Associated Press
Mar. 8, 2005 05:07 PM
PHILADELPHIA - A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C.,
is investigating possible money-laundering charges
involving former chess champion Bobby Fischer, who is
already wanted for violating U.S. economic sanctions,
one of his lawyers said.
"This is a pure tactical and propaganda ploy," attorney
Richard J. Vattuone said.
Federal prosecutors issued a subpoena last week to a
second lawyer, Joseph Choate Jr., who once represented
Fischer, ordering him to appear March 17 before the
grand jury to discuss a "possible violation" of
money-laundering statutes. advertisement
Choate declined to be interviewed about the subpoena, a
copy of which Vattuone provided to The Associated Press.
Fischer has been wanted in the United States since 1992,
when he defied economic sanctions by playing a chess
match in Yugoslavia against Boris Spassky, the Russian
he defeated to become world champion in 1972.
Fischer was reported to have received $3.5 million from
the event. He boasted at the time that he didn't intend
to pay any income tax on the money.
The chess legend was detained in Japan last summer as he
tried to board a flight to the Philippines with a
revoked U.S. passport. Japan has announced that he will
be deported to the United States, but his supporters are
trying to win permission for him to go to Iceland, where
he defeated Spassky in 1972 and is remembered fondly.
Vattuone, who has been working to secure Fischer's
release from a Japanese detention center, said he
believes U.S. prosecutors are now exploring money
laundering and tax charges in an attempt to eventually
extradite Fischer from Iceland or Japan.
"By the twisted logic of the U.S. attorney, if Fischer
received 'illegal' funds (from playing in Yugoslavia)
and uses the funds to pay his attorneys, the attorneys
have received illegal funds and are co-conspirators with
Fischer," Vattuone said in an e-mail to The Associated
Press.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the District of
Columbia, Channing D. Phillips, declined to comment,
citing court secrecy rules.
Fischer left the limelight for years before his 1992
winning match with Spassky. Since then, he's emerged in
radio broadcasts and on his Web page to express
anti-Semitic views and rail against the United States.
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