Ultimately, the attorney general exonerated O’Leary. Reno concluded: “After an extensive review of the documents and more than 40 interviews, including an interview with Chung, investigators developed no evidence that she had anything to with the solicitation of the charitable donation.” However, Reno stated in supporting court documents that her explanation in this case had to be limited because an investigation continued into how O’Leary’s signature turned up on a letter inviting Chung and a Chinese delegation to attend a charity dinner where Clinton was expected.

LABOR SECRETARY ALEXIS HERMAN. Herman was accused of receiving or making an agreement to receive a 10 percent kickback for any business which she may have generated through the White House. One of close associates was Vanessa Weaver who operated International Investments and Business Development in Washington D.C. It was revealed that Weaver may have been pressured by Herman to contribute illegal funds to the DNC.

AGRICULTURE SECRETARY MIKE ESPY. In 1994, the secretary of agriculture was charged with accepting bribes from companies which he regulated. The primary issue revolved around the interpretation of what it meant to give, offer, or promise “anything of value” to a public official. Lobbyists who viewed the independent counsel's broad interpretation as a threat to the normal conduct of their business. Unlike the federal bribery statute, which requires proof of a quid pro quo, the gratuity statute is a more general statement which prohibits the gift or promise of “anything of value” to a public official “for or because of any official act performed or to be performed by such public official.”

Beginning in September 1994, Independent Counsel Donald Smaltz combed through documents to determine if Espy received tickets to sporting events, including the U.S. Open tennis tournament and games played by the Dallas Cowboys football team and the Chicago Bulls basketball team. Espy was not charged with bribery but under the gratuity law, with taking about $34,000 worth of tickets and other favors like luggage. In addition, Smaltz subpoenaed flight logs and notes of pilots working for Arkansas-based Tyson’s Foods whose owner, Don Tyson, had been a long-time patron of Clinton. Smaltz combed through evidence to determine if Tyson had arranged for cash bribes to be given to Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas.

Smaltz suffered two setbacks. First, lawyers from Tyson’s protested that none of the matters were within Smaltz’s jurisdiction, and a federal judge agreed and ordered Smaltz to stop his inquiry. Smaltz also suffered a second setback when a federal judge threw out charges that he had brought against Henry Espy, Espy’s brother. The judge ruled that the allegations were unrelated to the prosecutor’s scope of the investigation.

On the other hand, Smaltz had some successes as well. His two most notable victories were having Tyson's Foods agree to pay $6 million after pleading guilty to making illegal gifts to Espy. He also got Sun Diamond Growers, a California cooperative for growers of nuts, raisins and other dried fruits to pay a $1.5 million fine for illegally condoning gifts to Espy by its lobbyist. Smaltz argued that the law was violated anytime a gift was motivated by the recipient's official position. However, the Washington D.C. Court of Appeals overturned the conviction of Sun Diamond, and Smaltz appealed to the Supreme Court. The appeals court ruled that the gift had to be motivated not only by the recipient's position, but by some official act -- either a reward for a past act or an inducement for a future one.

While the prosecution called 70 witnesses to testify against Espy, the defendant presented no witnesses in his defense. After only two days of deliberation, the four year investigation ended when the federal jury acquitted Espy on all 30 counts brought by Smaltz. Espy said, “It’s cost a lot, it's been tough but I knew from day one that I would stand here before you completely exonerated.” The estimated cost of the four year investigation was $20 million.

In June 1999, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the appeal of Espy. The court ruled that simply giving gifts to a federal official, without any demonstrated connection between the gifts and the official’s actions, did not violate the law against illegal gratuities. Justice Scalia said that the law’s “insistence upon an ‘official act,’ carefully defined, seems pregnant with the requirement that some particular official act be identified and proved.” Although Sun-Diamond's members had interests in two regulatory issues before the Agriculture Department, Scalia said that the prosecutor made no effort to link the gifts to any particular action that Sun-Diamond wanted to encourage or reward. Scalia said that Smaltz's broad view would produce “peculiar results,” like potentially criminalizing “a high school principal's gift of a school baseball cap to the secretary of education, by reason of his office, on the occasion of the latter's visit to the school.”

HUD SECRETARY HENRY CISNEROS. When Cisneros was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, he denied that he had lied to FBI investigators about a former mistress. However, a subsequent investigation revealed that Cisneros may have paid off his former mistress. As a result Cisneros was indicted in federal court.

Cisneros claimed that he had paid her only $60,000 after their 1988 breakup. However, prosecutors claimed that the amount was closer to $250,000. Medlar alleged, and some tapes support her contention, that Cisneros promised to pay her $4,000 a month after their high-profile romance and breakup resulted in her loss of clients as a political fund-raiser and her inability to find other employment.

In July 1999, Judge Stanley Sporkin allowed prosecutors to introduce parts of 22 secretly recorded telephone conversations in an attempt to prove that Cisneros lied to FBI agents about payments to his former mistress. Sporkin said that he had no reason to keep jurors from hearing the taped dialogue with Linda Medlar and Cisneros.

However, a quick halt came to the proceedings in September 1999 when Cisneros pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of lying to the FBI about payments to a former mistress. Under a plea agreement, Cisneros paid a fine of $10,000. He was not placed on probation. By plea bargaining Cisneros avoided both a trial on 18 felony charges and jail time.

This ended a four year and $10 million investigation. He would have faced up to five years in jail on each count in what probably would have been the last criminal trial conducted under the independent counsel law. This plea agreement also meant that the last four cases brought by independent counsels ended in setbacks to three prosecutors.

THE OVERSEAS PRIVATE INVESTMENT CORPORATION -- OPIC. OPIC was a relatively unknown government entity which provides long-term secured loans and loan guarantees backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. There is no competitive bidding or public process for soliciting and evaluating proposals to establish OPIC-backed funds. With only a few exceptions, OPIC will not disclose who invests in the funds, what projects are being financed, and how well the funds are performing. Annual reports and audits of the funds are off-limits to the taxpayers shouldering the risks. Since most of the fund sponsors are privately held firms, it takes considerable detective work just to identify the partners.

The OPIC investment fund program originated in the Reagan administration with the 1987 creation of the $25 million Africa Growth Fund. Under President Bush the $75 million Asia Pacific Growth Fund was created. Those were the only OPIC funds that existed when President Clinton took office in 1993. When the Clinton administration took office in 1993, there were just two OPIC investment funds, capitalized at $100 million. By the end of Clinton’s first term, 22 new funds valued at $3.1 billion had been created. Many are sponsored or managed by major Democratic Party fund-raisers or contributors and others with strong political ties.

The funds increased during Clinton’s first term, when OPIC created 22 new ones which included 13 funds launched during the 1995-96 election cycle:

The South Asia Integration Fund valued at $150 million was sponsored by the Ziff Brothers Investments and was approved in March 1996. Five weeks before, Dirk Ziff, who heads the firm, had attended a White House coffee with Clinton. He also spent the night in the Lincoln bedroom, and he has been a large supporter of the Clinton campaign. He and his brothers gave $400,000 in the 1995-96 election cycle to the DNC and to Democratic candidates.

The Israel Growth Fund ($40 million) is owned by Apax Partners and was approved in July 1993. Alan Patricof is the chairman of the United States branch. He attended several White House coffees and stayed overnight in the Lincoln bedroom. He and his wife gave $140,000 to Democratic candidates and the DNC in 1995-96. In early 1998, Clinton raised an estimated $600,000 for the DNC at a fund-raiser which was hosted by Patricof. He also supported Clinton since 1992 when he solicited funds as a volunteer for “Entrepreneurs for Clinton/Gore.” Clinton named Patricof chairman of the 1995 White House Conference on Small Business. The Israel Growth Fund was one of the few which consented to release its major investors. These included Archer Daniels Midland Corporation, Continental Casualty, Cowen & Company, and Zenith Insurance.

The CEENIS Property Fund ($240 million) was sponsored by Audurndale Properties and was approved in January 1995. The fund invests in Central and Eastern Europe. Audurndale is headed by Steven Green who also was an ardent supporter of Clinton. On one occasion he gave enough contributions to stay overnight in the Lincoln bedroom. He also participated in trade missions headed by Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and was appointed to the President’s Export Council.

The Allied Small Business Fund ($20 million) was sponsored by the Allied Capital Corporation of Washington D.C. and was approved in March 1995. The company was a client of White House Chief of Starr Erskine Bowles before he joined the Clinton Administration. Bowles contacted Allied Capital in 1994 to seek work for former Justice Department counsel Webster Hubbell. Bowles headed the Small Business Administration (SBA) at that time, and Allied Capital was an SBA lender under the Small Business Investment Corporation program. The Global Environment Fund Corporation has two emerging funds. First there is the Emerging Markets Fund ($70 million) which was approved in September 1993. Second, the Emerging Markets Fund II began operations in March 1996. President H. Jeffrey Leonard attended a White House coffee with Gore in December 1996.

The New African Opportunity Fund ($120 million) was sponsored by Sloan Financial Corporation of Durham, North Carolina and was approved in May 1996. It is headed by Maceo Sloan who is also treasurer of the Mobilization for Economic Opportunities political action committee. A leading supporter of the fund is Senator Jesse Helms who was an ardent opponent of economic sanctions against South Africa’s former apartheid regime.

THE INVESTIGATION CONTINUES.

THE FAR EAST CONNECTION: THE RIADY FAMILY -- THE LIPPO GROUP -- JOHN HUANG. The Lippo Group was a Jakarta, Indonesian multi-billion dollar real estate conglomerate, owned by the Riady family and led by its senior member, Mochtar, and by his son James. The corporation was divided into 143 subsidiaries with joint ventures in 11 different countries including the United States.

