November 22, 1986

The controversy over the Reagan Administration's policy toward Iran grew more heated today with reports that Iranian officials had paid at least $12 million for a shipment of 2,008 American-made anti-tank missiles and that the money had been deposited in a Swiss bank account. According to a source familiar with the transaction involving the missiles, known as TOW's, many of the armaments came from Israeli stockpiles. Israel, in turn, was said to have used the money from the Iranians to pay this country for replacements sent from American stocks. The House majority leader, Jim Wright of Texas, told reporters about the $12 million after he emerged from a closed-door House hearing at which the chief Administration witness was William J. Casey, the Director of Central Intelligence. Congressional sources said the money had been deposited in Switzerland.

Regulations prohibiting smoking in most indoor public areas were unanimously approved yesterday by the New York State Public Health Council, pending public hearings next month. The regulations would also require employers to set aside smoke-free areas for workers who request them. State health officials said they expected the regulations - among the most restrictive in the country - to be formally adopted by the 21-member council in January and to take effect three months later. ''The overwhelming sentiment of the council,'' said its chairman, Morton P. Hyman, ''is that an antismoking regulation should be adopted.''

Seven people, including two Chicago Aldermen, were indicted here today on Federal charges of corruption, fraud, extortion and illegal arms dealings. The indictments, which are expected to influence the outcome of the hotly contested mayoral elections here next spring, were long awaited, and other indictments are expected in coming months. The charges grew out of an undercover investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation into municipal corruption in the nation's third-largest city. A spinoff of the Chicago investigation, which involved bill collection agencies, led to corruption charges against several New Yorkers. The first trial in that case went to the jury today in New Haven. [ Page 33. ] Money in Return for Influence The most serious charges here today allege that the Aldermen, two of Chicago's 50 City Council members, in return for using their influence, took or demanded money from companies or individuals seeking to do business with the city. The payments, according to the indictments handed up by a Federal grand jury, included cash, money orders, free car rentals and repairs, meals and trips to Las Vegas and the Super Bowl.

The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission today defended the agency's action in permitting Ivan F. Boesky to sell $440 million in stocks while he was negotiating his insider trading settlement with the commission. The action produced an outcry on Wall Street. But the commission's chairman, John S. R. Shad, said permitting Mr. Boesky to trade was a carefully considered attempt to avoid a market panic. Mr. Shad said in an interview that the S.E.C. fully expected the market to decline in the wake of the settlement. Such a decline would have a sharp impact on Mr. Boesky's holdings, both because they were made up of especially sensitive stocks and because they were financed with large debts.

A senior Israeli official said today that the sale of American arms to Iran grew out of Israeli links with the Khomeini Government dating to 1979. The links were later fostered by an unusual relationship between a Saudi billionaire and Israeli businessmen, and they culminated in direct talks between the Reagan Administration and officials in Teheran, the official said. The official stressed that the Iranian-American connection originated with an offer by Israel to act on behalf of the United States. Washington, he said, explicitly accepted the offer. 'Explicit Approval' of U.S. In recent days, amid protest in Washington over the Reagan policy, Israeli officials have expressed concern about what they describe as a mountain of erroneous reports about their role, including suggestions that they led an unsuspecting Administration into a diplomatic mess.