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The_Info_Web/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Michael Riconosciuto.md

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category created updated tags aliases summary relations
Technologists 2024-04-25 2026-10-15
KeyFigure
Person
PROMIS
CIA
Octopus
Cabazon
Inslaw
DrugTrafficking
Michael Riconosciuto
Michael James Riconosciuto
Michael J. Riconosciuto
Michael Riconosciuto is a computer scientist and convicted methamphetamine manufacturer who claimed to have modified PROMIS software for a Wackenhut-Cabazon venture and became a central source for Danny Casolaro's Octopus investigation.
type with start end role fn
participant_in Cabazon Security Corporation 1981 1984 claimed to be Director of Research in his March 21, 1991 affidavit; the Bua report found no employment by Wackenhut or the venture 5
type with role fn
partner_of Robert Booth Nichols partners in Meridian Arms, per Seymour 1
type with role fn
partner_of Dr. John Philip Nichols business relationship at the Cabazon venture, per the Bua report 9
type with role fn
contractor_to First Intercontinental Development Corporation technical advisor, per Seymour 1
type with role fn
relative_of Marshall Riconosciuto father 1
type with role fn
spouse_of Bobby Riconosciuto wife 1
type with reverse start end role fn
investigated Nicholas J. Bua true 1991 1993 special counsel's inquiry into his INSLAW allegations 19
type with reverse start end role fn
prosecuted Department of Justice true 1991 1992 federal narcotics prosecution in Tacoma, Washington; convicted January 1992 34
type with reverse start end role fn
represented Thomas Olmstead true 1992 1992 trial counsel in Tacoma 34
type with reverse start end role fn
represented John Rosellini true 1991 1991 attorney after the March 1991 arrest, at the time of the April 1991 congressional interview 29
type with start role fn
partner_of Ben Kalka 1982 business ties at R & R Research, per Seymour 14

Michael Riconosciuto is a computer scientist and convicted methamphetamine manufacturer who claimed to have modified PROMIS software for a joint venture between the Wackenhut Corporation and the Cabazon Indian Reservation band near Indio, California. He was a central source for Danny Casolaro's investigation into what Casolaro called the The Octopus. The Justice Department special counsel Nicholas J. Bua wrote that he "can fairly be described as the key witness against Brian," meaning Earl Brian. He was convicted in Tacoma, Washington, in January 1992 on drug charges that he said were a government frame-up.1

Youth and early laser work

Cheri Seymour wrote that Riconosciuto wired his parents' neighborhood with a private telephone system at age 10 and won science fairs with laser technology, which led to a summer research assistantship at Stanford's Cooper Vaper Laser Laboratory.1 In a 1984 interview with Ted Gunderson, recorded on tape and transcribed in the Casolaro papers, Riconosciuto said he built full-size carbon dioxide and argon lasers as a ninth grader in Tacoma, won a trip to a San Francisco electronics show through a science fair, and was then introduced to "Dr. Arthur Schalow," the Stanford laser physicist Arthur Schawlow. He said that after his first summer in the Stanford group his family placed him at a boarding school in Portola Valley so he could continue that work.2 David Corn reported in The Nation in October 1991 that as a high school student he had been "something of a scientific prodigy" and "even worked for a while in the Stanford University laboratory of Arthur Schawlow," who won the Nobel Prize in 1981 for work on laser technology.3

In a separate, undated interview with Gunderson (the interviewer is initialed "T.G." and the speaker "M.R."), Riconosciuto described attending gatherings in Stanford's English department in 1965 and 1966 at which "Psychedelic Review" contributors spoke and drugs were taken, and a meeting of the Schawlow group in the Varian physics building at which, he said, the group discussed the LSD gatherings after press coverage and a participant said "I make my living with my central nervous system and I think I'm gonna leave it intact." He said that he never took LSD or any other powerful psychedelic drug, that from 1966 he did light show and sound work at the Straight Theatre in San Francisco, that he set up an electronics laboratory at the Avalon Ballroom with Bob Cohen, and that he was a full partner with Chet Helms in Family Dog Enterprises. He also said that Timothy Leary gave him power of attorney over his property in San Anselmo, which he looked after until early 1968.4

The Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture

In a March 21, 1991 affidavit, Riconosciuto said that from 1981 to 1984 he had been Director of Research for a joint venture between Wackenhut and the Cabazon Indians of Indio, California.56 The Bua report summarizes the affidavit as describing the venture as one "engaged in the development and manufacture of certain military type materials, which were then intended to be sold to foreign governments and forces."5 Seymour dates the joint venture's formalization to April 1, 1981.1 A newspaper clipping in the Casolaro papers attributes to Riconosciuto a project to develop night-vision goggles, machine guns, fuel-air explosives, and biological and chemical warfare weapons, and states that because the band was sovereign such weapons could be made without congressional scrutiny for "U.S. client regimes" and "groups such as the contras."7 The Bua report quotes John Philip Nichols, the tribe's non-Indian administrator, as saying "the Cabazon's, as a sovereign nation, were not subject to the usual export and import controls."8

The Bua report found that the venture existed, that a September 1981 weapons demonstration took place at a gun range in Indio, and that Robert Frye was the only individual employed by Wackenhut in the matter. It found "no evidence to support Riconosciuto's claim that he and Earl Brian were employed by Wackenhut or by the joint venture," that the joint venture had no employees, and that the firms Riconosciuto named in a call to the Hamiltons, Wackenhut Research, Inc. and Wackenhut Security, Inc., "do not exist."9 Frye and Peter Zokosky, a former president of Armtec Defense Products, described their meetings with Riconosciuto at Picatinny Arsenal in May and October 1981, and the report notes that Zokosky and Frye disagree about which trip he attended.10

Riconosciuto told Spy magazine in 1992 that he "met with George Wackenhut and John Ammarell [a Wackenhut board member and consultant to George Wackenhut] in Las Vegas," with Nichols present. The magazine reported that Wackenhut denied any involvement with improper appropriation of software, and that Ammarell confirmed a meeting took place in Las Vegas, saying, "I don't remember any specific conversations, but I think we were there to discuss the sale of George's yacht, the Top Secret. I think Nichols said he had a potential buyer."11 An unsigned letter in the Casolaro papers, whose writer refers to his father and to the firms Stellar and Hercules Research, describes a "meeting with Mr. George Wackenhut and John Amarell in Las Vegas on March 11, 1982," that gave the writer "ample opportunity to discuss the power pack." The letter states that "Bob Frye of Wackenhut Services, Inc., gave personal invaluable assistance" at the Picatinny Arsenal, and that "the cooperation I have received from the Wackenhut Corporation has been nothing short of spectacular." The same letter says the writer was "formalizing an agreement with an assistant U.S. attorney and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to be a cooperative witness."12

The Bua report found that the former tribal chairman Arthur Welmas and his wife never saw or met Earl Brian at the reservation, and that Sam Cross, the Indio police chief during those years, said he had been in the mobile trailer behind the casino and saw no computer equipment in it. John Philip Nichols told investigators the PROMIS allegations were fabricated, and the report noted that Nichols had a motive to call Riconosciuto a liar, but that "everything Nichols told us was consistent with the great weight of the evidence we obtained from other sources."13

Kalka and the 1982 sting

In a statement dated February 16, 1984, Riconosciuto wrote that Nichols directed him to have Philip Arthur Thompson recover "[all] of Kalka’s assets." The statement lists a semi-truck loaded with amphetamine production chemicals and a red Datsun with a portable refrigerator containing acid, both located in the Oakland, California area.14 An audio tape on which Riconosciuto narrated, played by Zokosky to Seymour's source, said that Ben Kalka handled an LSD operation in Fresno.15

In a transcribed interview with Gunderson, Riconosciuto said that Kalka had paid the Hells Angels a quarter of a million dollars to kill him after December 1981, that Kalka was "a fugitive from justice" hiding in Colorado when Paul Morasca gathered the company's raw materials, and that he had persuaded Kalka to have the phenylacetic acid screened, during which he introduced a heavy-metal micro-tagging material.16 An INSLAW memorandum of July 18, 1990 states that Riconosciuto's intended Los Angeles attorney in the spring of 1982, Harland Braun, had a conflict because he represented Kalka.17 A letter dated April 13, 1982, signed by Phyllis Riconosciuto and Jimmy Hughes, arranged bodyguards for Riconosciuto until he entered FBI protective custody at the Oakland office.18

PROMIS claims and the House Judiciary investigation

Riconosciuto said that Brian made a copy of the proprietary PROMIS software available to him through Wackenhut, after acquiring it from Peter Videnieks, a Department of Justice contracting official. He said his modifications were intended to facilitate worldwide implementation of PROMIS in law enforcement and intelligence agencies, including adaptations for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in Canada.5 Seymour treats this as the central element of the PROMIS software scandal.1

