in San Juan. Peroff turned the tape of this call over to the Subcommittee. It has already been referred to in this staff study (p. 51).

Peroff's account was contradicted by Pinol and another DEA agent, Fortunato Jorge. Under oath in the DEA-Customs inquiry, Pinol said Peroff placed the call to Montreal from the DEA office not July 8 but July 16, the eve of the Peroffs' return to New York. Jorge said Peroff placed the call to Bouchard "a couple of days" before the Peroffs left Puerto Rico.

Jorge said Peroff recorded the conversation with his own taping equipment which Peroff brought into the office in a paper bag. Pinol told him that Peroff would give the tape to DEA personnel in New York, Jorge said. Pinol said Peroff used his own recording equipment and when his talk with Bouchard was over Peroff indicated he would mail or personally deliver the tape to Richard Dos Santos.

DEA Group Supervisor John J. O'Neill testified that he had no knowledge of any July 8 tape. O'Neill said he did not know if Dos Santos heard such a tape (p. 603). Dos Santos said he knew a tape was made at the DEA office in San Juan of Peroff talking to Bouchard and that the date of the recording could have been July 8 but Dos Santos did not say specifically when it was. Dos Santos said Ronald Seibert, the head of the DEA San Juan office, and Octavio Pinol were there when Peroff talked to Bouchard (p. 407).

Seibert said he did not hear the tape, nor was he present when the conversation occurred, but he did check the phone records and established that a call took place July 15.

Dos Santos said Peroff reported to him the substance of this call, the call Peroff claimed occurred July 8. Dos Santos said he wrote no memorandum about this call (pp. 408, 409).

Dos Santos said O'Neill knew the substance of the phone calls Peroff was having in July with Bouchard (p. 414). Dos Santos said he did not know if anyone else at DEA had this information, particularly the Vesco-LeBlanc development (p. 415).

THE DISAGREEMENT OVER THE PRIVATE JET

Richard Dos Santos said he remembered the July 10 three-way telephone conversation in which O'Neill, Peroff and himself talked about having Peroff fly into Costa Rica by commercial aircraft. O'Neill first brought up the commercial airplane idea, Dos Santos said, at a time when Peroff was objecting to having to make the Costa Rica trip. Dos Santos said Peroff was afraid that the government could not adequately protect him in the Central American nation (p. 418).

But when he was questioned in the DEA-Customs investigation, Dos Santos explained that Peroff was only using the excuse of a lack of protection as a ploy to persuade the DEA to give him more money for making the trip to Costa Rica. Dos Santos said he felt Peroff could be talked into going to Costa Rica after all, as long as he could go in a private jet. Conversely, Dos Santos agreed that Peroff was "definitely not going to go commercial" to Costa Rica. Dos Santos explained why in these words:

Peroff felt that, probably based upon his reputation and the large amount of money that was to come out of Costa Rica, it would strain his credibility with the opposite side.

Returning to the money issue, Dos Santos said he felt he knew Peroff's true reason for being reluctant to go to Costa Rica. Peroff had no formal financial relationship with DEA and he hoped to use the Costa Rica trip as a basis to "negotiate a deal", Dos Santos said. (Pp. 419, 420.)

Peroff objected to certain aspects of the April 11 agreement with Customs, Dos Santos said, and anyway DEA had never accepted the April 11 agreement as being a contract DEA had to adhere to. (P. 420.)

So, Peroff, with no job, with the government owing him more than $1,000, with his rent due in six days, was hoping to improve his financial condition. He wanted some formalized contract with DEA. Subcommittee Investigator Philip Manuel commented that this was a "natural position for him to take." (P. 420.) Similarly Dos Santos testified:

If we go back and restudy the history of Peroff with the Customs and other agencies, his main motive, as you have indicated, is money.

If he can get more money or sweeten the pot, he is going to do it. He is going to be somewhat of an obstructionist (p. 419).

It was with Peroff in this frame of mind, Dos Santos said, that John O'Neill "broached the subject of commercial jet." Dos Santos said he was not sure why O'Neill made the proposal (p. 310). But Dos Santos did tell Senators:

I can only suggest to you that he [O'Neill] was concerned about expenditures of monies and wanted to find a cheaper route than the private jet route (p. 311).

THE STATEMENT OF RONALD U. SEIBERT

The chief of the DEA office in San Juan was Ronald U. Seibert. He described his dealings with Peroff in a sworn statement given in the DEA-Customs investigation November 15, 1973.

Richard Dos Santos testified that he was told by Peroff or Octavio Pinol that Seibert was a pilot and, as such, wanted to go along when Peroff engaged the executive jet in the heroin transaction or the flight to Costa Rica (pp. 345, 346). But, in his sworn statement, Seibert made no reference to whether or not he was a pilot or to the possibility that he had wanted at one time to take an active part in Peroff's and Bouchard's smuggling effort.

Seibert said Octavio Pinol briefed him on the Bouchard inquiry and Peroff's role in it about July 3, 1973. Learning that Peroff was to "fly to Italy in the near future" in executing Bouchard's project, Seibert said, he directed Pinol to set up a meeting with Peroff. The meeting, one and one half hours long, was July 10, Seibert said.

Seibert recalled that Peroff told him he had once stayed several weeks in a hotel in Rome where the weekly bill was $2,000. Seibert said Peroff described himself as a pilot who had logged many hours in executive jet aircraft. As for the Bouchard inquiry, Seibert said, Peroff did not mention Robert Vesco but did refer to a man named LeBlanc. Seibert said that in his entire experience with the Bouchard investigation he never heard the name Vesco.