The groundwork for fund-raising dated back to December 1991 when DNC chair Ron Brown, along with Huang, led a 10-day delegation to the Far East. Brown’s objective was to lay the groundwork for fund-raising in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. Two months before they departed, DNC aide Melinda Yee boasted that the entourage would bring in donations from more than seven lunches, dinners, and receptions in Taiwan. In Hong Kong she predicted that the DNC would bring in cash through two events hosted by Lippo Group's John Huang who was seeking closer ties to prominent American government officials.

In an October 1991 memo to Brown, two months before they departed, Yee said that Huang was offered to host an event in Hong Kong with a goal of $50,000. She referred to him as the key to Hong Kong. A month later, Yee wrote Brown that a Taiwanese, Maria Hsia was working to secure campaign money there. Yee wrote that the Taiwanese government would pay for the group’s airfare and other costs in Taiwan and that Huang would do the same in Hong Kong.

When Brown's delegation visited Taiwan, the Lippo Group hoped to persuade American senators to lobby the Taiwan government to ease its banking rules so their family’s Bank of Trade could open an office in Taipei.

However, DNC officials refuted these charges, stating that they “do not know if any fund-raising contacts were mad” in late 1991 or early 1992. The DNC also reported that there was no indication that the party paid for the trip, indicating that perhaps the Kuomintang, Taiwan's ruling party, may have financed part or all of it. Finally, the DNC could neither confirm whether Huang was part of the Democratic delegation participation nor could it explain his role with Lippo.

The Riadys have known the Clintons since the 1980s when the Indonesian family was involved in business ventures in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Riadys hired Johnny Huang, a naturalized American citizen, as his chief American executive. Since that time, the Riady family contributed at least $854,700 to the Democratic Party through various entities. The Riadys have donated over $700,000 to the DNC. Allegations are that the DNC exchanged access for donations.

The money trail continued into the 1992 election year. On August 12, 1992, just weeks after Clinton received the Democratic presidential nomination, one of the Lippo Group’s subsidiaries in the United States included Hip Hing Holdings, a real estate company located in Rosemead, California, offered a $50,000 donation to the DNC fund. On August 17 Huang telephoned Lippo headquarters in Jakarta to wire money to the Lippo Bank in Los Angeles to cover expenses by contributing $50,000. Juliana Utomo, an employee at Hip Hing Holdings, signed the $50,000 check over to Huang. She testified to the Senate committee that she had no knowledge that “DNC” stood for the “Democratic National Committee.”

When this evidence was exposed by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee on July 15, 1997, the DNC hoped to downplay any suggestion that Huang was attempting to gain access to the White House. The party immediately returned the $50,000 check. DNC spokesperson Steve Langdon stated that if he had known the contribution was illegal, it would not have been accepted.

By the time of the November 1992 election, Lippo donations had totaled $131,800. While the chief American executive working for the Lippo Group, Huang received an annual salary of $788,750. When he left Lippo in 1994, he was given a $700,000 bonus to join the Commerce Department which granted him top secret clearance.

Several high ranking Democrats, including Senators Paul Simon of Illinois, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, and Kent Conrad of North Dakota, recommended Huang for his position at the Commerce Department. However, only one person, Maeley Tom, made reference to the Riady family and the Lippo Group as well as to campaign contributions. Tom was both a Lippo Group consultant and a member of the executive committee of the DNC. She wrote a memo to the White House, stating that the Lippo Group was the political power that advised the Riady family on issues and where to make contributions and that the Riadys invested heavily in the Clinton campaign. After leaving Lippo and being hired on to the Commerce Department, Huang had 61 contacts with Tom over a span of his 17 month tenure.

Huang took a considerable cut in pay to become deputy assistant secretary for international economic policy in the Commerce Department. He held a mid-level position and his top secret clearance provided him with information in regard to sensitive international economic information. He was in a prime position where he could help formulate the Commerce Department's policy with Asian countries such as Indonesia, the home base for the Lippo Group. While in the Commerce Department, Huang received regular intelligence briefings on Asia because he was “an Asian specialist" and "responsible for the Asian portfolio,” according to a CIA liaison to the Commerce Department. CIA agent John Dickerson testified that he had briefed Huang on 37 occasions in regard to secret matters concerning Asia. Huang also attended 107 meetings at which classified intelligence information may have been on the agenda.

White House officials disputed the allegation that Huang was hired because of his connection with Lippo and his contributions to the Clinton campaign. White House special counsel Lanny Davis stated that Huang's appointment was “based on his qualifications, including his business experience, his support from the Asian-American community, and his support from state and federal officials.”

Huang was with the Commerce Department from July 1994 to December 1995 while his contacts with Lippo continued. According to information obtained by Republican Senator Susan Collins, Huang called Lippo over 400 times, amounting to an average of more than one call per day. In addition, he placed 49 calls to Riady attorney Joseph Giroir in Little Rock. It is not clear whether Huang passed secret government data to foreign companies or governments. Officials in the Commerce Department downplayed Huang's role, stating that he played a minimal role in developing United States-Asian economic policy.

During the 17 months that Huang worked at the Commerce Department, he frequently walked across the street to Stephens Incorporated where he was given a private office. Stephens was an Arkansas-based financial corporation which has had long-lasting ties with Lippo. While at his office at Stephens, Huang made over 400 phone calls as well as picking up faxes and packages. This presented Huang with the opportunity to pass on secret information which he had accessed at the Commerce Department.

Despite the fact that the CIA claimed that it was not aware of this, BCCI officials knew of the government’s arms sales to Iran at the time that it was kept secret by Reagan and when the administration was aware that BCCI was a criminal organization.

In September 1995, Clinton and senior aide Bruce Lindsey met with Huang, James Riady, and Joseph Giroir from Arkansas. While the White House characterized the Riady meetings as “social” visits, the Clinton administration did disclose that the Huang’s move from the Commerce Department to the DNC was discussed at that meeting. The White House contended that Huang “volunteered” for the fund-raising post at the DNC. On as many as 16 occasions, top level Clinton officials urged the DNC to hire Huang. Seven of those requests came from Giroir. When Huang was finally offered the fund-raising position, he was given an annual salary of $60,00 plus the chance to earn up to another $60,000 in bonuses based on his performance.

After leaving the Commerce Department in December 1995, Huang became a DNC fund-raiser and still maintained the same security clearance for an entire year. With the DNC, he raised $3.4 million in questionable contributions from the Asian community. During Clinton's 1996 campaign, Lippo executives contributed $854,300. In 1997 the DNC has since returned $1.5 million in questionable donations.

Ethel Chen of New York stated that Huang had told her that Asian-Americans needed to give donations in order for their community to maintain political credibility. Chen and others handed about $10,000 in checks to Huang.

In addition, Maria Hsia assisted Brown in the 1996 DNC fund-raiser at a Buddhist temple in Hacienda Heights, California. She was to set up two lunches and a dinner in Taipei. After leaving the Commerce Department in December 1995, Huang became a DNC fund-raiser and still maintained the same security clearance for an entire year. With an official with the DNC he raised $3.4 million in questionable contributions from the Asian community. During Clinton’s 1996 campaign Lippo executives contributed $854,300. In 1997 the DNC returned $1.5 million in questionable donations. Hsia’s federal trial for election law violations began in February 2000. She was charged with “willfully and deliberately” concealing the source of illegal political donations that were gathered at a Buddhist temple and given to the Clinton-Gore reelection campaign “to advance her own business.”

Ethel Chen of New York stated that Huang had told her that Asian-Americans needed to give donations in order for their community to maintain political credibility. Chen and others handed about $10,000 in checks to Huang.

In 1997, former DNC fund-raiser Richard Sullivan testified before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. He stated that he disapproved of Huang's overseas solicitation of donations. Sullivan said, “If I had any indication that John Huang would raise foreign money, I would have walked him into the elevator and walked him out of the building.” He also stated that he opposed the White House coffees for fund-raising purposes. Sullivan continued: “We did not charge people to come to the coffee. Now I'm not saying that somebody didn’t say, ‘if you make a contribution of $25,000, there's a good chance that I can get you invited.’ ”

HUANG’S TESTIMONY TO THE FBI AND THE HOUSE GOVERNMENT REFORM COMMITTEE. Huang testified to the FBI that Riady’s arrangements to funnel money to the Clinton-Gore campaign in 1992. He said that he helped raise $700,000 for Clinton’s 1992 campaign for the White House through an illegal conduit scheme involving foreign money. Huang said that Riady promised Clinton that he would raise $1 million for his presidential campaign. Ultimately, Riady and Huang funneled approximately $700,000 from Indonesia through Riady’s employees and subsidiaries at the Lippo Group to the DNC.

The House Government Reform Committee granted immunity to Huang in order to force him to testify about any illegalities which had occurred in DNC fund-raising. Committee chairman Burton said that Huang “got the bank account numbers from some of these employees and passed them on to Lippo Group headquarters in Jakarta to make sure that they got reimbursed.” Burton also suggested that Riady be prosecuted.

In December 1999, Huang testified before the House Government Reform Committee about fund-raising efforts which he made employed by the Lippo Group. He told the committee that he arranged about $1 million in illegal contributions for the DNC, a promise which had been made by Riady in the 1992 campaign. Huang also said that the contributions were made by American donors who then were reimbursed by the businessman’s company. When asked about a 1992 limousine ride during which Riady personally promised Clinton he would raise $1 million for him, Huang replied that that Riady had recounted the conversation to him moments afterward. Huang was also asked whether he thought the contributions from Riady would be illegal. Huang responded by saying that he thought Riady “still had green card status” in 1992 and maintained a home in the United States, thus making him eligible to make contributions.

Huang also testified that Riady gave him an $18,000 gift in late 1997and another $20,000 gift in 1998. Additionally, Huang said that he received travel expenses in 1999 while under investigation by the Justice Department and Congress. He testified that the travel money was a gift from Riady because he was out of work, but said that the DOJ approved the 1998 and 1999 trips to visit Riady abroad.

