Love and Leverage

Reaching for his handkerchief, the silver-haired former United Nations official broke into sobs as he testified in a Manhattan federal court. "My heart tells me she loved me," he said. "My mind tells me, however, that she tried to leverage my connections at the U.N. to make a profit."

The weeping witness was John G. Stoessinger, 49, an Austrian-born political scientist who has had a career in public service and academe that seemed almost as distinguished as his wavy-haired good looks. But last September Stoessinger pleaded guilty to the concealment of a crime, a felony for which he could receive up to three years in prison. Last week as a Government witness, he publicly unraveled his convoluted personal and financial relationship with his ex-mistress, Anne Lament, 48, a somewhat faded Barbie doll blonde financier on trial for loan fraud.

A refugee from the Nazis, Stoessinger was a classmate of Henry Kissinger's at Harvard, where he received a Ph.D. Since then, Stoessinger has taught at M.I.T., Columbia and Hunter College. From 1967 until 1974 he was political affairs division chief for the U.N. Department of Political and Security Council Affairs. Married and the father of a young daughter, he has written eight books, including Henry Kissinger: The Anguish of Power, a laudatory account of the Secretary of State. But Lament's attorney charged that Stoessinger also had "an uncontrollable urge to buy stock." Stoessinger kept accounts with four brokerage houses and ran large loan balances with at least two New York banks. Despite a substantial income ($72,000 in 1972), his finances were in disarray by the early '70s.

Enter Anne Lament. Introduced to her by a mutual friend, Stoessinger soon became infatuated. "She said I was the only man she ever loved," he told the jury. Lament's background included two marriages, a decade at RCA as an executive secretary, stints at various brokerage houses, and some apparent expertise in international financing. According to Stoessinger, she promised to assist in raising funds for his two pet projects: the Institute on the U.N. at Hunter College and a world university to be established under U.N. auspices.

As Stoessinger told it, she needed letters of recommendation from him to European banks and foreign governments in order to complete certain overseas "fundings" that would bring in money for his projects. In 1972 and 1973 he wrote numerous letters for Lamont, many of them on U.N. stationery.

Lamont, according to Stoessinger's testimony, promised that she could get RCA to buy 400,000 copies of one of Stoessinger's books, Nations in Darkness. When the RCA purchase failed to materialize, Lamont reassured Stoessinger by personally advancing him first $50,000 and later $30,000. Stoessinger used the money to pay debts, including a $20,000 brokerage bill.

Fraudulent Dealings. Lament's sudden liquidity, federal prosecutors charged, was the result of fraudulent dealings. She allegedly obtained a $200,000 loan from a West Virginia bank. Then she struck a deal with John Barry, a Canadian who was looking for money to refinance his Toronto film studio; Barry gave her $60,000 in exchange for what he describes as a promise to raise $2 million for him from European banks. By the end of 1973 Barry had received neither his loan nor the return of his original deposit; he then alerted Stoessinger and went to the Canadian authorities. Later, a U.S. postal inspector showed up at Stoessinger's U.N. office to question him about the activities of his friend Anne Lamont.

Stoessinger admits now that he "did not immediately reveal the full extent" of his knowledge of her dealings. His subsequent cooperation with federal authorities will, however, probably win him more lenient treatment when he is sentenced on concealment charges next month. As for his ex-mistress, she faces from five to ten years in the slammer on fraud charges if she loses her case. It is expected to go to the jury next week.

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