INVESTIGATIONS: More Questionable Campaign Cash

FIRST ITT, then Watergate—and now Vesco. Last week officials of the Committee for the Re-Election of the President (C.R.P.) admitted that it had received $200,000 in cash from the business executive most prominently involved in what a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission calls "one of the largest securities frauds ever perpetrated." In pretrial papers filed in a New York federal court, the commission contended that Vesco gave the cash, "in an attempt to influence the commission's investigation."

The donation was made by Robert L. Vesco, 37, a shrewd international financial operator. He...