Big GOP Donor Kojima Reportedly Traded on Party Contacts

A Japanese-born California businessman who was the top donor to the $9-million “President’s Dinner” last month used his GOP connections to try to win help from U.S. diplomats for a foreign consortium, according to diplomatic sources in Tokyo and Hong Kong.

The businessman, Michael Kojima, also attempted to trade on his supposed prestige as a Republican contributor and insider to sell his services as a consultant, and to ask the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo to help him get money from Japanese banks, the sources said.

Kojima’s donation to the dinner--a fund-raiser for candidates for Congress--originally was reported as $400,000, but it was $500,000. A spokesman for the dinner, Rich Galen, said Kojima donated the money in two checks. The second, for $100,000, arrived too late for inclusion in currently available reports to the Federal Election Commission.

When Kojima’s donation was publicized, several creditors came forward--including an ex-wife to whom he owes $100,000. Red-faced GOP officials put the money in escrow.

Government officials and businessmen interviewed in Tokyo, Hong Kong and the United States portrayed Kojima as a name-dropper who carried around a photo of himself with Bush.

No one contacted in Tokyo, Hong Kong or California, where he lives, knew the source of Kojima’s funds, and he himself has been unavailable for comment since the dinner.

A principal of the consortium, David Pun of PYCY Hong Kong Ltd., said Kojima told him he could get $1 billion from Japanese sources “on a personal basis.” PYCY, a group of 30 Hong Kong-born Chinese, most with Canadian passports, hoped to win a piece of an airport project. It failed.

“When we hired him on a contingency basis, the only reason was that he was attached to the U.S. Republicans, and he was a member of the Presidential Roundtable,” Pun said in a telephone interview from London. The round table is made up of those who have given at least $5,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

About the same time Kojima was telling Pun he had Japanese funding early last fall, he was asking officials at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo to introduce him to Japanese bankers, according to a U.S. official in Tokyo.

Kojima said he was putting together a consortium of U.S. businesses to bid on airport projects, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. But U.S. officials were wary of Kojima because his plan included no recognizable U.S. companies.

“He asked to be introduced to Japanese banks,” said the official. “I said, ‘Look, if you want an introduction to Japanese banks, you obviously want to talk to Japanese politicians.’ He melted. He didn’t want anything to do with Japanese politicians.”

Also in early fall, the Republican National Committee at Kojima’s request wrote a letter to the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong asking it to help him, a consulate official said. The official refused to identify the letter’s signer.

“When President Bush’s people say give this guy the time of day, we give him the time of day. . . . We did our best and got him the meetings he wanted” with Hong Kong airport officials, he said.

Diplomats say requests from legislators to help constituents are not unusual, but a request from a political body like the RNC is.

In Washington, RNC spokesman B.J. Cooper said he knew nothing of RNC dealings with Kojima. “We can’t find any such letter thus far. I still question whether there was one,” he said.