Riconosciuto's first claims reached Bill Hamilton, the owners of INSLAW, in May 1990. On a conference call that a reporter for one of Lyndon LaRouche's publications arranged, he told the Hamiltons that he and Brian were hired as consultants to Wackenhut Research, that he and Brian traveled to Iran in 1980 and paid a $40 million bribe to prevent the release of American hostages before the November 1980 election, and that he still had a copy of the PROMIS source code. The Bua report summarizes the Hamiltons' memoranda of that call, and says that four of his statements about PROMIS could be established with accuracy, three under oath and one in the Hamiltons' notes.19

On April 4, 1991, Riconosciuto gave a sworn statement to House Committee on the Judiciary investigators. The committee's report says he connected his work on PROMIS to Brian and Videnieks, and that during a luncheon attended by Brian, Videnieks, Jimmy Hughes, and himself, the enhanced software was loaded into the trunk of his car.20 He also said he had two copies of a tape of his February 1991 conversation with Videnieks, and that DEA agents seized them at his arrest.20 He gave the committee access to a storage facility holding computer tapes and documents. A General Accounting Office analysis for the committee found that only one of five magnetic media could be read, that it held a corporate data file of accounts, and that a later review found one readable tape containing instructions for a word-processing modification and no PROMIS versions.21

The Bua report traced a series of contradictions in his accounts. In his affidavit he said he had received a single copy of PROMIS from Brian. At trial he said he had received three versions from Nichols. In the affidavit he dated his PROMIS work to 1983 and 1984 in Indio, Silver Spring, Maryland, and Miami, Florida. At trial he placed it between late 1981 and early 1983, mentioned only Indio, and did not mention Maryland or Miami.22 The report noted that Inslaw did not sign its implementation contract until March 1982 and did not produce an enhanced version to DOJ until April 20, 1983, and that "it would have been physically impossible for anybody from DOJ to produce anything but a public domain version of PROMIS in November 1981."22

The Bua report called him "a totally unreliable witness in connection with the allegations he has made about the alleged theft of PROMIS software," and wrote that his "story about PROMIS reminds us of a historical novel; a tale of total fiction woven against the background of accurate historical facts."23 The report listed other claims for which it "came across no credible witness who could confirm any of this": work with the CIA, a radio detonator device used to overthrow the Allende government in Chile, patents on revolutionary devices, recovery of computer data from computers damaged in the overthrow of the Shah, handling of the October Surprise payments, and persuading organized crime members associated with Tony Accardo not to commit a murder. It also stated that "Most people who know Riconosciuto told us that he displays a high degree of familiarity with scientific and technical concepts," that NCIC records indicated burglary and bail jumping convictions from the early 1970s, and that during the almost year he was out of prison after his first call to the Hamiltons he never produced the 1099 forms, the photographs of him with Brian in Iran, or the version of PROMIS he said he would give them.24 The report states that Riconosciuto said Wayne Reeder arrived at the September 1981 demonstration with Brian. A 1991 Riverside County investigator's report that named Brian was prepared from Riconosciuto's jail interview and from license-plate records supplied by a former Indio officer. The Bua report found that the registration notes referred only to Reeder.25

The House committee wrote that Riconosciuto "could not provide evidence other than his eyewitness account" of Brian's involvement in the PROMIS conversion at the reservation, that Brian "flatly contradicts" the claims in his own sworn statement, and that the committee was "not in a position to make findings of fact on Dr. Brian's role" but "would strongly recommend that further investigation be given" to it. In a footnote the committee recorded that a Riverside County District Attorney's Office Special Operations Report of October 10, 1991 placed Brian, with Riconosciuto and others, at the weapons demonstration at the Lake Cahuilla gun range in Indio on the evening of September 10, 1981, and that Welmas was quoted in the Washington Business Journal of March 30, 1992 as saying, "Brian must have been involved. His name was mentioned and discussed on a daily basis."26

The 1991 affidavit, arrest and congressional interview

The affidavit describes a February 1991 telephone call in which Videnieks told Riconosciuto that it would be beneficial to refuse a committee request for an interview. It also says that if he cooperated, he would be punished, with the indictment of Riconosciuto for savings and loan fraud and perjury among the punishments.27 Bua reports that Brian and Videnieks each "categorically and under oath denied" the allegations, and that both said they had never met Riconosciuto or each other and had never been to Indio. The report stated: "We found both men to be credible witnesses, both in their demeanor and in the substance of their statements."28