Huang denied that he had knowledge that Clinton or Gore knew of illegal fund raising; that the president sold foreign policy decisions for contributions; that Huang was a spy for China or Lippo; or that Huang was part of a Chinese conspiracy to influence the 1996 election. However, he did acknowledge that the Lippo Group had business connections with Chinese firms in Hong Kong. Huang said, “I don't believe the president knew” that Riady’s promise involved illegal foreign money. He also claimed that he did not know why Riady wanted to raise $1 million for Clinton’s campaign but thought that it was for him “to create a bigger impact” and that would “get attention” and “better access.” When asked by Burton whether Riady hoped to obtain anything in return for his donations, Huang responded, “Oh no, no sir. He likes to help his friends.” He said that Riady “can tell people in Asia he knows President Clinton.”

INDONESIA’S HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD. After gaining independence from the Dutch in 1949, democracy was ushered in by Sukarno. However, he refused to be a pawn of the United States, and the United States branded him a communist. In 1958 the CIA took direct military action against the Sukarno government, and in 1965 the agency finally succeeded in toppling his government. The CIA helped to prop up a right wing military regime under Suharto, and this repressive authoritarian government was responsible for the incarceration of 750,000 Indonesians and the death of between 500,000 and one million others. In 1975 Suharto’s military invaded and annexed East Timor, indiscriminately killing 200,000 of its 700,000 civilians. Since the 1960s all the American presidents have supported the Suharto regime, and United States-Indonesian trade continued. Ninety percent of Indonesian military hardware is furnished by American corporations.

In 1992, presidential candidate Clinton stated that American policy on East Timor was “unconscionable.” Yet as president, he merely banned the sale of small arms to Indonesia. His administration provided Indonesia with $300 million in economic assistance and sold the rightist regime tens of millions of dollars of military hardware, including 20 F-16 fighters. Indonesia’s economic importance heavily outweighed its human rights violations.

Lippo’s connection to the Clinton administration may have influenced American foreign policy with the repressive Suharto regime in Indonesia. During Clinton’s first year in the White House, the administration conducted an investigation into Indonesia's dismal labor policy. One consideration was for the United States to sever Indonesia’s trade privileges. In 1993 Clinton’s trade representative, Mickey Kantor, met with James Riady on at least two occasions, along with representatives of multinational corporations and American business representatives in Indonesia. They reviewed the impact of the charge of the country’s labor policy on American firms doing business. In February 1994 Kantor announced that the White House was terminating its investigation and that Indonesia’s trade privileges -- worth over $600 million in sales to Indonesian companies -- would be continued.

In May and June 1997, protests against the Indonesian regime took place at the American embassy. Democratic Congressman Patrick Kennedy of Massachusetts demanded that the United States suspend all economic aid and military training to Indonesia. Yet the United States has continued to maintain healthy relations with the Indonesian regime, even after Suharto stepped down in mid-1998.

By 2000, there were still dozens of prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in custody in Indonesia. Most are people with links to the Indonesian Communist Party and have been incarcerated for over 30 years and are suffering serious health problems.

JOHNNY CHUNG. A struggling California fax machine dealer, Chung first gave $11,000 to the DNC on August 2, 1994 at a birthday party for President Clinton. Nearly five months later, Chung introduced the chairperson of Haomen Group, a Chinese beer company, to the Clintons at a White House Christmas party in 1995. Less than three months later Chung deposited a $150,000 check from Haomen Group into his Cerritos, California bank checking account. At that time his balance was a mere $9,000. Three days later Chung personally gave Maggie Williams, Hillary’s secretary, a check for $50,000. Two days later Chung and five Chinese businessmen were given last minute clearance to sit in the Oval Office, while Clinton delivered his weekly radio address.

Chung managed to contribute $360,000 overall to the DNC. He was rewarded with at least 49 visits to the White House to see the Clintons and other top level officials. In addition Chung gave $10,000 to the senatorial campaign of Massachusetts’ John Kerry as well as $20,000 to the Clinton-Gore campaign in 1995. The Kerry campaign returned the entire $10,000 and the DNC sent back $366,000 to Chung.

In June 1996, Chung visited Beijing and was introduced to Colonel Liu Chao-ying of the China's People's Liberation Army. The two were were introduced by the daughter of retired General Liu Huaqing. provided $100,000 which he gave to the DNC. Chung claimed that he was not working on behalf of the Chinese government when he had business dealings with Liu who was also an executive in an aerospace business.

The next month, Chung helped Liu obtain a visa, and the two attended a DNC fund-raiser at a private Los Angeles home. On August 9 both Ching and Liu formed Maswell Investment Corporation in Los Angeles. Two days later, they were in Hong Kong , and Liu introduced General Ji Shengde, a Chinese intelligence chief, to Chung. Using an assumed name, Ji asked Chung to act as a conduit for campaign donations to the Clinton reelection campaign. According to interviews and documents secured by the Los Angeles Times, Chung returned to his Hong Kong home after his visit with Ji, and he hired Ji’s son, a UCLA student, to work in his Torrance fax business.

Chung said that he met a total of three times beginning in 1996 with Ji who ordered $300,000 in Beijing deposited in his Torrance, California bank account to subsidize Clinton’s campaign. In their first encounter in Hong Kong on August 11, 1996, Chung testified that Ji’s comment was: “We like your president.” On August 14 Chung testified that Liu wired $300,000 to Chung’s Hong Kong bank., and later Chung donated a portion of those funds to the DNC. A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington D.C. categorically denied such donations.

Chung also stated that Liu said that she that she and Shengde Ji relied on others to fund the DNC. Ji worked directly for Xiong Guangkai, the deputy chief of staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, and Xiong supervised intelligence and foreign policy for the army.

In March 1997, Chung began to work with federal investigators. He gave access to his Hong Kong bank account to federal investigators who began to trace the origins of the $300,000. A year later, Chung became the fourth person to be charged with in illegal fund-raising activities. He pleaded guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud, and election law violations. In June he told DOJ investigators that he knowingly solicited and accepted illegal donations from top DNC officials. He claimed that former DNC chair Richard Sullivan personally asked him for a $125,000 donation in April 1995. Sullivan denied such allegations.

In December, a Los Angeles federal court judge sentenced Chung to five years of probation and 3,000 hours of community service. Chung could have received the maximum of 37 years in prison and a $1.45 million fine. Judge Manuel Real also admonished Reno for “eschewing” the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate allegations of illegal campaign fund-raising.

YAH LIN "CHARLIE" TRIE. A Taiwanese citizen, Trie emigrated to Little Rock and became a restauranteur in the 1980s and soon became friends with the Clintons. A week after he was elected president in 1992, Clinton wrote Trie a letter wishing him success in his new venture in the opening of a Chinese branch of his new company, Daihatsu International Trading Incorporated. Trie used the letter in his efforts to open doors and attract more business both in the United States and in Asia.

Beginning in 1994, Trie and his wife, Wang Mei Trie, donated $202,000 of their own money to the DNC. Federal election records indicated that Trie made donations to the DNC of $60,000 and $20,000 on May 12, 1994. An eyewitness claimed that Ng opened a suitcase filled with $20,000 in cash and turned it over to Trie. That same year records indicated that Trie and his wife only earned $101,000 in 1994. A check for $100,000 was transferred to Trie's account at the First Commercial Bank of Little Rock from the Lippo Bank of Los Angeles account of the Lucky Port firm. Lucky Port Development Corporation and Lucky Port Investments Corporations have offices in Hong Kong.

The Associated Press obtained an FBI summary in which Trie admitted that Indonesian businessman, Tomy Winata, sent him $200,000 in travelers checks. A 74 page FBI report was released to the Associated Press in February 2000. The documents detailed illicit foreign fund-raising by Trie while he was requesting a private meeting with Clinton. However, there was no indication whether a Clinton-Winata meeting ever occurred. Trie’s other sources included Suma Ching Hai, the spiritual leader of a Buddhist sect in Taiwan bearing her name, and business partner Ng Lap Seng, a Macao gambling resort owner with business interests in China.

Trie met Winata in 1994 at an Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation session in Seattle. Winata managed business interests of the Indonesian army and was the partner of one of President Suharto’s sons in a satellite communications enterprise and a business associate of Liu Chaoying who had close ties to the general in charge of China’s military intelligence. Trie later told the FBI that he raised at least $500,000 for the DNC event from Winata and other sources -- nearly three times the amount credited to Trie in official DNC records. Much of the foreign funds were laundered through bank accounts of Asian Americans, many of whom did not attend the dinner. The day after the fund-raiser, Trie arranged for 17 people to tour the White House, including the Winata aides. He set up a White House tour for Winata’s wife and two children at a later time.

According to Chung’s grand jury testimony, Liu gave him $300,000 under orders from the military intelligence chief to help Clinton’s reelection campaign. In early 1996 Trie tried to arrange for Winata to sit with Clinton at the head table during a DNC fund-raiser in Washington. But Winata refused to attend, instead hoping for a private meeting with Clinton. When that failed to materialize, Winata sent two top aides to the political event at the Hay-Adams Hotel -- along with $200,000 in travelers checks issued by a Jakarta bank.

Trie told the FBI that in June 1994 that he spent $100,000 provided by Seng to purchase two seats at the head table at a presidential gala in Washington D.C. Trie said that he gave $700 or $800 in cash to Terence McAuliffe, the DNC finance chairman who later became a powerful fund-raiser for Clinton. Trie told the FBI that he used the Arkansas driver’s license of his secretary’s husband to get Chich Chong (Simon Chien) into a White House dinner on December 13, 1996 after the fund-raising scandal over foreign donations broke following the 1996 election. Upon arrival at Secret Service checkpoints, a photo identification was required, but Trie still succeeded in getting Chong into the White House. Trie added that he did not want people thinking that “he was bringing another foreigner into the White House.” Trie apologized to Clinton on the receiving line for controversy his fund-raising efforts caused, saying “Sorry for all the trouble.” A few days later, Trie fled the United States to avoid authorities investigating fund-raising improprieties. The FBI report showed that Trie got what he sought in bringing Chien to the White House. After being photographed with Clinton, Chong signed a contract with one of Trie’s companies. According to Trie’s account, Clinton was not surprised at seeing Trie in the White House with another foreign visitor. A week later Clinton acknowledged that it had been “clearly inappropriate” for a previous Trie guest -- Wang Jun, the head of a Chinese weapons trading firm -- to attend a White House coffee reception earlier that year.

