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2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992

20 May 1971

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

SUBJECT: Robert D. Peloquin, President

International Intelligence, Inc. (INTERTEL)

839 17th Street, N. W.

Washington, D. C. 20006

Telephone: (202) 638-2179

The undersigned, seeking an employment opportunity in

the District of Columbia area or in California, was introduced

to Mr. Peloquin on May 10, 1971 by former Agency employee,

(Alfred A. Pease) who is currently employed by INTERTEL.

This unique corporation, probably created in 1970, first

came to the attention of the undersigned when it was publicized

in The Wall Street Journal on May 4, 1970. There had been an

earlier article on April 26, 1970 in the financial section of The

Sunday New York Times. The new concern has its headquarters

in Washington, D. C. at the

above address which also serves as

the location of Mr. Peloquin's law firm. The Executive Vice

President, John D. O'Connell, a former FBI agent and friend

of the undersigned, maintains his office at 375 Park Avenue,

New York City.

At the time of the first publicity, Mr. Peloquin said "His

organization will seek to provide the necessary guidance and

information to help legitimate companies from blundering into

mergers, joint ventures or acquisitions with concerns secretly

controlled by the Mafia and other mobsters." For the past

several years, Mr. Peloquin, as Vice President of the corpora-.

tion which controls INTERTEL, Resorts International, Inc., had

been in charge of security for Resorts' owned gambling casino on

Paradise Island in the Bahamas. He further said that the execu-

tives of INTERTEL, did not "serve as detectives, " they will be

consultants only.

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The original publicity disclosed that in addition to Washington

and New York INTERTEL would open offices in Chicago, Los Angeles,

Philadelphia, and Canada. Just how many of these offices are pre-

sently opened and active is not known, but it is understood from(A103

Pease that the Philadelphia office will not be opened because of the

fact that Mr. J. Shane Creamer is the Pennsylvania Attorney General

under a Democratic administration. Creamer was former head of

the Pennsylvania Crime Commission. Just why INTERTEL made

this change is not known but it would appear that they want no part

of Mr. Creamer.

In spite of the initial publicity that INTERTEL executives

were not would be "detectives," it would appear that since December

of 1970 much of their active staff working out of the D. C. office

have in fact become just exactly that. INTERTEL was engaged by

the Hughes Tool Company to conduct a sweeping and exhaustive inves-

tigation into the affairs and past activities of Robert A. Maheu. Four

or five years ago the Hughes Tool Company (Howard Hughes himself) -

allegedly entered into an oil contract with Robert A. Maheu Associates

to perform a variety of services apparently undefined for the amount

of $525,000 per year. Before the end of 1970 Maheu's contract was

rescinded and attorneys for the Hughes Tool Company moved quickly

to remove him from authority in the Nevada Operations.

According

to the newspapers this was done at the express request of Mr. Hughes

himself. Preliminary litigation appalled this removal but shortly

after the first of the year Maheu filed a suit against the Hughes Tool

Company for $50 million to which he said he was entitled as damages

for the cancellation of his "lifetime contract."

It is doubtful that there was any connection between INTERTEL

and the Hughes Tool Company prior to early 1971. They were engaged

as an investigative unit under a temporary contract to protect the

assets of the Hughes Tool Company and to determine just exactly

what Robert A. Maheu was up to. The first contract was temporary

and indefinite but currently they are operating under a recently

executed five year contract. Howard Hughes reportedly is living

in one of the Bahaman hotels owned or operated by Resorts Inter-.

national.

There are those in Las Vegas who do not look on INTERTEL

as the "good guys" on the local scene. The suave, popular Mr.

Maheu, even though he was discharged and removed by the Hughes

Tool Company, remains a popular figure winning considerable

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political influence in the county as opposed to the city of Las Vegas

itself. Maheu is being vociferously defeated by the leading local

newspaper, The Las Vegas Sun. President and Publisher Herman

M. Greenspun has just concluded a series in The Sun in which he

alleges that INTERTEL is in fact a front and instrumentally of

organized crime--shocking if true, but not wholly impossible.

