00.52.10] Mr. EDMISTEN. Now, Mr. Stans, I do not want to drag this out but I think the committee does want to know something about all of the allegations that, have 'been made regarding four SO- so-called Mexican checks, $89,000 drawn on a Mexican bank account,. I think it is time, for you in your own words to describe what you know about, that, what you did about it, and who you discussed the matters about it with. Mr. STANS. I will be, happy to tell you because I do not think the full story has ever been. told in one place before. This is my recollection of the sequence of events. On April 3 of last year, I received a telephone call from Bill Liedtke, who was then our finance chairman in the State of Texas. He said, "I have a U.S. citizen residing in Texas, who is a prospective contributor for $100,000, but he wants to give it in U.S. funds that are now in Mexico, I this Is this legal?" I said, "I am quite sure it is, but let me check again and I will call you back." I checked with our counsel, found out it was perfectly legal for a U.S. citizen to give any foreign funds he. wanted, and called back to Liedtke and told him so. Now, the next thing that I knew about the transaction was after April 22, when I came back from a vacation, and at a meeting I learned from Mr. Sloan that on April 5, Mr. Liedtke's representative, Roy Winchester, had brought, to Washington to the Committee $100,000 in the form of a contribution from an unnamed person; that it was in the form of checks drawn on American banks, by a Mexican bank; that he was not sure 'how to handle checks of that nature; and that he set, them aside. They had clearly arrived before, the change in the law on April 7. He set them aside to talk to counsel for the committee and did so the following week. The committee counsel suggested that they be, reconverted into cash, into dollars, and took the checks from Sloan for that purpose. So when I got back from my vacation, as I said, I found out about the checks, I found out he had given them to counsel, and I found out that the proceeds of the checks had not yet been returned. At this point, I was of the understanding that, the four checks totaled $100,000, and I did not know until I read in Time magazine somewhere along the line there that the four checks totaled only $89,000 and that $11,000 of the, $100,000 was in currency. Now, from here on, I have to quote what Mr. Sloan -said, because I had not seen the checks nor did I see the proceeds of the checks conic back to him. But according to him, the proceeds of the checks came back to him less a collection fee of $2,500 that was imposed on it, and he held the Money and included it in a bank deposit that was made on May 25. Now, that is my recollection of the transaction. You may have other questions about it. Mr. EDMISTEN. No, I will leave those for the Senators. -Mr. STANS. I would like to point out, though, that the General Accounting Office has concluded that the funds were properly received before April 7 and that, there was no requirement to report them. Mr. EDMISTEN. Now, what. did you have to do with the so-called Dahlberg check? You received checks, did you not, from Mr. Dahlberg? Mr. STANS. Yes. May I recite the details of that transaction as I Understand it" Mr. EDMISTEN. Yes. Mr. STANS. Kenneth Dahlberg, as I recollect it, was a member of the early finance committee working in the State Minnesota and living in Florida, in a hotel that he owned. As I understand it from Dahlberg, somewhere around as early as January, Andreas said: "I want to help the, President's campaign and I will give you $25,000 when you got around to it." He confirmed that to Dahlberg in February. In March, on the 12th, and this I get from Andreas, he decided to get the money in hand and he decided to make the contribution in cash because he was a close friend of Hubert Humphrey and a contributor to Humphrey's campaign as well as a friend of the President, and he wanted to achieve all the' anonymity he could achieve. On March 12, he instructed his secretary to get together $25,000 of money, which he did, from a tax-paid account, and put, it in an envelope to be given to, Mr. Dahlberg on the 15th of March at a meeting of a board of directors of a bank of which both Dahlberg and Andreas were directors. Unfortunately, on the 14th, Dahlberg found suddenly that he had to go to Europe to deal with the affairs of an affiliated company there, and he could not attend the meeting. So Andreas continued to hold the money in an envelope. [00.58.54]