--- alias: - Harold S. Geneen - Hal Geneen category: Other created: 2026-09-21 location: New York, New York summary: Chairman of ITT who in 1970 offered the CIA a fund to keep Salvador Allende from the Chilean presidency, swore to the Senate that ITT had done nothing, and was not charged with perjury. tags: - Person - HaroldGeneen - ITT - Chile - CIA - JohnMcCone - CorporateIntelligence updated: 2026-09-21 --- Harold S. Geneen was chairman and chief executive of [International Telephone and Telegraph](/organizations/itt-corporation/). His board included [John McCone](/people/john-mccone/), the former director of central intelligence, who testified that he had remained "a consultant to the Agency since I left the Agency in 1965."[^1] ### The Offers McCone testified that the board concluded in May or June 1970 that [Salvador Allende](/people/salvador-allende/) would win the Chilean election, and that he felt the government should be warned, "not only because of its effect on the business interests, but also because of its effect on the taxpayer," since there were "several hundred million dollars of OPIC guarantees, of which approximately $100 million were ITT's." On the instructions of Director [Richard Helms](/people/richard-helms/), [William Broe](/people/william-broe/), chief of the [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/)'s Western Hemisphere Division, met Geneen in his room at the Sheraton-Carlton Hotel on July 16, 1970. Broe testified that Geneen "offered to assemble a substantial fund" to support Jorge Alessandri, to be "controlled and channeled through the CIA," and that he refused it. After Allende's plurality in September, Geneen told McCone that he would put up as much as a million dollars for any government plan to stop Allende in the Chilean Congress. McCone took the offer to [Henry Kissinger](/people/henry-a-kissinger/) and Helms. On September 29, again on Helms's instructions, Broe called on the senior vice president [Edward Gerrity](/people/edward-gerrity/) in [New York](/places/new-york-city/) with proposals for creating economic instability in [Chile](/places/chile/), which both men testified Gerrity thought unworkable.[^1] ### Testimony Appearing with two lawyers in 1973, Geneen swore that ITT had taken no steps to block the election and had contributed no money "to any person or to any agency of any government" to that end. He said the company's concern was its 70 percent interest in the Chilean telephone company, an investment of 153 million dollars, which was seized on September 29, 1971. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation paid ITT 34.7 million dollars in cash in 1975 and guaranteed 59.4 million in Chilean obligations, its largest indemnity to that time.[^1][^2] The [Department of Justice](/organizations/department-of-justice/) investigated Geneen, Gerrity, and [Robert Berrellez](/people/robert-berrellez/) for perjury in 1977. On March 20, 1978, it charged the two subordinates. The grand jury was discharged without indicting anyone, and the wire report of the day stated that "the department decided not to prosecute ITT Chairman Harold Geneen." The cases against Gerrity and Berrellez were dropped in early 1979 after the defense sought classified material.[^3] [^1]: Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations, *Multinational Corporations and United States Foreign Policy,* hearings on the International Telephone and Telegraph Company and Chile, 93rd Cong., 1st sess., 1973, part 1, pp. 93-95, 394-395, and 457-458. https://archive.org/details/MultinationalCorporationsAndUSForeignPolicyUSSenateHearings [^2]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976,* vol. XXI, *Chile, 1969-1973,* document 322, note. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v21/d322 [^3]: "2 ITT Men Charged with Senate Lies," wire report, March 21, 1978, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030069-7.