Frenkil and His Friends

Victor Frenkil has always enjoyed doing tricks with money. One of the Baltimore contractor's favorite stunts is to twist a dollar bill into the shape of a politician's last initial and present it to him as a gift. Frenkil's sleight of hand is not confined to parlor tricks. As contractor for the House of Representatives' underground garage, completed in 1967, he has been trying for the past four years to parlay an $11.8 million contract into a $16.8 million windfall. He has managed to enlist the aid of some powerful political assistants.

Somehow, though, Frenkil's magic has misfired. Disturbed by reports of his attempts to obtain Government approval of an additional $5,000,000 in garage construction costs, a federal grand jury in Baltimore has spent the past year looking into the contractor's efforts to influence officials on his behalf. Its time has been well spent. Although thwarted in its attempts to indict Frenkil, 63, the grand jury two weeks ago scored a technical knockout in its fight against him and his friends. A judge released a summary of the grand jury's findings. The report named Frenkil and his Baltimore Contractors, Inc., as defendants in a proposed indictment. It identified Louisiana Senator Russell Long as a recipient of an offer of money for his assistance and named House Majority Whip Hale Boggs as the recipient of a financial favor.

Political Persuader. The grand jury's action was as unusual as the case itself. Frenkil filed requests for additional fees from the Government, contending that the soil conditions encountered during construction were different from those described in the bid specifications prepared by the Architect of the Capitol and made construction more difficult than anticipated. When the office of the AOC began rejecting his claims, he took his case to Congress.

It was not the first time he had done so. As a constituent, Frenkil had received the help of Maryland Representatives in an earlier dispute with the AOC. Now, feeling the need for a more powerful political persuader, he turned to Nathan Voloshen, 72, a friend of House Speaker John McCormack, and hired him as counsel for a fee of $28,000. Voloshen, who has pleaded guilty to influence-peddling charges in another case, earned his money. During 1967 and 1968 he met regularly with Frenkil's firm and representatives of the AOC to press Frenkil's claims. Once, according to the federal investigation, he threatened an AOC lawyer, Russell Pettibone, with loss of his job if he failed to cooperate. When this strong-arm approach failed, he suggested that the attorney could have a better job if he played ball with Frenkil.

Frenkil tried to apply pressure from other directions as well. His firm performed $45,000 worth of remodeling work on Boggs' Maryland home, charging the Congressman a bargain-basement rate of $21,000 for the job. Frenkil himself successfully solicited the support of former Maryland Senator Daniel Brewster as well as Louisiana's Long. According to the grand jury testimony, Frenkil offered Long and Brewster one-third of whatever he recovered in exchange for their assistance. Long admits that his office interceded with the AOC on Frenkil's behalf, but denies any wrongdoing on his part. "I didn't talk to anybody, nobody, not a soul on earth," he said.

Faulty Plans. His administrative assistant Robert Hunter did, however. "I called over there and asked them to make a decision on Frenkil's claims or let the case go to the General Accounting Office or Court of Claims," Hunter explained. Others claim that he did even more. Mario Campioli, the Assistant AOC, told federal investigators that Hunter called him, told him he had been in the U.S. Corps of Engineers and said that the AOC's plans were faulty. According to the Government case, Hunter also called Pettibone to press for action on Frenkil's claims and served as go-between for a campaign contribution. Encouraged by Long to make campaign contributions to "decent candidates and incumbents," Michigan Oilman and Bank Director Harold McClure, a Republican national committeeman, wrote out a check payable to cash and left it at the desk of a downtown Washington hotel. It was picked up by Hunter and eventually found its way to Democrat Brewster's campaign coffers.

Investigating Frenkil's maneuvering, U.S. Attorney Stephen Sachs became convinced last winter that he had a case against Frenkil, Long and Brewster, and sought Justice Department approval to indict all three. The permission was denied. Undaunted, Sachs tried again; last month, four days before he was due to retire he went to see Attorney General John Mitchell, this time proposing to indict only Frenkil but still naming Long, Brewster and Boggs. Once again, Mitchell turned him down. The Justice Department has also kept secret its knowledge of the illegal campaign contributions received by Long and Boggs from a Louisiana bank.

Twice rebuffed, Sachs retired and turned the case over to George Beall, his Republican replacement. Beall proved as determined as his predecessor. He told Mitchell that he agreed with Sachs and sought permission to prosecute. Mitchell remained unmoved; his reluctance was both practical and political. Some Justice Department officials felt that there was insufficient evidence to prove the charges against Frenkil. Nor were they enthusiastic about prosecuting public officials on a "one on one" basis, relying on the uncorroborated testimony of a single witness, former Brewster aide John Sullivan, to prove the key points of the prosecution in the case.

But the grand jury was determined to press the case against Frenkil. The jurors prepared a presentment that named Frenkil and half a dozen present and former Congressmen, including Long and Boggs, and cited 45 overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy. Submitting it to the judge, they asked that it be made public. Their action precipitated a panic. Lawyers for Frenkil and others, claiming only to represent "John Doe, Peter Poe and Richard Roe, et al.," petitioned the court to prevent publication of the document, which they felt would damage their clients. In response, Federal District Judge Roszel Thornsen steered a cautious middle course. He suppressed the grand jury's presentment and released a watered-down summary of his own. Then he expunged the presentment from the court records.

Damning Result. The result is almost as damning as an indictment. Emphasizing that no one is being formally charged, the judge's report nonetheless names Frenkil and his firm as co-defendants in a proposed grand jury indictment and notes that the grand jury was willing to charge him with conspiring to defraud the U.S. Government of the right to the "disinterested services" of its officials by threats, promises and bribery. It is hardly less sparing of Long and Boggs, noting that they committed no criminal act but linking their names with a man who the grand jury believes did.

The judge's decision means that Frenkil is safe, but not yet home. Further action by the present grand jury is unlikely before it dissolves this week, but Beall has made it clear that he plans to continue his investigation. "I would like very much to hit pay dirt on this thing," he says. Beall might do just that if the Government is successful in its present efforts to persuade Nathan Voloshen to talk about what he did for Frenkil.

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