ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Taiwanese Company Offers to Loan County $3 Billion : Recovery: Interest rate would be only 4%. Officials aren’t sure whether to take the deal seriously.

In an odd twist, a Taiwanese company has made a pitch to loan Orange County $3 billion to help it recover from bankruptcy, but state and county officials don’t know quite what to make of it.

Huang Neumg Industry has offered to put up a 15-year loan to the county at a bargain-basement 4% interest rate, but with a two-point finance charge of $60 million.

While county and state officials have yet to figure out whether the deal is legitimate, some are suggesting that--given Orange County’s current predicament--the offer is at least worth investigating.

“Bogus or not, I think it has to be checked out,” Supervisor Marian Bergeson said. “It’s an offer that’s just so incredible no one can believe it’s for real.”

Toshio Kojima, international director of the Taiwanese firm, made the offer in a one-page letter dated Feb. 22 to Fred Branca, the county’s budget director.

Branca said he had been contacted on several occasions since late December by Sam Fujii, a U.S. representative of the firm. But he said that he repeatedly told Fujii to contact county treasury officials, and that he turned the Feb. 22 letter over to Thomas E. Daxon, the county’s acting treasurer. Daxon could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The proposal surfaced publicly on Wednesday while Orange County officials were making a presentation on the bankruptcy to the state Assembly. During the session, Assemblyman Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard) asked Orange County Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy if he would like a billion-dollar loan at a 4% interest rate. Popejoy reacted with skepticism but expressed interest in hearing details.

Takasugi on Thursday said he had been approached by Fujii while giving a speech at a meeting of the Orange County Japanese-American Assn. The assemblyman said he turned over information on the deal this week to Assemblywoman Marguerite Archie-Hudson (D-Los Angeles), who is chairwoman of an Assembly select committee on the Orange County bankruptcy. Archie-Hudson sent the information on Thursday to Popejoy.

“I don’t know what level of reality can be attached to any of it,” said John Stevens, the committee’s chief consultant.

Fujii, president of Fuji Electric Corp. in Torrance, said in a Feb. 7 letter to Takasugi that he had “bona fide lenders” to help Orange County who have done billion-dollar deals in nations around the world, including Mexico and Iran.

In addition, Fujii made a pitch about the loan in a Feb. 14 letter to state Treasurer Matt Fong. Ron Rogers, chief deputy state treasurer, replied in a Feb. 21 letter that Fujii’s statements had been “reviewed and are greatly appreciated.” But it also said that the county had not requested state involvement.

Fujii is in Japan until March 20 and could not be reached for comment, an employee at his Torrance firm said.

If the loan offer proves to be legitimate, one snag could be the county’s ability to provide collateral. The Feb. 22 letter from Kojima said his firm would like a standby letter of credit issued by a prime bank as security.

Bergeson, for one, suggested that could be a stumbling block.

“How can we get that right now?” she asked.