Chong’s appearance at the White House gala was not discovered until a year later when the Justice Department’s Campaign Financing Task Force obtained White House photographs. But investigators could not identify Trie’s guest. Justice officials sent a copy of the photo to Clinton, but the president could not identify Chong either. Nearly five years later in February 2000, White House spokesman Jim Kennedy said, “As we have said before, the president had no knowledge of, or reason to suspect, problems in campaign fund-raising. Nothing in the many investigations since that time has demonstrated otherwise.

By 1995, Trie began working with John Huang, raising money for the DNC. In 1996 Trie raised over $900,000 for the DNC. One of his successes involved Yue Chu and Xi Ping Wang. These two women were asked by one of Trie’s associates, Ng Lap Seng, to handle front money for donations. Ng said he wanted to attend a DNC function so that he could meet Clinton but was unable to purchase a ticket to the event himself because he was a non-citizen and non-resident. Ng asked the women for a check to the DNC, and he later reimbursed them. Wang wrote out a $5,000 check to the DNC on February 19, 1996 and was reimbursed from Trie’s Washington account the same day. Chu donated two checks for $7,500 and $12,500 on the same day and was also reimbursed the same day. This fund-raiser netted a total of $1.1 million. Records indicated that in February 1996 $150,000 was wired from San Kin Yip Holding Company, a Macao-based corporation owned by both Trie and Ng, via the Bank of China in Hong Kong to a Trie bank account in Washington.

In July 1997, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee granted immunity to Wang and Chu in exchange for their testimony. According to a Senate investigative memo, Chu told investigators that she had participated in the “scheme” as a favor to her husband’s boss. They testified how they made straw donations of $20,000 and $5,000 to the DNC. Both Chu and Wang are permanent American residents and could make the donations legally. However, they conceded that they were reimbursed by an employee of Ng.

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee also subpoenaed Michael Cordoza, executive director of the Presidential Legal Expense Trust. He testified that Trie hoped to turn over another $150,000 to the DNC in May 1996. However, this offer was rejected because Cordoza already had too many suspicions about the earlier money.

FBI agent Jerome Campane also testified before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. He knew Trie from his days in Little Rock in the 1970s and 1980s where he was a restauranteur. Campane stated that Trie received a steady stream of funds from foreign sources. He further testified that investigators tracked at least $220,000 in foreign money flowing through Trie-controlled bank accounts and into the treasury of the Democratic National Committee from 1994 through 1996.

Campane testified that Trie carried as little as $400 in his checking accounts. Campane also stated that Trie was given $905,000 from Ng, so Trie could write big checks to the DNC. When asked if these contributions appeared to look like money laundering, Campane stated, “That's what we call in the business a slam dunk.” Campane said bank records showed Trie received at least 41 wire transfers worth $1.4 million from foreign bank accounts based in China, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. He said that Trie’s account at the First Commercial Bank that had a balance of $472. One day later, Trie transferred $20,000 into his personal account at First Commercial which had a balance of $414. Six days later, Trie donated $20,000 to the DNC. In October 1994 $100,000 was wired from Ng’s account at the Bank of China’s Macao to a First Commercial account belonging to San Kin Yip International Trading Corporation in Little Rock. The firm was founded by Ng and was well known to Trie who donated $15,000 to the DNC the next day.

Campane also testified that the Charoen Pokphand Group (CP) of Thailand wired $100,000 to Trie in May 1996. Only two weeks before, several of the corporation’s representatives attended a White House coffee with Clinton. Chareon Pokphand was an agricultural conglomerate which is the largest foreign investor in China. That coffee was arranged by Huang at the request of lobbyist Pauline Kanchanalak, another major DNC donor. Among those who attended the White House coffee fund-raiser were CP chief executive Dhanin Chearavont and his brother, both of whom are ethnic Chinese and have ties to China. Of the $100,000 from CP, Trie converted $50,000 into cash. He used some of it to write a check to Huang for $1,700. Campane testified that Trie wrote another $50,000 in checks to cash, all funded by overseas wire transfers, most of it from Ng.

Manlin Foung, Trie’s sister who once operated a Little Rock restaurant with her brother, testified in October 1997 to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee. Foung was questioned about what she knew of her brother's extensive fund-raising activities. Burton attempted to show how Foung became a “straw donor” for money emanating from foreign sources. Foung said that she was asked to make donations to the Democratic Party and that she would be reimbursed -- a practice barred by federal campaign-finance law. She revealed how she got $10,000 in cash or money orders from Trie so it could be given to the DNC for a presidential birthday party. Burton said that investigators had traced the $10,000 to a bank in China and that it may very well have come from a Chinese source in the government. Foung said that she and close friend Joseph Landon sent $35,000 to the Democrats in 1996 as a favor to Trie. Testifying under congressional immunity, she said that the whole fund-raising process was like a football game. The House panel also called Landon and David Wang, a California donor to the Democratic Party. Landon's $12,500 donation to the DNC in February 1996 was subsequently returned because of concerns about the origin of the money.

In October 1997, The House Government Reform and Oversight Committee focused on an earlie request from Trie, in which Foung and Landon agreed to donate $25,000 in January 1996. House investigators said the money started out in a Hong Kong bank account. Pan transferred $25,200 to a New York bank and minutes later sent five $5,000 checks to Foung and Landon. House investigators do not know the ultimate source of Pan’s money, but they noted that he worked closely with Trie and Huang.

During the midst of the 1996 Clinton-Gore reelection campaign, Trie was appointed to the Presidential Commission on United States Trade and Investment Policy. But this came only after its 19-member status was changed. According to e-mail messages, in January 1996, Clinton signed an Executive Order 12987 which expanded the membership of the commission. United States Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky accepted Trie’s appointment while discounting any problems with potential conflicts of interest. While on the trade panel, Trie mingled with CEOs and leading experts on Asian trade. He attended meetings to discuss policy recommendations, and he accompanied fellow commissioners on a trip to Asia.

Yet, the commission’s other 19 members still needed waivers in the event that their financial interests in Asian businesses posed a potential conflict of interest. The waivers were approved for all but two members. In May 1996 a trade commission memo stamped “Highly Confidential” declared that Trie’s interest in Daihatsu and two other companies was such that he had a “disqualifying financial interest.” However, no action was taken by the commission despite the fact that government regulations permit the disqualification to be excused if the need for a member's participation is so great that it outweighs the potential for a conflict. The commission proposed a waiver memo for Trie by stating that he had a special expertise in dealing with Asian and Pacific markets. In addition the commission concluded that Trie’s services were essential to the United States because he could provide sound advice to Clinton.

Investigators became suspicious after Trie was appointed to the trade panel. The Los Angeles Times (March 10, 2000) leaked a 90 page report DOJ report that indicated Trie was appointed shortly after he delivered $640,000 in donations from a Taiwan-based Buddhist sect to the president’s legal defense trust fund. The trust was set up to handle the Clintons’ private legal bills in the Whitewater and Paula Jones cases. A document in the leaked report called this “a potential quid pro quo” that should have been investigated by an independent counsel.

This was kept secret until the November 1996 election. Trie delivered two installments of $640,000 to the Clinton fund. Although the money was eventually returned, the fund’s director stated that the accounting methods were changed, so the money would not show up on a public report. According to Cordoza who oversaw the trust fund, Trie delivered the first checks from a Buddhist sect. Most of the money was in individual $1,000 checks and money orders. When Trie met Suma Ching Hai early in Taiwan in 1996, she asked how she could help Clinton. Trie suggested that she donate $50,000 to the president’s legal defense trust fund. Soon afterwards, she was given half a million dollars in cash. Concerned about carrying so much money, Trie stuffed his jacket into the bag and flew to Hong Kong. Cordoza later testified that he became suspicious because some of the checks allegedly came from different donors, but they had identical handwriting. Additionally, many of the donors failed to correctly list their addresses.

After Trie delivered the checks from the Buddhist group, Ickes and Hillary Clinton met with the defense fund trustee and agreed to return the entire amount on grounds that it illegally came from foreign sources. According to the report, neither the Clintons nor Ickes informed the DNC that Trie was suspected of bringing in foreign donations to the DNC and that they had a fiduciary responsibility to alert Democratic officials of the irregularities.

Trie continued to supply the DNC war chest with campaign donations. In August 1996 he attended the Clinton’s fiftieth birthday party and handed over 15 checks, totaling over $100,000, to DNC officials. The DNC claimed that it was unable to locate some of the people whose names were on those checks. Kun-Cheng Yeh, who donated $10,000 through Trie, listed the address of an electronics company in a Los Angeles suburb. Yet a company employee said Yeh lived in China and had not been to the United States for several years. Twelve days before Clinton’s birthday bash, Ng wired $200,000 from the Bank of China to a joint Ny-Trie account in Washington D.C.

Trie also solicited a $3,000 check drawn on a New York City bank account of a Michele Lima. Democratic Party officials previously said that Lima had died years ago, but they later claimed that the donation may have come from another Michele Lima who lived in New York.

A few days after Clinton’s birthday bash at the Music Center in New York City, $80,000 was wired from a Macao businessman through the Bank of China to Trie’s account in the Riggs National Bank in Washington, D.C. The money was transferred to the American International Bank in Alhambra, California where Antonio Pan -- a former Lippo official and an associate of Trie and Huang -- collected $60,000 in $100 bills and $20,000 in $50 bills. Subsequently, this cash turned into DNC donations in the form of $5,000 and $10,000 personal checks.

