Kim to Refund $132,300 in Proceeds From Book Deal

Rep. Jay C. Kim (R-Diamond Bar) will give up $132,300 in proceeds from his autobiography because of concern about the ethics of book deals by elected officials, his aide said Thursday.

Kim, a second-term congressman, decided to refund the money after consulting last May with the House Ethics Committee, said Matt Reynolds, Kim’s administrative assistant.

“The congressman worked with the committee and talked with its chairman, Republican Congresswoman Nancy Johnson,” Reynolds said. “What they exactly talked about, and what we talked about with the committee’s lawyers, I am not at liberty to say. But the decision was made [that] this was the best thing to do.”

Kim, 56, the first Korean-born American to serve in Congress, published his Korean-language autobiography, titled “I’m Conservative,” in South Korea in 1994, Reynolds said.

“It’s in Korean, for Koreans,” Reynolds said. “It’s an autobiographical sketch. There was a lot of interest in Congressman Kim.”

But Kim had second thoughts about his book deal after seeing the recent furor kicked up over House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s book “To Renew America,” now a runaway bestseller expected to make millions of dollars for the Speaker, Reynolds said.

The House Ethics Committee has begun looking into whether Gingrich’s book resulted from a taxpayer-subsidized college course he taught.

Kim was concerned about his book “because of the perception from all of these other book deals,” Reynolds said. Kim thought it was best to avoid any controversy “for reasons just like this,” Reynolds said, referring to media inquiries about the autobiography.

“With all the attention on Newt Gingrich and [House Majority Leader Dick] Armey and everybody else, it was easiest and wisest to refund the money,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds said Kim had recently filed his 1994 financial disclosure forms due in June. Kim had received an extension for the disclosures, which report all House members’ income other than their $133,600 annual congressional salaries and personal residences.

“He’s refunded some of the money to some of the people who purchased the books, but it’s a little bit more complicated in the sense that they are in Korea and he’s in America,” Reynolds said.

In 1993, Kim became the target of a federal investigation into possible election, tax and labor law violations after The Times reported that he had used $480,000 from his engineering corporation to finance his congressional campaign. He denied any wrongdoing, has since sold his business and was reelected last November.

A spokeswoman at his Ontario district office said Thursday that Kim was away with his family and could not be reached for comment.