On March 21, 1991, Riconosciuto signed the affidavit for the Hamiltons, for use in INSLAW's bankruptcy adversary proceeding. On March 29, 1991, eight days later, DEA special agents arrested him on drug charges.29 A DEA agent's affidavit in the drug case, held on the archive.org item USAV.MichaelRiconosciuto, describes recorded deliveries of methamphetamine and methadone to a confidential informant beginning in February 1991, and surveillance of a residence at Lakebay, Washington, on March 29, 1991.30 The House report states that the Department of Justice proposed a courthouse in Seattle for the interview, and that the Department's attorney refused to give a sworn assurance that the interview would not be monitored or recorded. It also says the Department refused the committee's request to interview the DEA arresting agents, citing the ongoing prosecution, and refused access to its investigative files on him.29 The committee wrote that the timing of the arrest, coupled with Riconosciuto's allegation that tapes of a telephone conversation with Videnieks had been confiscated by DEA agents, "raises serious questions concerning whether the Department's prosecution of Mr. Riconosciuto was related to his cooperation with the committee." The same passage states that the arrest "diminishes his credibility as a witness," and that the committee "received sworn testimony and recovered documents which support aspects of Mr. Riconosciuto's story," tying Riconosciuto, Brian and Robert Booth Nichols to U.S. intelligence agencies and, in Nichols's case, possibly to organized crime.29

The Bua report addressed the arrest directly. It stated, "We are convinced beyond all doubt that there was absolutely no connection between Riconosciuto's prosecution and his allegations in the Inslaw matter." It described the case as beginning as a local Washington State drug investigation in which a small-time methamphetamine dealer cooperated with police, with the Seattle office of the DEA brought in after the supplier was found to be distributing on a large scale. It states that DEA recorded Riconosciuto delivering methamphetamine on videotape on more than one occasion, that he ran a large methamphetamine lab at the property where he lived, and that the trial judge commented at sentencing that he was "not sure whether Riconosciuto could tell fact from fiction."31 The report records Riconosciuto's testimony that the case was a set up, that the DEA had altered the videotapes, that the government had altered telephone records, and that his lab was only for mining metals.31 The Associated Press reported at the opening of the trial that his lawyer said the chemicals found at the property near Tonasket in Okanogan County were used to extract platinum from mining wastes, that the defense would offer expert testimony that recordings can be altered, and that former Attorney General Elliot Richardson, counsel to Inslaw, and Hamilton were expected defense witnesses.32

Trial and sentence, 1992

At his trial in federal court in Tacoma in January 1992, Riconosciuto's defense was that he was being framed on the drug charges as punishment for his testimony about PROMIS. He testified at length about PROMIS and said he had supervised a lead programmer and programming teams working in a mobile trailer behind the Cabazon casino.33 He testified that in February 1991 he received a message from someone named Peter telling him to be at a restaurant wearing a yellow shirt, that the people there were unknown to him except for one man he recognized as "Norm," that they placed a call and handed him the phone, and that one of them said, "It's no wonder, this is Videnieks." He testified that Videnieks told him he "was making some people nervous" and that there might be problems for him in connection with a savings and loan matter. Asked on direct examination how many times he had met Videnieks he answered "At least a dozen occasions," and that the first place was "In Indio, California." He also testified that the DEA had seized two copies of his tape of the February call and that he was "not sure" where the original was.33

On January 19, 1992, the Associated Press reported that a jury had convicted Riconosciuto, then 44, on seven drug counts: possession of more than 100 grams of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine, conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, two counts of distributing methamphetamine, and two counts of distributing methadone. He was acquitted on three other counts. The AP reported a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years, and quoted assistant U.S. attorney Mark Bartlett as saying, "We're very happy." Riconosciuto and his lawyer, Thomas Olmstead, branded four videotapes as fake, and the videotapes showed drugs being delivered to a government informer. The charges covered November 1989 to April 1991.34 The AP also reported that two of the videotapes showed a man who appeared to be Riconosciuto accepting 5,000 dollars in marked bills from an informer in a kitchen at Lakebay on the Kitsap Peninsula, that agents testified he was arrested with the bills and that his wallet held a 100 dollar bill from an earlier marked delivery, that one of his fingerprints was on a mug in a tape, that the defense called no witnesses, and that Judge Bryan had denied a defense motion for a mistrial based on a claim that one tape shown to the jury was stolen from Riconosciuto in 1989.34 The Bua report records that the trial judge sentenced Riconosciuto to 360 months, "the lowest available sentence under the applicable sentencing guidelines."33

The Bua report also records that Riconosciuto, with two others, filed a lawsuit challenging the authority of the investigation. It says the lawsuit alleged, among other things, that Bua was involved in organized crime murders and that one of the FBI agents assigned to the case had murdered Danny Casolaro. The report states that the district court dismissed the suit as patently frivolous, in Riconosciuto v. Bua, No. 92 C 6217 (N.D. Ill.).35

