Richard Babayan

Richard Babayan was a former arms broker and Central Intelligence Agency contract operative whose name appears across several of the major scandals investigated in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Hadron and PROMIS

Babayan was identified as a recipient of financial transfers from Earl Brian, head of the government consultancy firm Hadron, Inc. According to accounts assembled by researchers into the PROMIS scandal, Brian acted on behalf of Hadron - described as a CIA proprietary or cutout - in distributing a modified version of the PROMIS case-management software to foreign governments. Babayan reportedly received a check for approximately $6 million from Brian, an amount investigators connected to the commercialization of the PROMIS program.¹

Babayan later stated that Brian played a central role in marketing PROMIS to the governments of Iraq, Libya, and Korea, with Babayan serving as an intermediary in at least some of those transactions.¹

Maxwell and Australian Connection

Ari Ben-Menashe alleged that in 1987 the flow of funds from PROMIS sales extended to Robert Maxwell's Australian business operations. According to Ari Ben-Menashe's account, a contribution to the West Australian Labor Party passed through one of Maxwell's Australian companies and was deposited by the Pergamon Press Trust Fund in Moscow, with Babayan and Earl Brian acting on behalf of Hadron in facilitating the transaction.²

October Surprise Context

Babayan's name arose in investigators' research connected to the October Surprise allegations. He was among the Americans whose potential roles in Reagan campaign contacts with Iranian officials during the 1980 election were examined by congressional researchers and journalists covering the PROMIS cluster of cases. No formal finding established his direct involvement in the October Surprise negotiations.³