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10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Booth Nichols.md
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@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ Robert Booth Nichols was born in the [[United States]] on March 3, 1943.[^5] He
In September 1987 the FBI's [[Los Angeles]] division opened an investigation of Nichols, who, "acting through Meridian, was suspected of being involved in organized crime"; it was led by Special Agent [[Thomas Gates]], who learned that Nichols "had potential illegal contacts with individuals in both Japan and Australia" and pursued them through the FBI's legal attachés there. On June 16, 1989, Nichols's company, [[Meridian International Logistics]], sued Gates in California state court for eleven million dollars for libel, slander and interference with contracts, alleging that he had told the Australian Federal Police and others that Meridian was involved in organized crime and fraud; the former FBI agent [[Ted Gunderson]] filed a declaration that such foreign contacts "would never, under FBI policies, be initiated by an agent assigned to the Los Angeles field office." The government substituted itself for Gates, and on July 19, 1991, the Ninth Circuit reversed the dismissal of the suit.[^2]
According to [[Cheri Seymour]], the FBI investigated Meridian as "a source of funding for the purchasing of narcotics/controlled substances"; [[Eugene Giaquinto]], president of the home entertainment division of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]], sat on its board, and FBI wiretaps on MCA recorded his calls with Nichols.[^1] Gates swore in a 72-page affidavit to a federal court on an FBI wiretap of figures in the entertainment industry suspected of organized-crime ties; the House Judiciary Committee, which heard from Gates that the threads of Casolaro's inquiry led to "a single individual, Robert Booth Nichols," took "no position on any of Gates' assertions or suppositions vis-a-vis Nichols, except to note again that they were duly sworn statements."[^3]
According to [[Cheri Seymour]], the FBI investigated Meridian as "a source of funding for the purchasing of narcotics/controlled substances"; [[Eugene Giaquinto]], president of the home entertainment division of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]], sat on its board, and FBI wiretaps on MCA recorded his calls with Nichols.[^1] Gates swore in a 72-page affidavit to a federal court on an FBI wiretap of figures in the entertainment industry suspected of organized-crime ties; the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]], which heard from Gates that the threads of Casolaro's inquiry led to "a single individual, Robert Booth Nichols," took "no position on any of Gates' assertions or suppositions vis-a-vis Nichols, except to note again that they were duly sworn statements."[^3]
### Allegations