Misuse Of Government Funds

In a quick gesture of damage control, the embarrassed Italian government Friday named new leadership for the country's largest bank amid a scandal over $2.6 billion in unauthorized export credits to Iraq made by a branch in the United States. Giampiero Cantoni, a well-known socialist who had been heading a bank in Milan, was named to replace Nerio Nesi as chairman of the troubled state-owned Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, known in the financial world by its initials as BNL.

In a quick gesture of damage control, the embarrassed Italian government Friday named new leadership for the country's largest bank amid a scandal over $2.6 billion in unauthorized export credits to Iraq made by a branch in the United States. Giampiero Cantoni, a well-known socialist who had been heading a bank in Milan, was named to replace Nerio Nesi as chairman of the troubled state-owned Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, known in the financial world by its initials as BNL.

Jose Abrantes, the former Cuban interior minister who was serving a 20-year prison sentence for negligence and misuse of government funds. Abrantes was jailed along with six of his aides after a drug-trafficking scandal that rocked Cuba in the summer of 1989. He was convicted of abuse of authority, negligence in his duties and improper use of government funds. He was stripped of his rank of general. The purge of the interior ministry followed the execution of Angola war hero Gen.

The highest-ranking official to be indicted in the House Post Office scandal pleaded guilty Thursday in an investigation that could target members of Congress. Former post office chief of staff Joanna G. O'Rourke, promising to cooperate with prosecutors, admitted two misdemeanors: embezzlement of government property and misuse of government funds by a public officer. Each carries a maximum penalty of a year in prison and a $100,000 fine. Assistant U.S. Atty.

After two years of court battles and about $800,000 in legal costs, city officials declared victory Thursday over local attorney Carlos F. Negrete, who had sued alleging government waste. Orange County Superior Court Judge David C. Velasquez on Wednesday dismissed the last part of Negrete's lawsuit that alleged misuse of government funds involving the city's $1-million purchase of the San Juan Capistrano Decorative Arts Study Center in 1988.

The independent counsel in the Iran- contra scandal has made retired Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord a formal target of his grand jury investigation, a source close to the investigation said Tuesday. The special counsel, Lawrence E. Walsh, has spoken with lawyers who represent the targets of his investigation and is likely to ask the grand jury in late September or October formally to issue indictments, the source said.

Mayor Marion Barry appeared under subpoena Thursday before a federal grand jury investigating his ties to a suspected drug dealer. Barry told reporters he had done nothing wrong and was not the target of the probe. "I'm not in trouble," Barry said as he headed into the grand jury's meeting room in the federal courthouse. "The public sometimes has the impression that going before a grand jury means that someone is guilty . . . but it only means they are investigating. That's the American way."

A U.S. attorney denied today that he exercised political favoritism in opting to pursue civil rather than criminal proceedings against the estranged wife of conservative syndicated columnist George F. Will, a close friend of the President and Nancy Reagan. WUSA-TV, a CBS affiliate, quoting sources, reported Wednesday that the House subcommittee on human resources and intergovernmental relations is investigating allegations that former U.S. Atty.

A special 13-judge criminal court in Athens early today acquitted former Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou of all charges against him in a $200-million financial scandal that was instrumental in driving his Socialist government from office in 1989. In dramatic conclusion to the most spectacular corruption trial in recent Greek history, the court found Papandreou innocent of masterminding an embezzlement at the privately owned Bank of Crete through the misuse of government funds.

Maj. Gen. David Hale, the Pentagon's former deputy inspector, "engaged in a pattern of inappropriate behavior," including an alleged affair with the wife of an officer on his staff and "improper relationships" with three other wives of subordinate officers, an internal Defense Department investigation has concluded.

Venezuela just took a democratic step closer to dictatorship. On Sunday, President Hugo Chavez won the right to seek reelection ad infinitum, prevailing in a referendum that eliminated term limits for the presidency and other elected offices.