The federal drug case is docketed as United States v. Riconosciuto, No. 3:91-cr-01034, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, filed April 1, 1991. A judgment on revocation (Doc. 220) was filed on August 18, 2017.36 In a 1997 hearing officer's report in the INSLAW congressional reference proceeding, Hearing Officer Miller described Riconosciuto as "convicted of manufacturing and selling methamphetamine" while discussing the confidential sources that Bill Hamilton had relied on.37

Appeals and later cases

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the conviction and sentence in an unpublished memorandum decided October 27, 1993. The appeal challenged the admission of evidence from searches conducted without warrants, the government's destruction of evidence, and the drug quantity used at sentencing. The memorandum describes searches of his property outside Tonasket, Washington, in early April 1993, and of a shack in Home, Washington, on April 10, 1993.38

The Bua report states that Riconosciuto "was involved with hallucinogenic drugs at least as far back as 1972, when he was convicted on a PCP charge," and that in that case his defense was that someone had planted the PCP on him.39 Separately, the Court of Appeals of Washington affirmed a grand larceny conviction against him in December 1974. The opinion records his contention that a federal investigation of an alleged conspiracy to manufacture drugs involving him was underway.40

In a news release of September 27, 1994 announcing the Department's review of the Bua report, the Department of Justice stated that two primary sources relied on by INSLAW "were not credible: Michael Riconosciuto, currently serving a 30-year sentence on methamphetamine charges, and Ari Ben-Menashe."41

In 2017 Riconosciuto filed a federal habeas petition in the Central District of California against the warden and the U.S. Probation and Parole office. Judge John A. Kronstadt dismissed the petition for lack of jurisdiction on February 16, 2017.42

Nichols, Casolaro and the Octopus

Riconosciuto said he was a partner with Robert Booth Nichols in Meridian Arms, a subsidiary of Meridian International Logistics (MIL), and that he was a technical advisor to First Intercontinental Development Corporation, on whose board Nichols sat.1 The Bua report describes any business relationship Riconosciuto had as one with Nichols and the Cabazons rather than with Wackenhut.9 Riconosciuto claimed Nichols was involved in large-scale illegal drug operations and money laundering, and that Nichols attempted to pressure him into illegal activities.1

Riconosciuto began talking to Casolaro before his March 1991 arrest and became a key source for the Octopus investigation, which Casolaro was pursuing when he died in August 1991.1 Riconosciuto claimed that Casolaro's death occurred shortly after he began investigating Michael Abbell's connection to the Cali Drug Cartel, a lead Riconosciuto had provided. He also stated that Nichols had warned Casolaro to stay away from him.1 Corn reported that Casolaro visited him in jail, that Riconosciuto said he had a tape recording of Videnieks's threat but never gave it to Casolaro, that Casolaro intended to call him "Danger Man" in his book, and that he told Corn Casolaro's death was connected to the writer's inquiry into his allegations and that Anson Ng, a journalist killed in Guatemala, had been investigating an episode involving Riconosciuto and the Cabazon reservation. Corn also reported that Riconosciuto had told others he had equipped AWACS aircraft destined for Saudi Arabia with radar technology proscribed by Congress, that he said he and Nichols had a falling-out in 1984 and had not spoken since, and wrote: "anything Riconosciuto says must be taken with a salt mine."3

Drug, arms and money claims

Riconosciuto claimed to have provided valuable intelligence to former Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Leighton regarding a drug and arms organization known as "The Company," which consisted of former military, law enforcement, and intelligence personnel involved in drug trafficking, gunrunning, and mercenary operations.1

He also claimed participation in a National Security Council-sanctioned drug sting operation in Lebanon through Euramae Trading Company in Nicosia, Cyprus, another alleged NSC cutout. He described a network involving Michael T. Hurley, then the DEA country attache, Maurice Ghanem, and George K. Pender, in which heroin shipments were allegedly used to fund intelligence operations and were sometimes diverted for profit.1

Riconosciuto claimed to have handled gold transfers, money laundering, "virtual dead drops," and altered ACH daily reconciliations for underworld figures, including Robert Booth Nichols, Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, and Jose Santacruz Londono of the Cali Drug Cartel. He sought to provide this information to Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in exchange for witness protection.1

Regarding the October Surprise, Riconosciuto claimed that he and Brian traveled to Iran in 1980 and paid $40 million to Iranian officials to delay the release of U.S. hostages until after Ronald Reagan's inauguration. The Bua report found no credible evidence for that trip and states that Brian's office records placed him in New York on September 10, 1981.43 Seymour wrote that the claim created what Riconosciuto described as a "domino effect" in Washington and generated additional investigations and media attention.1

