Michael Riconosciuto: The Math/Science Wizard Who Said too much, Part 5

A modified version of the software was spread throughout the defense industry by 2000. Eventually, major banks and many kinds of enterprises used PROMIS. One of the first banks to have the software was BCCI, which was used by the CIA, NSA, and intelligence agencies friendly to the US. BCCI would serve as the front for arming Iraq in the late eighties, and of course people connected with it helped the shaky enterprises of George W. Bush. Since 2002, the French, Germans, and a committee of the European Parliament have suggested PROMIS is used for economic and industrial espionage against them. Eventually the software, with its “Trojan horse” was used in 88 countries. The PROMIS program today seems to be part of a much a far more complex program developed by NSA called MOSIS (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Implementation System) which Riconosciuto alluded to on a German television documentary

Riconosciuto got into very deep trouble by befriending the late investigative reporter Joseph Danny Casolaro and by signing an affidavit stating that the federal government had stolen PROMIS software from Bill Hamilton, owner of Inslaw. Casolaro wrote about how the software was stolen and said that a small group of men, whom he called the Octopus, had found ways to profit personally from federal clandestine operations. No one actually uses the name “Octopus;” t here is no formal organization. Danny just used the name to refer to people and firms that participate in intelligence and black ops for profit. He was making progress in his investigation of a huge drug operation in the Bekaa Valley in which the CIA, and probably F.I.D.C.O., were participation. The latter was handling a US reconstruction program there. There were major drug labs in the Valley and product from Columbia was being refined for distribution in Europe. He was also investigating fraud at Hughes Aircraft Corporation and the possibility that Republicans had made a deal with the Iranians to hold the 52 hostages until after the election. His bok was to be entitlede Behold a Pale Horse and was also to include material on the BCCI scandal and MCA. Casolaro apparently committed suicide in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Michael said that in his last days, Danny gathering information about Mike Abbell, a man who was the key to a huge government drug operation. Abbell had been with the criminal section of the Justice Department and later became a US Attorney in DC. In the mid-1990s, he was given three years for laundering money for the Cali drug cartel. For a time, he practiced law in Bogotá. He worked closely with Gilbert Rodriguez, leader of the cartel. Riconosciuto claims to have handled gold transfers for Gilbert Rodriguez, Abbell, Norm Casper, Robert Booth Nichols, Harold Okimoto, George Pender, and others. Michael claimed that the CIA’s drug operations within the US were appropriately labeled “the company,” and involv ed some 300 agents and contractors. He was willing to turn in these people if he could enter the Witness Protection Program. He claimed to have turned over twenty nine to US Attorney in California, who made some arrests based on that information. However the attorney, after onec having admitted the connection, subsequently made a point of denying any contact.

Michael’s written testimony for the Inslaw trial and interviews with Brooks Committee attorneys included information of Wachenhut’s double billing, how Iran was paid for retaining the 52 hostages past the 1980 election, the mechanics of CIA money laundering including the listing of dead drop accounts in the West Indies, how highly sensitive technology was sold to Red China through third parties. Riconosciuto tied Reagan Justice Department attorney Michael Abbell to the Cali cartel and confirmed CIA drug operations in the Bekaa Valley. Michael gave up Abbell as part of an unsuccessful effort to enter the Witness Protection Program, but it failed. In subsequent litigation, there was testimony that Riconosciuto helped launder $40 million for the Bush-Quayle campaign; however, only one government source has supported this claim. He claimed that a great deal of illicit money was laundered through HUD, and he added that corrupt figures in the Nixon, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush administrations all used the money laundering operation at his reservation to hide their ill-gotten gains. He also claimed that the CIA , working with Wackenhut and sometimes the Mossad, plays a big role in providing California with met amphetamine.

A week after signing that Inslaw statement, he was arrested for running a drug lab in the State of Washington Three weeks before testifying before the Brooks Subcommittee on PROMIS, Peter Viedenieks, a Justice Department official, said there would be consequences for appearing including a long child custody suite for his wife. . Viedenieks was the same official who was supposed to meet Danny Casolaro at the time of his suicide. At one point he managed the PROMIS preogram for the Department of Justice. Michael claimed that Videnieks had been a frequent visitor to the Cabazon Reservation. Viedenieks and Brian both told House investigators that they did not know Riconosciuto, but Viedenieks refused to give Congress another interview after it Riconosciuto had spoken to Congressional investigators. Indio city policemen, who sometimes provides security on the reservation, had placed Brian and Riconosciuto together at a weapons demonstration on the reservation. Customs Agent Scott Lawrence carried on a two year investigation of Viedenieks but was rebuffed by his superiors when he asked that a grand jury be impaneled to look into the case and har testimony from CIA agents. Riconosciuto defenders point to a 1993 affidavit from Peter Viedenieks’ secretary that made it clear he was lying about not being involved in the intelligence drug trade. He had probably been placed in Customs to make sure the shipment could be moved without incident.Journalist Harry Martin claimed that he had previously heard Videnieks admit to knowing Michael and an individual privy to the RCMP investigation PROMIS thought it supported this conclusion. The Mounties were able to establish that Videnieks had been driven to the reservation by `Drug Tug' captain Calvin Robinson. The Customs Service investigated Videnieks and former Secretary of State Al Haig was called as a witness, but the probe was dropped when Videnieks retired. The boat had been seized in 1988 for transporting drugs.


The Brooks Committee report said that Attorney General Dick Thornburgh had overlooked the destruction of evidence by his personnel case and that the Department of Justice had harassed witnesses.

The lab, Michael said, was devoted to creating new technology for electrohydrodynamic mining operation, and soil samples were found in his lab. No drugs were found there and the DEA people destroyed all his glassware, even though it could have been tested for drug residue. All of his equipment was destroyed. In the 1970s, Michael served two years for manufacturing drugs. Two of his lawyers died during his strange trial in 1991. Michael’s wife Bobbi was later arrested and held without bail on charges of custodial interference. The federal agent who arrested Michael is the same person who arranged for her arrest. In order to protect his son’s life, Riconoscuito decided not to add to his affadavit by personally testifying in the Inslaw trial. .

A year after Michael was sentenced, Ian Stuart Spiro, another figure involved in the Inslaw case and Iran Contra, turned up dead in the desert and his family was subsequently killed. Spiro’s relatives said his files and business records were missing.