VESCOE: THE FINANCIAL GENIUS ON THE RUN

of Ulster' Robert L. Vescoe, the head of the $2,000m fund empire, Investors Overseas Services (IOS), is alive and well and living in San Jose, Costa Rica.

He has a magnificent bungalow on 'nob's row' in the suburbs. His own private guards, backed by the local constabulary, keep the joint under constant watch.

Vescoe is a fugitive from the police of the United States and Switzerland. It is an intriguing position for the head of the financial conglomerate once described as 'the finest money-making machine ever devised by capitalism'.

It is even more bizarre when we recall the words of one of his colleagues: "Within a few hours of meeting him, I knew I was in the presence of one of the greatest financial geniuses of the 20th century.' The Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States takes a different view. Six months ago they issued a 53-page report on Vescoe's activities. They accused him of 'one of the largest frauds ever perpetrated'. The investigators reported that Vescoe had 'looted' $224m from the IOS mutual fund empire for his own personal use.

The Swiss police have string of questions to ask him about the Geneva-based IOS group which he acquired from Bernard Cornfeld, the flambuoyant founder of the firm, two years ago.

'Bernie the King' made the mistake of being lured back to Switzerland late in April. He was nabbed by the police as he prepared to return to his magnificent villa situated on the banks of Lake Geneva. He is now in a prison cell awaiting trial on serious fraud charges. He could get a stiff jail sentence.

When the SEC report on IOS was released last December, Vescoe rendered himself 'not immediately locatable'. There were dozens of rumours: his personal aircraft was sighted in a number of Caribbean and Latin American countries. It's a vehicle that can scarcely be missed.

He sports a Boeing 707 fitted out with a sauna and a luxurious saloon bar and lounge. The furnishings alone cost $600,000. The plane's communications system is another feature that draws comment. He can hold mid-air conferences with all branches of his world-wide operation.

So impressive is this equipment that Donald Nixon, his administrative assistant and President Nixon's nephew, has said jokingly that it puts Air Force One, the presidential jet, to shame.

Vescoe has chosen Costa Rica as his haven and the country's president, Senor José Figures, is proud to have him there.

Or so he says, anyway.

And why shouldn't he? Vescoe is contributing mightily to the country's economy. He has invested $25m in government bonds to support the ailing National Housing Institute and the San Jose water system.

There are those suspiciousminded individuals who say that these donations have another motive other than pure philanthropy-—that Vescoe is buying his asylum in Costa Rica. These detractors also point to another curious deal between Vescoe and the president.

Earlier_this year the Costa Rican Congressional Committee launched an inquiry into the Vescoe operation. Notwithstanding the pending police actions in the US and Europe, Vescoe was completely cleared. Shortly after, the sum of $300,000 was placed in President Figueres personal bank account in New York for investment purposes.

This side of Vescoe's present whereabouts is fascinating enough to students of the rapidly-sinking offshore fund world. But Vescoe has other connections which make him one of the hottest characters around just at the moment.

Apart from having Donald Nixon on his personal stafi, Vescoe has other important links with the White House and, inevitably, Watergate.

A Federal Grand Jury has already indicted him in connection with a secret gift of $200,000 to the Committee to Re-elect the President ('Creep').

So far Vescoe has refused to answer the charges. One of the president's brothers, Edward Nixon, is to have Bernard Cornfeld, the IOS king —now awaiting trial in Switzer. land. Left: Robert L. Vescoe, present head of IOS. He's alive and well in San Jose.

Nevertheless, there is a real fear in the Nixon camp that the multi-millionaire might start to sing. It is for this reason that the administration is not pressing for Vescoe's immediate extradition. This highlights a glaring class bias in the judiciary: had the fugitive been guilty of left-wing political offences, the Attorney-General's Department, the CIA and the FBI would have spared no energy in getting him back.

But everyone from Nixon down is happy to leave him in the faraway banana republic. Even they seem happy. A member of the Costa Rican ruling class gloated the other day:

'Who can doubt the impact on our body politic of the presence of a man who controls perhaps $2,000m. This is 16 times our annual budget.' The purpose of recounting this bizarre story is to emphasize the utter demoralization and decomposition of the ruling class.

Vescoe is not a maverick operator uncharacteristic of the system as the Tory Press likes to assert. His business and social connections run to the topmost echelons of the White House to the Bank of America, the world's largest banking institution.

He is a true representative of capitalism, a system which has outlived its social usefulness. To do away with the Vescoes of this world means a political struggle against the capitalist state which will mean the expropriation of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of socialism.