Pan visited the White House eight times in 1995 and 1996, and on one occasion he was accompanied by Trie. Pan also bankrolled another questionable donation to the Democrats last year, this one involving Wang. Wang testified that Pan and Huang approached him at his California car dealership in August 1996 and inquired about making a $5,000 Democratic donation for Clinton's birthday bash. Wang agreed, and he also agreed to donate $5,000 on behalf of Daniel Wu, who lives in Taiwan and has not been in the United States for several years. Republicans claimed that Pan paid the donations back with thick stacks of $100 bills stuffed in unmarked envelopes.

Pan found volunteers who had attended Clinton’s birthday party. They accepted the cash, and then wrote checks to the DNC. Pan went though a number of Los Angeles Asian-American communities where he had distant acquaintances. After three days, he had distributed $80,000 in cash and returned with numerous checks made payable to the “DNC.” The DOJ investigated over a dozen of these contributors, many of whom had no knowledge of what the “DNC” was. Seven donors had never contributed money to the DNC before, and none had attended Clinton’s party.

One donor was used-car dealer David Wang in Rosemead, California. Wang, a Taiwanese-born American citizen, testified in October 1997 before the House Oversight Committee that Pan asked him to write a $10,000 check to the DNC. Wang wrote one $5,000 check on his own account and another $5,000 check from the account of a Taiwanese friend, Daniel Wu, for whom he had power of attorney. The DNC did not return these two donations because of questions about the source of the funds and Wang’s description of how the donor nations were solicited, party officials said. Wang stated previously on a DNC questionnaire that the money was his own. He also testified that Huang first called him and then accompanied Pan to his office. DNC officials claimed that Huang was in New York that day.

Another donor suspected of participating in Pan’s effort was Wei Fen Chou of La Habra, California. Chou wrote two $5,000 checks to the DNC and made $5,000 cash deposits in August 1996 according to Cathay Bank records. Monterey Park, California real estate agent Helen Chien wrote a $10,000 check to the DNC in August 1996 and made two $4,000 cash deposits at the same time. The DNC did not return Chien’s money.

Pan’s telephone records from the Los Angeles Lincoln Plaza Hotel indicated that he called the Ohio residence of Nelson and Kimmy Young after Clinton’s birthday celebration. Subsequently, Kimmy Young wrote a $10,000 check to the DNC, and on that same day the Youngs’ account received a wire transfer of $9,995. Young told congressional investigators that Pan was a friend and that her husband used savings account money to pay for the donation. At the same time Qing Li of Washington D.C. made a $10,000 donation to the DNC. The money was returned in October 1997 after DNC officials were unable to locate Li and confirm whether he had the financial resources to make the contribution.

It was not known whether these donors, who never appeared at Clinton’s birthday fund-raiser, received any extra money for the cash-for-checks scheme or whether they were just helping out Pan. Eventually the DNC returned $40,000 to four of the seven donors identified, citing “insufficient information” about the appropriateness of their contributions.

In all, bank records indicated that Ng made a series of bank transfers to Trie totaling $905,000. Between 1994 and 1996, Ng and his companies transferred over $750,000 to Trie. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee heard evidence that Trie received funds through six of his separate bank accounts under a variety of different corporate names. Sometimes he switched funds from account to account several times before it finally wound up in DNC coffers.

Because of these numerous allegations of Trie engaging in illicit fund-raising, the DNC returned a total of $645,000 of his contributions. Trie moved to Beijing and refused to comply to Congressional subpoenas. In February 1998 Trie returned to the United States and then moved on to Paris. He was immediately arrested by federal agents and then was released on $200,000 bail. A grand jury charged Trie with using his trust status and his access to high government officials to promote his own as well as Pan’s business interests. Both Trie and Pan were charged with conspiracy to purchase “access to high level government officials by contributing and soliciting contributions to the DNC.” Trie was also charged with defrauding the DNC and the FEC as well as mail and wire fraud.

In November 1999, Trie was sentenced to four months’ home detention and three years’ probation for violating campaign finance laws -- making a false report to the Federal Election Commission and to a misdemeanor charge of making $5,000 in contributions in the names of others. He was also fined $5,000 and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.

ARIEF AND SORAYA WIRIADINATA. From November 1995 to July 1996, the Wiriadinatas contributed $450,000 to the DNC. In October 1997 the Wiriadinatas told Senate investigators that the funds came from a wealthy relative in Indonesia. Soraya's father, Hashim Ning, worked for Mochtar Riady of the Lippo Group as a manager of Sea World in Jakarta. Ning wired $500,000 to the Wiriadinatas for the contributions in November 1995. The couple then began making sizable donations, their first ever, at the direction of Huang when he was still an official at the Commerce Department. In return, Huang promised to arrange business meetings for Wiriadinata with prominent Asian-Americans. Wiriadinata owned an American landscape architecture business and an Indonesian computer company which he wanted to expand in the United States.

Arief Wiriadinata testified to Senate investigators that Huang solicited their first donations of two $15,000 checks. On November 5, 1995 Ning wired $250,000 from an Indonesian account to a First Union Bank account in Soraya's name. Two days later he wired another $250,000 to a separate First Union account under Arief's name. The Wiriadinatas made their initial DNC contributions on November 8. Each gave $15,000 to attend an Asian-American dinner which was attended by Gore at a Washington hotel. Huang then arranged for Arief to be invited to a DNC-sponsored White House coffee with Clinton on December 15. It was there that Arief was recorded on videotape speaking about Riady. Records indicated that three days earlier the Wiriadinatas each wrote a $50,000 check to the DNC. In the first seven months of 1996, they made 17 contributions to the Democrats totaling $320,000. Many of the donations arrived in conjunction with Huang's fund-raisers featuring Clinton.

Arief testified the accounts were opened for the sole purpose of contributing to the DNC. All but $73,000 of the $500,000 in these accounts was used for campaign donations. In November 1996, the DNC returned the Wiriadinatas' donations when Democratic officials learned that they had not filed American income tax returns and had failed to return to the United States.

YOGESH GHANDHI. In May 1996, Trie helped sponsor a DNC fund-raiser at a Washington D.C. hotel where Ghandhi, a great-grandnephew of Mohandas Gandhi, hoped to make a presentation and a $325,000 contribution to Clinton. Ghandhi was determined to present Clinton with the World Peace Award for non-violence and to make the contribution to Clinton. Ghandhi claimed that Trie approved of this and that he would introduce Ghandhi to the president. Ghandhi had a lucrative business deal to showcase Hogen Fukunaga, a Japanese multimillionaire who preaches an Eastern religion of Tensei and claims to possess extraordinary spiritual powers. In May 1996 Ghandhi and Fukunaga arrived at the fund-raiser together, and Ghandhi hounded Trie to introduce them to Clinton. DNC staffers denied that they knew such a presentation was going to be made. Eventually, Trie grabbed the president's arm and persuaded Clinton to accept the award.

In October 1996, a DNC spokesperson stated that it could not verify the source of the contribution and that it did not believe that Gandhi had enough money to make such a donation himself. Therefore, the $325,000 would be returned to Gandhi. A month later and the day after Clinton was reelected, the DNC finally returned the contribution. Within 10 days, two checks for $250,000 each from Citibank of Japan were deposited in his bank account in Walnut Creek, California. Interviewed by a Senate committee, Gandhi stated that the $325,000 was his, but he gave three different versions on how he had acquired that amount of money.

FEDERAL EXPRESS CEO FREDERICK SMITH. Just two months before the 1996 presidential election, Smith met for nearly one hour with Clinton in the Oval Office. Federal Express’ business ventures in Asia were stifled by Japanese laws which forbade Smith's corporation to deliver cargo from Japan to other Asian countries. Federal Express lost over $100 million annually. Smith pressed Clinton to pressure the Japanese to rescind these laws by imposing sanctions on the Japanese government.

Over an eight month period, Federal Express contributed $275,000 to the DNC. Its largest single contribution of $100,000 came on September 10, fewer than three weeks after the Clinton-Smith meeting. Smith claimed that there was absolutely no connection between fund-raising and a meeting with the president or any Federal Express issues. In August 1997 American officials met with Japanese representatives to discuss the flight restriction issue.

ERIC AND PATRICIA HOTUNG. Eric Hotung was a Hong Kong real estate tycoon who set a world record by selling a villa for $100 million in May 1997. The Hotungs also owned a $6 million home outside Washington D.C. He was a British citizen and consequently could not contribute to the DNC. However, since his wife was an American citizen, he told DNC officials that she wanted to make a $100,000 contribution to them. The Hotungs also asked for a meeting to discuss American policy towards China and Taiwan with the National Security Council's top two members, Anthony Lake and Sandy Berger. Berger eventually became Clinton's National Security adviser. In a September 1995 DNC memo, party chair Don Fowler stated that the Hotungs would contribute $100,000 and that they would be attending a White House dinner with the Clintons.

Downplaying the importance of the Hotung's meeting with the two National Security Council officials, White House special counsel Lanny Davis said that there was nothing improper and that they talked for only five minutes. A few days after the meeting, Patricia Hotung turned over a $99,980 check to the DNC.

RICHARD JENRETTE. The retired chairperson of Equitable Life Insurance, Jenrette testified to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee that he recalled that both Clinton and Gore asked him for campaign contributions. In October 1997 Jenrette stated that in 1994 Clinton called him from the White House and said that he wanted to raise $2 million from “good 40 good friends.” According to FEC records, Jenrette then wrote five checks totaling $50,000 to the DNC. Two years later Gore made a similar White House call to him. According to Jenrette Gore stated that the DNC wanted to get an early start on the 1996 campaign and hoped that she would help. Then Jenrette wrote four checks totaling $25,000 to the DNC. On several occasions, Clinton stated that he could not recall soliciting donors by phone from the White House.

