Donor Not Source of Gift, Temple Lawyer Says

An attorney representing a Hacienda Heights Buddhist temple swept up in a spreading controversy over Democratic presidential campaign finances confirmed Thursday that a member who gave $5,000 at a fund-raiser featuring Vice President Al Gore says she was given cash to make the donation.

The Democratic National Committee, which organized the April 29 event at the huge Hsi Lai Temple, said it was reviewing the potentially illegal contribution by Man Ya Shih, a leader of the temple’s branch in Richardson, Texas.

In a hint that it may not be an isolated incident, one temple official said Thursday that the practice of disguising the source of a gift is not uncommon.

The DNC earlier had acknowledged that holding the fund-raiser, which brought in $140,000, at a tax-exempt religious institution was a mistake. Committee officials insisted all of the contributions were legal, even though several people who gave gifts in the $2,000 to $5,000 range listed the temple as their address. Typically, only monks and nuns who take vows to live simple lives reside at the compound.

Shih said she was visiting the Hacienda Heights temple on April 29 when a fellow Buddhist devotee she knew to be active in Democratic politics gave her $5,000 in small bills and asked her to write a check to the DNC, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Shih said a woman she could not identify told her someone else donated money but wished to remain anonymous, the paper said.

Federal campaign laws prohibit hiding the true source of contributions, and violations can lead to fines and even criminal charges.

“Obviously, we found it disturbing, and we’re looking into it,” said DNC spokeswoman Amy Weiss Tobe. She said any improper donations would be returned.

“We are not denying that some one gave her $5,000” in cash, said the temple’s attorney Peter Kelly, who spoke with Shih late Thursday. “I don’t have the facts to confirm it,” Kelly said, adding that Shih is “apparently . . . a woman of good faith and integrity.”

Kelly also said that Maria L. Hsia, a veteran Democratic fund-raiser and temple consultant who organized the April 29 event, flatly denied that she gave Shih cash or knew of any illicit donations. He said he had no indication that any other donations collected at the temple were improper.

Still, Man Ho, secretary to the temple’s abbess, said many donors traditionally do not want their families to know about their gifts, so they give money to a third party to give to the politician. “When people come and donate,” Ho said, “they like to keep [it] anonymous.”

The donations were probably a show of respect for Gore, who in the late 1980s visited the temple’s headquarters in Taiwan, Ho said. The vice president also met with the temple’s master, Shing Yun, at the White House shortly before the fund-raiser in a session reportedly arranged by the DNC’s top Asian American fund-raiser, John Huang.

Huang, a former Lippo Bank executive, has brought in millions of dollars for the Clinton reelection bid. Recently, he has been linked to a series of questionable contributions that have focused attention on Democratic fund-raising in the Asian American community and long-standing ties between Clinton and the Indonesian owners of the bank.

Shing Yun, who has been overseas and unavailable for comment, donated $5,000 at the fund-raiser, according to DNC reports. Ho said that while Shing Yun and other monks live simply, they do have money. Among other things, Shing Yun receives royalties from a best-selling biography in Taiwan, she said.

Times staff writer Alan C. Miller in Washington contributed to this story.