GOP Contributor’s Ex-Wife Writes to Bush Asking for $100,000 Back

The ex-wife of an elusive entrepreneur who donated $400,000 to the Republican Party this spring sent President Bush a personal letter Monday asking him to send her $100,000 of the donation that she says belongs to her and her sons.

“I ask you sincerely to give back to me and my sons for their college education the $100,000 Michael (Kojima) owes us,” wrote Soon Kojima, a South Bay garment contractor who said she had been searching for her ex-husband for two years.

When he surfaced last month at a Republican fund-raising dinner in Washington, where he sat with the President, no one, including Republican fund-raisers, knew much about Michael Kojima, 50. Kojima was the single large contributor at the event, the largest such fund-raiser in American history.

News reports later showed him to be a one-time chef with a track record of failed businesses and failed marriages. At the time of the dinner, he was being sought by two ex-wives, an Indonesian bank, a Japanese shipping company and a North Carolina fish company for debts believed to exceed $1 million. Soon Kojima, his second wife, has a $100,000 court judgment against her former husband.

In response to news reports, the dinner organizers announced Friday that the $400,000 would be put into an escrow account until they figure out to whom it belongs.

“I know you did not realize that the money Michael gave you was not his,” Soon Kojima wrote Bush. “Now that you do know . . . I would appreciate your giving it back to those he took it from. I know you would not want to see me lose my house, and that you believe in education and would like to see my sons go to college.”

The White House has referred questions about the matter to former Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr. of Tennessee, who chaired the fund-raiser. Baker was said to be traveling and has not returned calls.

Kojima and his fifth wife, Chiey Nomura, maintain a Brentwood apartment and three cars, including a Mercedes and a Maserati. He was said to be in Japan but could not be located there.