The working staff for INTERTEL in Vegas is made up predominantly

of ex-FBI agents and recently retired employees of the Internal

Revenue Service. Peloquin himself is the former Chief of the

Justice Department's Crime Strike Force, but little if anything

has been publicized regarding the principles for controlling elements

of Resorts International and its other subsidiaries. In January 1969

Resorts International made a bold yet futile move to seise control

of Pan American World Airways by purchasing a 9. 7 per cent stock

interest. Pan Am naturally screamed and rushed to CAB for advice

and support.. The intercession of CAB was effective but it is believed

that Resorts International did acquire perhaps half the stock that it

had originally intended to purchase. The index for The Wall Street

Journal for 1969 lists many references to Resorts International

including one in October of that year regarding some bad publicity

Resorts had received as a result of their management of the gambling

casino on Paradise Island. There should be an abundance of other

public information available about Resorts, its officers and principle

investors with CAB, SEC and even the American Stock Exchange

since it is a public corporation.

Snagging the Hughes Tool Company contract to investigate

Robert A. Maheu Associates was certainly opportune and the

contract is reported to run upward to a million dollars but the

company's current role investigating Maheu seems inconsistent

with its declared purpose unless Maheu himself is suspected of

having been in touch with or ensnared by the Mafia.

Local allegations and publicity by The Las Vegas Sun could

be ignored as irrelevent and as having no bearing on the Maheu-CLA

relationship. Whether the allegations are evidence, it probably

would be advisable to read this

series of articles carefully.

There

is

a current rumor similar in nature to Greenspun's

allegations that recently was indirectly brought to the undersigned's

attention during the week of May 10th. A D. C. attorney, Bernard

Fensterwald, 947 15th Street, N.W., Washington, D. C. commented

to a friend, "It looks like may be the good guys (INTERTEL) are in

fact the bad guys with the Mafia connections." Fensterwald did not

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mention The Las Vegas Sun series but claimed that The Miami

Herald and The Washington Post were both about to break stories

linking INTERTEL with organized crime.

When Maheu hurriedly relinquished his palatial offices

which occupied one whole wing of the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas,

according to (Al Pease, he took ten or twelve packing crates of

records with him. In his haste, however, he appeared to over-

look a box of 3 x 5 cards that were cross references to some of

these records. The INTERTEL investigation, under the guidance

of (Pease) and the Hughes Tool Company attorneys, will undertake

to establish as nearly as possible exactly what Maheu was doing

with his time and with the Hughes fortune. The Hughes attorneys

are proceeding on the basis that if Maheu in fact did have a

"contract for life," as he contends, then the Hughes Tool Company

was entitled to 100 per cent of his time and "true and faithful ser-

vice." At the outset and without the records the INTERTEL staff

hardly knew where to look or to begin since they suspected kick-

backs, siphoning of money into foreign numbered bank accounts

and the purchase of false mining claims, just to name a few.

Such investigation is costly and tedious but INTERTEL hopes to

develop and reconstruct Maheu's pattern of activity from the date

he gave up all of his other clients to work for the Hughes Tool

Company (Howard Hughes) exclusively. Therefore they will

thoroughly scrutinize any and all private deals, foreign or domestic,

looking for concealed assets, evidence of kickbacks or foreign

numbered bank accounts, etc.

to accomplish Maheu's removal, has been slow.

that the Hughes Tool Company lawyers were in court in Las Vegas

on April 18-20, 1971 but additional action or proceedings have been

set down for June 25, 1971 and so it will probably ad infinitum.

With Hughes resources he can hold out forever but the general

consensus is that Maheu is already beginning to feel the financial

pinch. Pease reported that a recent new business, a consulting

service opened by Maheu in Las Vegas, had flopped. It would

appear that Maheu first became indirectly associated with Howard

Hughes in the early 1950's at a time when Hughes was entangled

in extended Senate hearings with the then Senator Brewster of

Maine. Maheu did some subcontract investigative work developing

material which Mr. Hughes used during these hearings. If it has

any significance or bearing to any current problems, Mr. (Roberto3

J. Flynn,) a former Agency employee, could supply all details

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regarding this part of Maheu's life. It was Flynn) who informed

the undersigned some months ago that when Maheu secured

employment with the former public administration in the 1950's

his sponsor was Senator Margaret Chase Smith.

