CONTRA LEADER LINKS MYSTERY DLRS TO ARMS SALE
Nicaraguan rebel leader Adolfo Calero
has for the first time linked payments received for his forces
to a dummy company controlled by former White House aide Oliver
North, legal sources said.
    The company, Lake Resources Inc, was established by North
and his ally, retired Air Force major General Richard Secord,
and had a Swiss bank account into which proceeds from secret
arms sales to Iran were deposited.
    Calero yesterday made public bank statements showing his
group has received 32 mln dlrs since mid-1984, but said he has
no idea who donated the money.
    Calero, head of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, known by
its Spanish initials as FDN, provided the same records to a
grand jury investigating the Iran arms scandal that has shaken
the Reagan administration.
    The bank statements he showed reporters ended with March,
1985, so they shed no light on whether Iran arms profits were
diverted to contra rebels since shipments of U.S. arms to Iran
did not begin until September 1985.
    But last night, Calero told Cable News Network that he had
just discovered deposits made in late October, 1985 by Lake
Resources into a contra account in the Cayman Islands.
   
    This came at a time when proceeds from the Iran arms sales
were being funneled to the Swiss bank account.
    "I just found out," he said.
    Legal sources confirmed that Calero had turned over the
newly disclosed information, which was brought to his attention
after one of his lawyers noticed the two desposits made by Lake
Resources buried in the mass of bank records.
    They said that Calero has promised to review in more detail
the bank statements and pass along any further information on
possible deposits by the North-Secord groups.
    The Tower commission said in its report that up to 19.8 mln
dlrs from the sale of U.S. weapons to Iran was unaccounted for
and may have been diverted to the contras.
    Calero's FDN is the largest of the contra rebel groups
that are fighting to overthrow the left-wing Sandinista
government of Nicaragua.
    On the advice of his lawyer, Calero declined to go into
details about what he told the grand jury.
   
 Reuter