Being without a telephone was a source of concern for Peroff, Seibert said, since it restricted his ability to call Bouchard and Dos Santos. Seibert said he told Peroff he could always use the phone in the DEA office; or he could call from a neighbor's phone and charge the calls to DEA. Seibert said that while they talked, Richard Dos Santos called a neighbor's phone-Normand Chabot's-and asked for Peroff. After Peroff spoke to Dos Santos, Seibert took the phone. Seibert said Dos Santos referred to Peroff as a "con man" forever asking for money. Seibert said that as Peroff was preparing to leave Puerto Rico he authorized government travel orders for Peroff and also arranged for Octavio Pinol to give Peroff $50 in DEA funds to reimburse Normand Chabot for long distance calls Peroff had made from the Chabots' apartment. Seibert said he asked Pinol if he saw Peroff turn the $50 over to Chabot. Pinol "reported negatively," Seibert said. Seibert added that in September of 1973 Normand Chabot asked DEA to pay a $66.45 phone bill Peroff had left unpaid.

Seibert said no reports were written by DEA agents in San Juan about Peroff, Bouchard, LeBlanc "or anyone else involved in the Bouchard investigation." Seibert said this was the responsibility of the New York DEA office. Seibert said he assumed that everything he was being told about the case had already been written up in New York.

THE AFFIDAVITS OF NORMAND AND CHRISTINE CHABOT

Next door to the Peroffs in the Park Plaza Condominium, 100 Isla Verde Drive, San Juan, lived Normand and Christine Chabot. Chabot, a traffic engineer, and his wife now live at 3 Oak Crest Drive, East Brunswick, New Jersey. In March 16, 1974 Subcommittee affidavits, the Chabots said that when they were neighbors of the Peroffs in Puerto Rico Frank Peroff used their phone occasionally.

Normand Chabot said that one mid-July afternoon at 4:45 o'clock he walked into his apartment and found Judy and Frank Peroff there visiting with his wife, Christine. Chabot said Peroff had just recorded a long distance call and was now trying to place another call to New. York to someone Chabot understood to be a U.S. Government official. When Peroff got through to the official in New York, Chabot said, Peroff then played over the phone the tape recording of the previous call. Normand and Christine Chabot said they could hear the tape as it was replayed. They said the other party on the taped conversation. had a French accent. After the tape playback call was completed, the Chabots said, they talked for a while with Judy and Frank Peroff. From what they could recall of the tape playback combined with remarks the Peroffs made to them in discussions, the Chabots said, "it was brought out that Frank Peroff would have to go to Vesco

the money for the narcotics or drugs." The Chabots added that "no further identification of Vesco was mentioned."

Christine Chabot added that Frank Peroff taped several telephone conversations from their phone.

The Chabots said they met DEA Agent Octavio Pinol through his association with Peroff. They said he later came to their apartment and bought some of their furniture. In their affidavits, the Chabots made no reference to whether or not Peroff, or the federal government, paid them for long distance calls charged to their account by Peroff.

IX. THE EVENTS OF JULY 17, 18 AND 19, 1973

FLORIDA AUTHORITIES ASK FOR PEROFF ARREST JULY 19

There were warrants outstanding on Frank Peroff in Florida. The warrants were in connection with two bad checks he was alleged to have written. Federal drug agents had known about the warrants since early 1973 when Peroff became heavily involved in informant work.

On July 19, 1973, the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Orlando sent a telegram to the New York City Police Department. In the wire, the Florida authorities said that the warrants, issued April 7, 1972, were still outstanding and asked New York authorities to arrest Peroff.

A copy of the July 19 wire was made part of the hearing record. The message said that Peroff could be arrested at the Hilton Inn Hotel at Kennedy Airport. The wire said Peroff was in Room 636 and registered under his true name.

On July 22, 1973, Peroff was arrested at the Hilton by New York City Police.

This section of the staff study will now review the events of July 17, 18 and 19 which led to Peroff's arrest.

PEROFF TAKES CASE TO HIGHER AUTHORITY

When DEA Agent Richard Dos Santos left him and his family alone at Kennedy Airport July 17, Peroff said, he became "very confused and very unsure of what to do next." (P. 77.) Peroff said he was certain of only one thing that being, he said, that Conrad Bouchard and others thought him part of their heroin scheme. Both he and his fictitious executive jet were supposed to be standing by for a trip to Costa Rica, Peroff said, explaining, "The big problem here was that I could not sit back and let things cool down." There wasn't time, he said (pp. 77, 78).

"Drastic" action was called for, Peroff concluded. He went to a pay phone at the airport and tried to call Archibald Cox, the Special Watergate Prosecutor. Peroff testified that he failed to reach Cox. But he had made up his mind to keep trying to get through to Washington in the hope, he said, that higher authority would intervene at DEA and get the Bouchard inquiry-and his role in it-back on track. Peroff said he checked his family into a nearby Hilton Inn and kept on making phone calls (p. 77).

Peroff said he tried to contact Customs Commissioner Vernon D. Acree. The Commissioner had helped before in settlement of money owed him by Customs. Maybe Acree would help now, Peroff hoped. But he could not reach Acree either. Peroff said he also asked for John Brockman, who had been Acting Assistant Commissioner for Investigations at Customs. But Brockman was not available (p. 78).