An Envoy's Other Interests

California Developer William Wilson, a member of President Reagan's kitchen cabinet, had served as Reagan's unpaid envoy to the Vatican since 1981. So he was an obvious choice for ambassador when the U.S. established diplomatic relations with the Holy See last March. His meddling in complex investigations, however, has been somewhat less than diplomatic.

The ambassador is a personal friend of Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the Vatican banker who was being investigated by Italian authorities in 1982 for his role in the $1.3 billion collapse of Italy's Banco Ambrosiano. Wilson wrote a letter to his friend, Attorney General William French Smith, asking whether Marcinkus was under U.S. investigation as well. Wilson was told by the Justice Department that his actions were inappropriate. Nonetheless, later that year Wilson tried unsuccessfully to arrange a breakfast between Smith and Marcinkus in Rome. As recently as last May, Wilson called FBI Director William Webster to ask about the status of U.S. interest in the case. Wilson was also sternly warned by the State Department in December 1983 to avoid involvement in the case of Commodities Trader Marc Rich, who fled to Switzerland after being indicted in one of the biggest tax-fraud cases in U.S. history. Yet shortly after, Wilson met with a Swiss official on Rich's behalf.

The slip-ups did not seem to hurt him: before Wilson was made an ambassador three months later, the Government gave him permission to remain on two corporate boards, which ambassadors are generally forbidden to do. He subsequently resigned from one, but still serves as an unpaid board member of the Pennzoil Co.