Fugitive Found

Vesco turns up in Cuba

For years he has left the most shadowy of paths. It was rumored, but never proved, that he tried to bribe high officials in the Nixon and Carter Administrations. According to Justice Department officials, he consorted with Libya's Muammar Gaddafi. In August, Columnist Jack Anderson placed him in the Nicaraguan bush. A month later, NBC reported that he was masterminding a major drug-smuggling operation out of the Bahamas. But Financier Robert Vesco, who fled the U.S. in late 1972 after being indicted on charges of swindling mutual-fund investors out of $224 million, has not surfaced publicly since he was expelled from the Bahamas two years ago.

Law-enforcement agents now say Vesco has been located at last: in Cuba, where he is apparently the guest of Fidel Castro. He was the "arranger, fixer and middleman" in a scheme to smuggle American-made sugar-processing equipment into Cuba, says Jack Wolfe, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Brownsville, Texas, who successfully prosecuted another man in the case. Richard Bettini, an old friend of Vesco's who testified for the Government in the trial, says Vesco has a waterside villa near Havana with a private dock and a yacht. Bettini recounted flying to Havana in Vesco's private jet; even though Bettini had no visa or passport, airport officials "just faded into the woodwork" when Vesco appeared to meet him. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.