U.S. Indicts Hyundai for Contributions to Kim Campaign : Politics: Fountain-Valley-based firm will plead guilty to three counts stemming from $4,500 in illegal donations to congressman in 1992.

Hyundai Motor America was indicted Wednesday and agreed to plead guilty to federal charges of making illegal contributions to the 1992 campaign of Diamond Bar Rep. Jay C. Kim.

The company, based in Fountain Valley, admitted violating campaign finance laws with contributions totaling $4,500 to the 1992 Jay Kim for Congress Campaign Committee.

Last week, Korean Airlines admitted making $4,000 in illegal contributions to the Republican lawmaker’s campaign and agreed to plead guilty.

Indicted on three misdemeanor violations of federal campaign finance laws, Hyundai was charged with making illegal contributions through several of its employees, including Korean citizens. It is illegal for corporations to contribute to candidates in federal elections and for foreign nationals to make campaign contributions, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Stephen Mansfield, one of the prosecutors in the case.

Hyundai Motor America is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co. of Korea.

Hyundai also was indicted for illegally contributing “in the name of another,” Mansfield said.

“Hyundai essentially laundered money through employees who then wrote checks to Kim,” Mansfield said. “This has the effect of concealing the true source of the contribution.”

Hyundai faces up to $600,000 in fines for the campaign violations.

“The company regrets its action,” said Finbarr O’Neill, its counsel. “The company takes full responsibility for its conduct. . . . We have procedures in place to ensure that this will not happen again.”

Hyundai has agreed to cooperate with the government in its investigation, Mansfield said. Additional indictments are expected, he said.

No criminal charges have been filed against Kim.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Kim said: “First, my campaign returned any contributions it received that were known to be improper. Second, neither my campaign nor I have had any knowledge that Hyundai Motor America, a California corporation, or any other corporation reimbursed the personal contributions of its employees. As this was an internal corporate action, there is no way my campaign or I could have known about such reimbursements.”

Kim became the target of a federal investigation into possible tax, election and labor law violations after The Times reported that he secretly used about $485,000 from his engineering corporation to finance his 1992 campaign. JayKim Engineers Inc., despite a prohibition on corporate contributions to federal campaigns, provided the campaign with free rent, staff and office supplies, according to internal company records and checks signed by Kim and obtained by The Times.

As the congressman launched his drive for reelection in 1994, the FBI subpoenaed hundreds of pages of records from the 1992 campaign. William Silva, who managed the 1992 campaign, said he had cautioned Kim that contributions from his engineering company might violate federal law, but Kim ignored the warnings.

Kim, the first Korean immigrant elected to Congress, was voted outstanding freshman congressman of 1993 by his fellow GOP freshmen.

Kim won reelection by a comfortable margin in 1994 despite the federal investigation.