The Region - News from Dec. 5, 1986

Bank of America officials were ordered by a federal judge in Los Angeles to explain on Jan. 16 why they should not be held in contempt for refusing to turn $456,413 in Soviet assets over to Palo Alto businessman Ralph Gregorian, who has won a default judgment against the Soviet government newspaper Izvestia for calling him a spy. That amount in Soviet funds on deposit at Bank of America’s international trade division in New York was frozen last week, but Gregorian attorney Gerald Kroll told U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon in Los Angeles that bank officials have refused to transfer the money on the orders of a Soviet Union representative. That country reportedly is seeking to have the default judgment dismissed.