Riconosciuto claimed to have been in direct communication with Michael Hand, co-founder of Nugan Hand Bank, before and after Hand's disappearance, and handled money transfers for Hand when he fled Australia.1

Beyond PROMIS, Riconosciuto was involved in advanced technological projects, including theoretical work on railguns for the U.S. Army, and research into "energy transfer phenomena" with William Frash and Patrick Moriarty, his father's business partner, aiming to develop technology that would "supercede all existing world patents in the field."1 At trial he testified that his group ran a pilot plant at its facility in Hercules, California, and that the work included Hercules Research.44 Harry Fair of Picatinny Arsenal described him as a "potential national resource" after a May 1981 railgun blackboard exercise.1 In the 1984 Gunderson interview Riconosciuto said Hercules Research began with scrap and residue platinum catalyst left in an acid plant at Hercules, from which he said the group generated 130,000 dollars, and that it then worked tailings piles in the northern Sacramento River area to recover platinum group metals; he described a project at Hercules he called the "Special Project" as a direct energy related weapons project based on Interprobe technology and technology developed at Hercules Research.45

Clearances and the Aquino question

In an undated transcript of an interview with Gunderson (the interviewer is initialed "T.G."), the speaker, initialed "M.R.," discusses members of the Church of Set and of Michael Aquino's circle. He says that the reaction to Aquino he received from "Dr. Malkin" was "Well, his clearance isn't all that high."46 In the same passage the speaker says that nearly everyone in Aquino's group was psy-ops or intelligence related.46 The transcript's cover line begins with the name "Michael," and the first notes in the file are headed "NOTES OF PHONE CONV. 12/29/87." Records found do not establish whether "Dr. Malkin" is Myron S. Malkin, the former NASA Space Shuttle director and former Defense Department official, whose name appears in an undated (year not printed) Cabazon Arms letter.47

Witness protection attempts

Following his arrest, Riconosciuto attempted multiple times to trade information with federal authorities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, in exchange for entry into the Witness Protection Program. He offered to expose high-level corruption, drug trafficking, and money laundering operations, including those involving Robert Booth Nichols, Michael Abbell, and the Cali Drug Cartel. These attempts were largely unsuccessful, with authorities often expressing skepticism or facing internal resistance to his claims.1 Seymour wrote that Gunderson, who had begun as a contact after the arrest when Riconosciuto wrote to him from jail, tried to facilitate his entry into the Witness Protection Program, and that the FBI and other federal agencies were reluctant to cooperate or to acknowledge his claims. Gunderson provided an affidavit and testified at the Tacoma trial to corroborate Riconosciuto's government-sanctioned activities, and Seymour wrote that Gunderson could not describe many of Nichols's activities there because Nichols was then under FBI investigation.1

Footnotes

  1. Seymour, Cheri. The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. Cited for the claims about Riconosciuto's youth, the Meridian Arms and FIDCO relationships, the Octopus contacts, the drug, arms and money claims, the Iran claim, the railgun work and the witness-protection attempts. ↩︎

  2. Ted Gunderson and Michael Riconosciuto interview transcript, headed "TAPE TRANSCRIPTION FROM 3-28-84," Danny Casolaro papers, Folder 7 (Acc. 5516), archive.org item casolaro-notebooks. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks. The transcript reads "Dr. Arthur Schalow"; the identification with Arthur Schawlow is editorial. Cited for the youth, Stanford and boarding-school passages, which are the speaker's own account. ↩︎

  3. David Corn, "The Dark World of Danny Casolaro," The Nation, October 28, 1991. https://archive.org/details/Danny-Casolaro ↩︎

  4. Ted Gunderson and Michael Riconosciuto interview transcript (interviewer initialed "T.G.", speaker "M.R."), undated, Danny Casolaro papers, Folder 7 (Acc. 5516), archive.org item casolaro-notebooks. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks. The speaker's own account. ↩︎

  5. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Professional Responsibility, Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of INSLAW, Inc. (March 1993), section "(ii) Riconosciuto's March 21, 1991 Affidavit," printed pp. 44 to 45, quoting the affidavit. Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  6. Seymour, The Last Circle (2010), for the period 1981 to 1984; U.S. House of Representatives, H. Rept. 102-857, p. 51 (the committee wrote that Riconosciuto stated that "in the early 1980's both he and Dr. Brian were associated with the Wackenhut Corporation"). Bua, printed p. 44, gives the affidavit's Director of Research claim without dates. ↩︎

  7. Newspaper clipping on INSLAW and PROMIS, undated, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-Correspondence2." https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks ↩︎