THE CHINA CONNECTION: PAULINE KANCHANALAK AND TED SIOENG. In June 1996, Thai lobbyist Pauline Kanchanalak visited the White House on 25 occasions. Kanchanalak worked for a Thailand-based conglomerate, Charoen Pokphand Group, which was the largest exporter of numerous products to China. Once she was accompanied by Dhanin Jiaravanen, chair of the Charoen Pokphand Group, one of the largest investors in China. Kanchanalak was hoping to cut a $7 million deal at the Export-Import Bank for a Blockbuster video franchise in Bangkok. However, the transaction fell apart. Kanchanalak gave a $135,000 check to the DNC. During the entire 1996 campaign, she donated $253,000 but all was returned when she could not prove its source.

Public records showed that Kanchanalak attended at least 26 White House events after Clinton’s election in 1992. Clinton was present at ten of those events, and Vice President Gore attended two. On three other occasions, Kanchanalak met with officials of the National Security Council. The donations were illegal because Kanchanalak falsely identified the donors, most of whom were foreigners and were thus prohibited from making campaign contributions.

The DOJ said that over $457,000 of the donations were provided to the DNC and five state Democratic Party committees in connection with a “coffee” session at the White House on June 18. At that event, Kanchanalak and four Thai business associates discussed United States-China policy with Clinton. One of those in attendance at the meeting was a client of Kanchanalak’s, Dhanin Chearvanont, a major Thai industrialist whose company was considered the largest single foreign investor in China.

In the summer of 1998, the Justice Department charged Kanchanalak and her sister-in-law, Duangnet Kronenberg, with conspiring to funnel illegal foreign money into Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign. The 24-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury made Kanchanalak and Duangnet “Georgie” Kronenberg the tenth and eleventh persons charged in 1997 with channeling foreign contributions into Clinton’s reelection effort. Erik L. Kitchen, an attorney for Kanchanalak, said she has been the victim of “a political controversy relating to DNC fund-raising practices.”

In June 2000, Kanchanalak pled guilty on two felony counts to funneling $690,000 in illegal donations to the DNC. Kronenberg, who assisted her sister-in-law in the scheme, pled guilty to one felony count. According to the Justice Department in a statement released in the New York Times (June 22, 2000), Kanchanalak made the illegal donations to gain access for herself and Thai business executives to Clinton and administration officials. The China connection widened. Ted Sioeng, a Los Angeles businessman from Indonesia, purchased the right to import Chinese-produced Red Tower Mountain cigarettes to the United States. Sioeng was a close friend of the Chinese counsel in the Los Angeles consulate, and he was also the publisher of the International Daily News, a pro-China newspaper. In addition Sioeng attended the fund-raiser at the Los Angeles Buddhist temple where Gore was handed a check.

Sioeng was also at another fund-raiser in Los Angeles where he sat next to Clinton just one day before Sioeng's daughter, Jessica, turned over to the DNC a $100,000 check, the first installment of what would total $250,000. Jessica informed Huang that her father attended the dinner along with six Chinese executives. One of these was Guo Zhong Jian, a high ranking official at the China Construction Bank, one of the four largest banks in Beijing. Four months later, in September 1996, the China Construction Bank was licensed to do business in the United States, despite the fact that it was poorly ranked by Wall Street's Moody’s crediting service.

The China connection also included COSCO. The China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), owned by the People's Republic of China, first began to operate in 1985. With a direct link to the Clinton administration, COSCO took over the Long Beach Naval base after personal lobbying on its behalf by Clinton himself. It was also alleged that the Clinton administration prevented American companies from bidding on Long Beach.

Additionally, the Arkansas Teachers Retirement System (ATRS) has an investment in COSCO. ATRS was one of the pension funds raided by Clinton when he was governor. Its money was used for political purposes by laundering it through another Clinton state agency, the Arkansas Development Finance Authority (ADFA).

In August 1994, DNC chair Brown flew to China to help McDonnell Douglas consummate a contract with the Beijing government. Soon thereafter Boeing signed a large contract with CATIC, China's government-owned aircraft manufacturer. This included the sale of surplus machines which are used to build planes. CATIC officials stated that the technology would be used to manufacture civilian planes. McDonnell Douglas officials said they would closely monitor the use of these machines. After one was discovered missing, an investigation followed and it was traced to a Chinese cruise missile factory. Bernard Schwartz, CEO of Lorral Corporation, also accompanied Brown and was able to consolidate a large communications-satellite contract with China. Investigators probed whether Brown ignored repeated NSC warnings that high technology sales to China could eventually find its way into the military.

Republican Senator Thompson of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee lashed out at the Democrats role with “high level Chinese government officials.” He claimed that Chinese officials “crafted a plan ... to subvert our election process.” He stated that China was behind the plot to donate funds to the DNC in return for economic favors. He added that FBI agents had briefed two White House officials and six members of Congress in 1996 that China may have been funneling in illegal money into the United States.,/P>

Thompson found himself in a quandary since he, a conservative Republican, had to demonstrate the evilness of Chinese communism. Yet, as a tool of corporate America, Thompson understood the enormous economic potential of Chinese markets. Numerous American multinationals, including Boeing, Caterpillar, Ford, and General Motors, had already received enormous windfalls in China’s market.

THE IRAQI CONNECTION. In April 1995, Texas oil magnate Truman Arnold was chosen by Clinton to lead a $40 million fund-raising drive. Shortly thereafter, he telephoned White House Deputy Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and stated that he thought that he was “good for a solid million.” Bowles was referring to Nemir Kirdar, an Iraqi citizen and president of a Bahrain-based investment firm, who said that he needed just five minutes with Clinton. Yet his foreign citizenship precluded him from making campaign contributions. Kirdar, referred to as the “banker to billionaires,” once had ties to the Iraqi monarchy.

White House special assistant Mark Middleton made eight requests to Clinton that he meet with Kirdar. Eventually, the two had a brief meeting in the White House, and photos were taken of the pair. As it turned out, Kirdar did not make a contribution to the DNC, and in November 1996 Middleton was banned from entering the White House on grounds that he misused his power to impress prospective business clients.

EUGENE AND NORA LUM. In 1991, DNC chair Brown was introduced by his son, Michael, to Eugene and Nora Lum. Five days later the Lums began fund-raising for the DNC in Hawaii and Southern California. The DNC recorded eight contributions from Hawaii totaling $38,000; $10,000 was from Nora Lum.

In 1997, the couple pleaded guilty to funneling $50,000 in illegal contributions to the DNC in 1994 and 1995. This contribution was allegedly in exchange for a letter from Clinton when he was governor. In October 1997, the Lums were subpoenaed to appear before the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee. They were given immunity in exchange for their testimony. The Lums discussed their dealings with Huang, Kanchanalak, Trie, and the Riadys. They testified that they “have been told that Trie is very influential with the Chinese government and that his company, Daihatsu, will facilitate meetings with Chinese officials to assist Americans in gaining business contracts in that country?”

MARK MIDDLETON. Arkansan Middleton, a former White House aide, attempted to solicit Taiwanese officials for $15 million in campaign donations at a time when China was conducting missile tests in the waters off Taiwan, and Clinton was deciding whether to dispatch the Seventh Fleet to the area. Middleton denies such charges.

ROGER TAMRAZ AND THE CIA CONNECTION. Tamraz was a Lebanese oil financier charged by his government with embezzling $200 million. Lebanese authorities accused him of embezzling the money from a Lebanese investment company and a French court's judgment ordering Tamraz to pay $56 million after the collapse of a French bank, according to court records. Tamraz responded by saying that the case against him in Lebanon was a political affair and that the judgment in France was part of a business dispute.

In addition, Tamraz was under investigation for $177,000 in illegal donations to state and national Democratic organizations in 1995 and 1996. Tamraz also conducted business deals with the former chief of Saudi intelligence as well as with a former Israeli intelligence officer. Additionally, he was accused of participating in a multi-billion dollar swindle involving the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.

Tamraz hoped to gain White House support for a hugely ambitious project: a 930-mile oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, cutting across geopolitical fault lines in the Caucasus Mountains and in Turkey. He had connections with the CIA in the Middle East, so in June 1995 he met with Sheila Heslin, the National Security Council's expert in the region. Heslin recommended that Tamraz not be admitted to the White House to discuss the pipeline project. She claimed that she came under pressure from Tamraz to access the White House to lobby for his pipeline. She stated that a CIA agent called “Bob” lobbied her on Tamraz's behalf and that an Energy Department official, Jack Carter, told her that Tamraz was expected to contribute $400,000 to the DNC.

Then DNC finance chairman Marvin Rosen intervened on the behalf of Tamraz, and then-DNC chair Donald Fowler contacted him at the CIA in 1995 to get a favorable memo on Tamraz. Fowler arranged for a CIA report on Tamraz to be sent to the NSC. However, Fowler said that he could not recall doing that. With the Energy Department, DNC, and CIA all sought a means for Tamraz to meet with Clinton, he was finally given access to the White House on six different occasions in order to lobby Clinton his pipeline project.

CIA Director George Tenet first focused on campaign finance issues in March 1997 when it was reported that clandestine CIA officers responded to “improper contacts and inquiries” by then-DNC chairman Don Fowler. Fowler used the CIA to attempt to smooth over objections by some White House officials to Tamraz’s attendance at coffees with Clinton and Gore. Witnesses said that agency employees were vouching for Tamraz as long as seven months before his involvement with Fowler. Tamraz hired two former CIA officials, Ed Pechous and William Lofgren, as consultants. Pechous, who retired from the CIA in 1995, called White House and other officials for Tamraz. Lofgren, as a senior official in the CIA's clandestine Directorate of Operations, signed a report in late 1995 that omitted potential damaging information about Tamraz. For his work Lofgren earned $15,000 in three months as a consultant for Tamraz.