Some time in the early 1960's Maheu closed his D. C.

office, picked up Hughes as a sole client and moved to Los Angeles.

The undersigned is aware of this because he was in touch with

him during the period 1962-1964.

simultaneously the undersigned

was working out the details of a(nonofficial cover arrangement

with the Aircraft Division of the Hughes Tool Company in Culver

City, California. Mr. Rhea Hopper, Vice President in Charge

of the Aircraft Division was the principle cleared witting official.

It is doubtful that details of this arrangement ever reached

Mr. Hughes himself but because of Maheu's significant role

he was cut in as a pickup for insurance. The undersigned did

this himself. The investigative staff of INTERTEL will not be

in this Maheu investigation alone. Already they have turned

certain significant information over to the Internal Revenue Service.

Mr. William A. Kolar, retired Director of the IRS Intelligence

Division, is part of the INTERTEL staff on the scene in Vegas.

The name of Edward P. Morgan, a former FBI agent

and prominent D. C. attorney, was mentioned by Mr. (Pease, 93

It seems that at some undisclosed date Morgan was engaged by

the Hughes Tool Company. This would have no particular

significance except for two things. (1) Morgan is one of Maheu's

closest friends and business associates. (They had their heads

together in 1963 in a deal under which they and other investors

were trying to gain control of a large Los Angeles radio station

that had its license rescinded by FCC). (2) (Pease) said that

Morgan is still in the wings making noises to certain unnamed

Hughes Tool Company officials to the effect that they had better

take it easy on Maheu because of the past involvement with CIA

in covert operations. Mr. @ease)did not say exactly where he

got his information and of course being uninformed was unable

to appreciate its significant. It is not known whether Morgan

still represents the Hughes Tool Company in any capacity but

03 Al Pease disclosed privately to the undersigned that for past

services Morgan had been paid almost a million dollars.

INTERTEL has studied several approaches to Morgan through

ex-FBI channels to discuss this veiled threat but he has not

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been approached. •Certainly this is a strange arrangement if

it has been allowed to continue. The Hughes Tool Company.

would do well to drop Morgan completely. As INTERTEL

attempted to interview him it's doubtful that it would be produc-

tive. Just what Morgan might have to do if served with a subpoena

is beyond the undersigned's comprehension. It seems reasonable

to assume that Morgan picked up the Hughes Tool Company account

through his good friend Maheu or his intercession. Naturally the

INTERTEL investigators did not find a folder bearing the name

Edward P. Morgan but they did find a 3 x 5 card indicating that

there had been such a file. This prompting of Morgan and his

approach to the Hughes Tool Company could only have come from

one source, Maheu himself. Because he is attorney for the Hughes

Tool Company, Morgan could not have been involved. It may never

be known just how much Maheu has already told Morgan about his

CIA relationship.

and Jack at 10, To ay ed cota mate re to a to e

involved together in some oil mix deals. INTERTEL is looking

into this and all such other similar matters to trace the source

and disposition of funds. The recent expose by Jack Anderson

regarding Maheu's role in the Cuban Revolution was a deliberate

exposure instigated by Robert A. Maheu using his son Peter as

an intermediary."fease's theory was that Maheu probably thought

such publicity would "scare them off." The INTERTEL staff is

aware of a series of recent contacts and meetings between Peter

Maheu and Jack Anderson or a member of his staff.

Mr. (Pease)is prepared to be reasonable in his investiga-

tion insofar as CIA interests

are concerned but he cannot be

intimidated, cannot ignore logical leads, and will not allow Maheu

to use the Agency as a shield. He is prepared to discuss any

reasonable approach.

In conclusion the undersigned respectfully requests that

herein. Much of it was volunteered by an old friend,

his name sot be connected with any of the information As Pease) °3

in confidence and this confidence must be respected.

Whether

an employment offer is forthcoming is inconsequential.

John G. Southard

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