  8. Bua report, printed p. 56, section "(i) The Wackenhut-Cabazon Joint Venture," quoting Nichols. Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  9. Bua report, printed pp. 56 and 58 (firm names "do not exist"; the only individual employed by Wackenhut was Frye; "no evidence to support Riconosciuto's claim that he and Earl Brian were employed by Wackenhut or by the joint venture"; "any business relationship Riconosciuto had was between him and Nichols or the Cabazons rather than with Wackenhut"). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  10. Bua report, printed pp. 57 to 58 (Zokosky and Frye on the Picatinny Arsenal meetings, May and October 1981). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  11. John Connolly, "Inside the Shadow CIA," Spy, September 1992, pp. 46 to 54. The bracketed description of Ammarell is the magazine's. https://www.prop1.org/legal/prisons/92wack.htm ↩︎

  12. Unsigned, undated letter, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-Correspondence," beginning "The cooperation I have received from the Wackenhut Corporation." The spelling "Amarell" is as printed in the letter. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks ↩︎

  13. Bua report, printed pp. 59 to 60 (Welmas and his wife; Cross; Nichols's denial and the "motive" passage, quoting "everything Nichols told us was consistent with the great weight of the evidence we obtained from other sources"). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  14. Seymour, The Last Circle, pp. 344-345, reproducing Riconosciuto's statement of February 16, 1984. ↩︎

  15. Seymour, The Last Circle, p. 340. ↩︎

  16. Transcript of a recorded interview of Michael Riconosciuto by Ted Gunderson, Casolaro papers, Folder 7 (Acc. 5516). https://archive.org/details/ddosecrets_casolaro_files ↩︎

  17. INSLAW, Inc., Memorandum to the Record, July 18, 1990, pp. 7-8, Casolaro papers. https://archive.org/details/ddosecrets_casolaro_files ↩︎

  18. Seymour, The Last Circle, pp. 404-405. ↩︎

  19. Bua report, printed pp. 42 to 43 (the four accurately recorded statements, one in the Hamiltons' notes; the May 18, 1990 call and the Iran and Wackenhut Research claims; "the key witness against Brian"). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it, summarizing the Hamiltons' memoranda. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  20. U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report, H. Rept. 102-857, 102d Cong., 2d sess., September 10, 1992, "2. Sworn Statement of Michael Riconosciuto," pp. 50 to 52 (the affidavit and tape statements on p. 51; the luncheon statement in n. 131 and the storage-facility and GAO passages on p. 52), as the committee summarized the April 4, 1991 sworn statement. The committee also described him as "a self-described computer expert who in the past has been involved with contract computer and munitions work for U.S. intelligence agencies," brought to its attention in June 1990 (p. 50). Official findings and committee summaries of a witness's statements. https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport ↩︎

  21. U.S. House of Representatives, H. Rept. 102-857, p. 52 and nn. 131 to 135, citing the General Accounting Office report of November 12, 1991 and the follow-up report of March 23, 1992 on the Riconosciuto media. Official findings as reported by the committee. https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport ↩︎

  22. Bua report, printed pp. 49 to 51 (affidavit and trial inconsistencies; the affidavit's "1983 and 1984" statement; the trial testimony of "late 1981" to "early 1983"; the April 20, 1983 delivery and March 1982 contract). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  23. Bua report, printed p. 73 (conclusion). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  24. Bua report, printed pp. 70 to 73 (the list of unconfirmed claims, the 1099 forms and photographs, NCIC records, "high degree of familiarity with scientific and technical concepts"). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  25. Bua report, printed pp. 62 to 63 (the Gilbert report and Baird's registration notes) and p. 66 (Reeder and Westley). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  26. U.S. House of Representatives, H. Rept. 102-857, section "2. Possible Connection Between Earl Brian, Michael Riconosciuto, Robert Booth Nichols and the Cabazon Indian Reservation," pp. 72 to 73 and nn. 218 to 222, citing the Riverside County District Attorney's Office Special Operations Report of October 10, 1991, pp. 2 to 4, and the Washington Business Journal, March 30, 1992. Official findings of the committee. https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport ↩︎

  27. U.S. House of Representatives, H. Rept. 102-857, p. 51 and n. 126 (affidavit paragraph on the February 1991 call), and Bua report, printed p. 46 (punishments in the affidavit, including the savings and loan and perjury indictments). Official summaries of a witness's sworn claims. https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport ↩︎