Lofgren testified that their report on Tamraz went to the CIA's executive suite for review in December 1995. The document was later returned to “Bob’s” office without any negative information on Tamraz. “Bob” acknowledged calling Fowler at Tamraz's request. However, he contended that he was not aware and did not know Fowler was head of the DNC. The former agents contacted personnel at the White House, the Energy Department, and other agencies on behalf of Tamraz who eventually got his meetings with Clinton -- and the DNC got $300,000 in return.

Tamraz boasted of his political influence when he testified before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in September 1997. A naturalized American citizen, he was invited at least four times to the White House during the previous year over the objections of a National Security Council staff official He claimed that thousands of dollars in contributions would give anyone access to the president.

Additionally, Tamraz raised and donated $30,000 to Senator Kennedy. He also employed Kennedy's wife Victoria Kennedy to do legal work. She worked at the same firm where then-DNC finance chairman Marvin Rosen worked.

GRAVES FOR SALE AT ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY. In November 1997, M. Larry Lawrence, former owner of the multi-million dollar Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego, came under scrutiny by the House Reform and Oversight Committee. GOP leaders claimed that major contributors to the DNC were rewarded with burial sites in Arlington National Cemetery. In 1992, Lawrence contributed $200,000 to the DNC, and four years later he died. A former merchant marine during World War II, Lawrence was not qualified for burial in Arlington. Republican legislators were quick to criticize the Clinton administration for giving friends special breaks for burial plots in Arlington.

Lawrence's wife contended that he was wounded on a merchant ship after it was struck by a German torpedo and that he was given a legitimate waiver when he was permitted to be buried in the nation's most sacred military cemetery. Even though Arlington is generally reserved for burials to military personnel who died on active duty, Lawrence’s supporters pointed out that waivers had been granted to 62 others since Clinton took office in 1993.

However, GOP leaders quickly toned down their assault on the administration when it was revealed that a House GOP staff member pulled strings to win a space for his father. Robert B. Charles, staff chief for a House subcommittee, wrote a letter on his subcommittee's letterhead to cemetery superintendent Jack Metzler. Charles identified himself as chief of staff and general counsel of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee's subcommittee on national security, international affairs, and criminal justice. After this request failed, Charles lobbied Defense Secretary William Cohen in March 1997, and this request was passed on to the Pentagon. Eventually, Charles obtained a waiver from Army Secretary Togo West who oversees operations in Arlington.

JORGE CABRERA. In December 1995, the White House hosted a major convicted drug dealer, Jorge Cabrera, at its annual Christmas party. At the event he donated $20,000 to the DNC. Earlier, Cabrera was photographed with Vice President Gore at a Miami fund-raiser. Cabrera was indicted in 1983 on racketeering and drug charges -- and again in 1988 when he was accused of managing a narcotics operation. He plea bargained and served 54 months in a federal penitentiary. Since his White House visit, he was arrested and convicted again on narcotics charges: bringing 6,000 pounds of cocaine into the United States. He was sentenced to 19 years.

IRAN-CONTRA, BCCI, DRUG TRAFFICKING, AND WHITEWATER CONNECTION IN ARKANSAS. The Lippo-Riady connection moved to Arkansas in the 1970s. Riady first became engaged in dealings with Wal-Mart and Tyson Foods in Arkansas. In addition he became involved with Little Rock billionaire Jackson Stephens, whose investment banking firm was the second largest in the United States. A friend of Governor Clinton, Riady was deciding whether Lippo should purchase Bert Lance’s financial interest in the National Bank of Georgia to help finance the conglomerate's export transactions. At that time Lance was budget director to President Jimmy Carter. Even though the transaction fell through, Stephens, Lance, and Riady maintained a close business relationship since that time. In the 1970s, Stephens had been instrumental in fund-raising for Jimmy Carter, and he became a close friend of Bert Lance, a high ranking White House official. Lance had become president of National Bank of Georgia in January 1975 and came into conflict with Financial General (FGB) which later became First American Bankshares. Lance made loans which exceeded his lending limit. In June 1975 Lance purchased FGB's controlling interest in National Bank of Georgia for $7.8 million. In the 1970s Stephens was instrumental in fund-raising for Jimmy Carter, and he became a close friend of high ranking White House official Bert Lance.

The Riadys first Arkansas venture was the creation of Lippo Finance and Investment Incorporation in 1984. The lending company financed in part by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and was formed to make loans to Asian businesses with subsidiaries in Los Angeles and New York. Since Riady was not an American citizen, he was unable to serve as chairman to a company which was subsidized by the SBA. Therefore, he appointed former SBA administrator, Vernon Weaver, who went on to become one of Clinton's representatives to the European Union.

Rose Law Firm attorney Joseph Giroir, who had worked with Hillary, Webster Hubbell, and Vince Foster, sold 30 percent of Worthen Bank to Riady and Stephens. Worthen Bank was Arkansas' largest financial institution with ambitions to develop international business. In their transactions with Worthen Bank, the Riadys eventually became joint owners of the First National Bank in Mena which was noted for alleged drug trafficking and CIA money laundering during the Contra war.

Just a day after Riady visited Clinton in the White House in April 1993, Giroir set up a company intended to create partnership ventures with Lippo. The following year he was able to capitalize on Clinton's decision to renew China's most-favored-nation trading status.

Giroir also mediated in ventures between Lippo and Tyson Foods, already with subsidiaries in the Riadys' home country of Indonesia, to open new businesses in the Far East. Giroir received the Clinton administration's support for a controversial new Arkansas airport which would serve to export chicken to the Far East. In 1995 Tyson and Wal-Mart received $21 million from the FAA to begin construction on the project.

In 1994, Giroir and the Lippo Group struck a deal on a cable television franchise. Giroir and Betty Tucker, wife of Governor Jim Guy Tucker, flew to Indonesia to discuss the legalities with the Lippo Group. As it turned out, Tucker's former lawyer, John Haley, was divorced from Maria Haley who was a Clinton appointee to the Export-Import Bank. Also Haley’s law partner, Mark Grobmyer, was a close friend of Clinton and had attended an Oval Office meeting with Riady.

In July 1997, it was revealed that Huang, while working at the Commerce Department in the 1990s, made over 400 telephone calls from Stephens’ corporate office. That same year Stephens and Lance agreed on the sale of the National Bank of Georgia, owned by FGB, to the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).

In the 1980s, BCCI was involved in illegally financing arms shipments to Iran in connection with Iran-Contra. BCCI was used by Iranian arms brokers who became the central figures in the “October Surprise” allegations of secret negotiations between Iranian officials and vice presidential nominee Bush to keep the 52 American hostages in Teheran. BCCI was extensively used by arms merchants Adnan Khashoggi and Manucher Ghorbanifar in arms deals that were initiated by the National Security Council. Ghorbanifar helped to negotiate with “Iranian moderates” to whom the Reagan administration delivered TOW missiles and HAWKs to Iran in 1985 and 1986. He maintained a deposit of $2 million to $2.5 million at the Monte Carlo branch of BCCI.

Khashoggi acted as the middleman for five Iranian arms deals for the United States, financing a number of them through the Monte Carlo office of BCCI. He was responsible for moving $10 million from Credit Swisse which would to through BCCI four times to produce $40 million of sales and additional profit.

According to Albert Hakim, Khashoggi made deposits in the North/Secord accounts from BCCI in the amount of $2.5 million on February 7, 1986; $2.5 million on February 10, 1986; and two checks of $5 million each on February 18, 1986. Still additional deposits were made from BCCI by Khashoggi for $5 million on May 18, 1986. Three payments to BCCI from the North-Secord accounts, including Lake Resources, the account used to finance arms to the Contras, amounted to $10 million.

In 1991, BCCI pled guilty to financial fraud. BCCI admitted to: seeking deposits of drug proceeds and laundering drug money; seeking deposits from persons attempt to evade American income taxes; using “straws” and nominees to acquire control of American financial institutions; lying to regulators and falsifying regulatory documents; and creating false bank records and engaging in sham transactions to deceive regulators.

Worthen Bank was purchased in 1984 by Mochtar Riady and Jackson Stephens when they bought controlling interest in First Arkansas Bankstock Corporation (FABCO). The bank has been investigated for allegedly laundering between $3 billion to $6 billion. During the Contra war convicted drug trafficker Barry Seal conspired with CIA to fly cocaine from Latin America to Mena's Intermountain Regional Airport. Worthen Bank was one of three financial institutions which was investigated for concealing Seal's profits. Investigators found compelling evidence at the First National Bank of Mena, which was owned by Worthen Bank, to indicate that it was being used to launder money from Seal's narcotics trafficking.

First National Bank of Mena was not only owned by Clinton friend and former BCCI official Jackson Stephens and by Joseph Giroir, director of the board of the Rose Law Firm. In addition the law firm’s partners included Hillary Clinton and Hubbell. It was Giroir who helped change state laws allowing Stephens' banking institutions to skyrocket. While heading the board at the Rose Law Firm, Giroir successfully lobbied to change Arkansas’ usury law, which made it more financially feasible to acquire new financial institutions in the state. This law allowed Stephens and Riady to acquire FABCO, and for Giroir to sell them the four banks he owned. In addition the Rose Law Firm profited from the FABCO legal fees. Worthen Bank also lost $52 million in state tax receipts when it bought government securities from a New Jersey brokerage business whose officials were later convicted of fraud.

There were claims that drug profits were also diverted to government businesses owned or operated by prominent state figures. In addition, there were allegations that the officials in the administration of Governor Clinton ignored CIA-Contra drug trafficking operations at Mena. Whitewater independent counsel Starr investigated the possibility between Clinton gubernatorial campaign finances and drug money, and they interviewed several pilots about Colombian cocaine and cash drops in Mena and elsewhere in Arkansas.

In October 1986, a C-123 airplane, which had been owned by Seal and kept at Mena's airport, was shot down while dropping supplies to the Contras. This set the stage for the unraveling of the Iran-Contra scandal. Within a week, Worthen entered into an agreement to sell the First National Bank of Mena. By this time, the bank had grown from $56 million to $64 million in assets since Worthen acquired it in 1984. In January 1987, Worthen Bank was sold to a large regional bank holding company.