  28. Bua report, printed pp. 53 to 54 (Brian and Videnieks, "categorically and under oath denied all the allegations made by Riconosciuto about them"). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  29. U.S. House of Representatives, H. Rept. 102-857, "D. Department Interferes With Michael Riconosciuto's Sworn Statement to the Committee," pp. 100 to 101 (arrest of March 29, 1991; attorney John Rosellini; the courthouse proposal; the refusal of a sworn non-monitoring statement; the refusal to interview the DEA agents; the timing quotation). Official findings of the committee, placed as its position. https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport ↩︎

  30. Affidavit of a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in United States v. Michael James Riconosciuto, federal court, Washington, 1991, nine pages, archive.org item USAV.MichaelRiconosciuto. https://archive.org/details/USAV.MichaelRiconosciuto. Only the dates and places stated above are drawn from the document. ↩︎

  31. Bua report, printed pp. 66 to 68 ("We are convinced beyond all doubt"; DEA videotapes; the lab; "not sure whether Riconosciuto could tell fact from fiction"). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  32. Associated Press, "Defendant Says Government Drug Charges Are Part Of Vendetta," January 2, 1992, Seattle Times archive. https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19920102/1468169/defendant-says-government-drug-charges-are-part-of-vendetta ↩︎

  33. Bua report, printed pp. 47 to 48 and 53 (trial testimony on PROMIS, the trailer, the yellow shirt and "It's no wonder, this is Videnieks," the tape and "not sure"; the meetings with Videnieks, printed p. 53; sentence of 360 months, "the lowest available sentence under the applicable sentencing guidelines"). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  34. Associated Press, "Jury Says Guilty," January 19, 1992, Seattle Times archive (the headline continues with the claim of a frame-up and the 20-year term). https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19920119/1471110/jury-says-guilty ↩︎

  35. Bua report, printed p. 69 (the lawsuit, Riconosciuto v. Bua, No. 92 C 6217 (N.D. Ill.), dismissed as patently frivolous). The allegations are as the report describes them. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  36. United States v. Riconosciuto, No. 3:91-cr-01034 (W.D. Wash.), docket record filed April 1, 1991, including Doc. 220, judgment on revocation filed August 18, 2017. CourtListener. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/6144038/united-states-v-riconosciuto/ ↩︎

  37. INSLAW, Inc. v. United States, 39 Fed. Cl. 307 (1997), congressional reference proceeding, hearing officer's report (Miller, H.O.). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6763932/inslaw-inc-v-united-states/ ↩︎

  38. United States v. Riconosciuto, No. 92-30200 (9th Cir. October 27, 1993) (unpublished memorandum; submitted August 31, 1993), reported at 9 F.3d 1555. The memorandum is not precedential and affirms the judgment. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F3/009/9.F3d.1555.92-30200.html ↩︎

  39. Bua report, printed pp. 68 and 71 to 72 (PCP charge in the early 1970s; "at least as far back as 1972, when he was convicted on a PCP charge"). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  40. State v. Riconosciuto, 12 Wash. App. 350, 529 P.2d 1134 (Wash. Ct. App., Div. One, December 23, 1974), No. 2623-1, judgment affirmed. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1172527/state-v-riconosciuto/ ↩︎

  41. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, news release of September 27, 1994 on the review of the Bua report in the INSLAW matter. Official position of the Department. https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/Pre_96/September94/555.txt.html ↩︎

  42. Riconosciuto v. Langford, No. 2:17-cv-01088-JAK-AJW (C.D. Cal.), judgment of February 16, 2017, dismissing the petition for a writ of habeas corpus for lack of jurisdiction; respondents the warden and U.S. Probation and Parole. https://archive.org/details/gov.uscourts.cacd.670148 ↩︎

  43. Bua report, printed pp. 40 to 41 (no credible evidence on the Iran hostage allegations) and p. 66 (Brian's New York office and expense records for September 10, 1981). Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  44. Bua report, printed p. 53 (Riconosciuto's trial testimony on the pilot plant in Hercules, California, Hercules Research and the Interprobe joint venture). Testimony as the report summarizes it. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  45. Gunderson interview transcripts, Danny Casolaro papers, Folder 7 (Acc. 5516), archive.org item casolaro-notebooks (the Hercules Research, platinum catalyst and "Special Project" passages). https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks. The speaker's own account. ↩︎

  46. Ted Gunderson and Michael Riconosciuto interview notes, file "Folder 7 Acc5516," archive.org item casolaro-notebooks. Undated passage. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks. ↩︎

  47. Letter over the name of Arthur Welmas, headed "CABAZON INDIAN SECURITY /WSI JOINT VENTURE," Indio, California, dated "May 1" (year not printed), Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-Correspondence." https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks ↩︎