Robert Rubin, former chairman of Goldman Sachs, was one of America's top financial houses. He managed the Mexican money market while he was a Wall Street operator, and then he moved up to become a top administration contributor. According to investigators, Rubin’s was rewarded for sharing some of his huge profits with Democratic friends. He was later named secretary of the treasury. In 1996 each one of Goldman Sach's 149 partners received year-end bonuses ranging from $5 to $12 million. Evidence suggested that Goldman Sachs into a partnership with the cocaine cartel when the company branched out to open businesses in Mexico.

RETURNED DONATIONS. Since 1996, the following donations were returned:

Cheong Am America -- $250,000 -- September 20, 1996

John H. K. Lee -- $10,000 -- October 16, 1996

Man Ya Shih -- $5,000 -- October 21, 1996

Jorge Cabrera -- $20,000 -- October 16, 1996

Gulf Canada Resources -- $10,000 -- October 28, 1996

Onex Corporation -- $2,000 -- October 28, 1996

Richard Tienken -- $25,000 -- October 29, 1996

Interactive Wireless -- $50,000 -- October 31, 1996

Carolina PCS -- $15,000 -- October 29, 1996

Yogesh Gandhi -- $325,000 -- November 7, 1996

Psaltis Corporation -- $50,000 -- November 5, 1996

Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple -- $15,000 -- November 3, 1996

Chia Hui Ho -- $5,000 -- November 18, 1996

Praitun Kanchanalak -- $253,000 -- November 20, 1996

Yao Yi Lu -- $1,000 -- November 20, 1996

Ban Chang International -- $300 -- November 20, 1996

Hip Hing Holdings -- $50,000 -- July 15, 1997

Millions of dollars in illegal and questionable contributions were returned, leaving the DNC heavily in debt. However, by mid-1998, the party bounced back, largely a result of Clinton's fund-raisers. In the first six months of 1998, Clinton traveled to over 11 cities and held more than 20 fund-raising events for the DNC where he brought in over $12.5 million for DNC coffers. Additionally, Clinton attended over 40 fund-raisers for other candidates and netted more than $25 million for them. In a two day period in May 1998, Clinton attended six events in three major cities.

However, the windfall is not only a result of generous contributions from high rollers. In the first three months of 1998, 162,000 people sent in checks to the DNC. That is 300 percent more who contributed to the DNC in 1994, the previous mid-term election year. Yet their contributions in 1998 were not as high as they were four years before. In the first quarter of 1998 the DNC received $12.3 million from those who mailed in checks; in 1994 the figure was $10 million.

RESULTS OF CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS.

SENATE GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE. Senator Fred Thompson's committee was composed of nine Republicans and seven Democrats. Its scope was limited to the 1996 election campaign. The Senate committee issued 11 subpoenas to people such as Lippo Bank employees and executives, DNC chairpersons, White House officials, and several contributors to the DNC.

Thompson opened the committee meeting with a declaration that he would directly link illegal campaign donations from China to the Democratic Party. In the end, Thompson found no such evidence. In addition, Thompson came under attack by his own party for being too lenient on Democratic witnesses. The criticism was led by Senate majority leader Lott who gave Thompson the chairmanship in the first place. After Thompson shifted from attacking the Democrats for alleged fund-raising illegalities to proposing campaign reform measures in October 1997 Lott said, “That’s not what he's supposed to be doing.”

In addition, the GOP leadership castigated Thompson's movement towards bipartisanship when he gave latitude to the Democrats to grill former RNC chairperson Barbour on his dealings with foreign contributions. Thompson knew that he could not be too rigorous, since the Democrats would have exposed improprieties carried out by the RNC.

The committee concluded the following. (1) The Clinton administration poorly screened the people who were allowed into the White House and who were able to see the president. (2) The DNC carelessly accepted donations and was not careful in evaluating its donors. (3) During the time he worked in the Commerce Department and for the DNC, Huang maintained close contact with his former employer, the Lippo Group, in Indonesia. (4) Huang raised a considerable amount of money for the party illegally and had an unusual amount of access to the White House. (5) Trie raised and laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars for the DNC in illegal contributions from abroad and arranged for much more to be donated by members of a Buddhist sect to the private fund collecting money to pay for Clinton’s personal legal expenses. Eventually, the money was returned. (6) While RNC chair from 1994 to 1996, Haley Barbour solicited money from a Hong Kong businessman that, through a circuitous route, wound up in the RNC's war chest and was used in election campaigns.

However, the senators concurred that the testimony did not prove several allegations that (1) Huang was guilty of economic espionage and that he worked for Asian interests; (2) Trie was taking orders from Asian pro-business donors; (3) Barbour's activity broke the campaign finance law; (4) James Riady helped to funnel illegal money into Clinton’s campaign war chest; (5) the Los Angeles Buddhist impoverished monks were reimbursed by Taiwanese officials; and (6) the Lippo Group gave over $100,000 to Hubbell when he left the Justice Department in 1994 in an effort to dissuade him from cooperating with investigators. Hubbell resigned his post as the third in seniority and pleaded guilty to federal charges of mail fraud and tax fraud stemming from over billing of former clients and partners at the Rose Law Firm. In October 1997, Thompson terminated the hearings. Nothing substantive was concluded. No federal indictments were handed down.

HOUSE GOVERNMENT REFORM AND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE. Unlike its Senate counterpart the House committee was not limited to the 1996 campaign and thus was able to also investigate previous allegations of fund-raising illegalities. In September 1997, the House committee convened under the chairmanship of Burton who himself was under investigation for illegal fund-raising. It has been alleged that he accepted cash from a Pakistani lobbyist. A little-known provision in the 1994 reauthorization of the independent counsel act allows the attorney general to recommend an outside counsel to investigate members of Congress. Committee Democrats point to the conflict of interest between Burton's oversight role of the Justice Department and the Department's investigation of him as a reason to appoint an independent counsel. In addition his attorney, Richard Bennett was forced to return $17,500 in his unsuccessful race for attorney general of Maryland in 1994.

FINES IMPOSED BY THE FEC. In 2002, the FEC imposed a record-setting $719,000 in fines against participants in the 1996 Democratic Party fundraising scandals involving contributions from China, Korea, and other foreign sources. Those penalized included the DNC, the Clinton-Gore campaign, the Buddhist temple, and nearly two dozen people and corporations acting as conduits for illegal contributions.

All agreed to pay a total of $719,000 in fines which could have been significantly higher except that some of the corporations have folded. In addition, others were dummy operations, with no assets, that were set up as conduits for money from China, Venezuela, Canada, and other countries. (Washington Post, September 22, 2002)

Foreign individuals and organizations were barred from contributing to federal elections. In some cases, foreigners who would have been subject to fines could not be located and served with papers. In other cases, the individuals pleaded guilty in criminal cases and were bankrupt.

The DNC was fined $115,000, the Clinton-Gore campaign $2,000, and the Buddhist Progress Society $120,000. In the conciliation the party agreed to pay the fine and to “disgorge (another) $128,000” to the federal Treasury, representing illegal contributions that were not returned to donors.

In a separate document, the FEC said it decided to drop cases against contributors of more than $3 million in illegal DNC contributions because the respondents either were “out of the country and beyond our reach, or corporations that are defunct.”

The FEC described how John Huang “set a goal of raising $7 million from the Asian-American community.” This effort included the luncheon with Gore at the Buddhist temple, as well as a “coffee” at the White House and a “birthday dinner for President Clinton” at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York.

Other illegal contributions included:

• $250,000 from Cheong Am America Incorporated, a subsidiary of a Korean firm, Ateck Company. “On April 8, 1996, Cheong Am officials met briefly with President Clinton and gave John Huang … an envelope with a corporate check for $250,000 made out to the DNC,” according to the FEC. The amount represented $50,000 for each of five company officials who met with Clinton.

• Huang received $40,000 from Indonesian nationals Arief and Soroya Wiriadinata that was deposited in the DNC's federal account in June 1996.

• Huang accepted $327,500 from Pauline Kanchanalak of Thailand, who attended “a White House ‘coffee’ with President Clinton on June 18, 1996.” The FEC said Kanchanalak “paid a total of $277,500 for the coffee in installments” made out to state parties in order “to satisfy Pauline Kanchanalak’s desire to avoid media attention.” (Washington Post, September 22, 2002)

The FEC documents also described how Robert S. Lee, a California developer, negotiated the price of a meeting between President Clinton and several executives of II Sung Construction, a Korean company. The documents said Lee met Larry Wallace, an Arkansas lawyer with DNC ties, to seek the meeting. Wallace told Lee “that he could arrange the meeting at a DNC fundraiser, but a donation would have to be made to the DNC.” Wallace and Lee “agreed on a figure of $150,000.”

The FEC fined Lee $250, noting that the penalty would normally be 200 percent of the violation, or $300,000, but Lee was $850,000 in debt and had already been sentenced to three years’ probation on a misdemeanor.

The documents also described how Johnny Chung brought 20 guests to a $1,000-per-person Clinton-Gore fundraising dinner in Los Angeles in 1995. Chung tried to pay with a $25,000 check, but it was refused by Karen Sternfeld, the campaign’s deputy finance director for Southern California. She told Chung she needed 20 checks of $1,000 each from his guests.

The next day, Sternfeld asked Irene Wu, an employee of Chung’s company, about the 20 checks, but was told the guests had scattered and the checks could not be obtained. According to the documents, Sternfeld said the checks did not have to be from the people who attended the dinner, and directed Wu to meet her at a restaurant later that day to deliver the money.

The documents said Wu and others then collected 20 checks of $1,000 each from “conduits,” who were promised they would be reimbursed, and Chung later withdrew $20,000 in cash from his bank accounts to repay the conduit contributors. (Washington Post, September 22, 2002)