DNC Is Giving Up $5,000 From Buddhist Event

Beset by allegations of improper fund-raising, the Democratic National Committee disclosed Monday that it was giving up $5,000 from a donor who said she was handed cash during an event at a Hacienda Heights Buddhist temple and told to write a check to the DNC.

“We believe that the allegation has credibility,” said DNC spokeswoman Amy Weiss Tobe, based on confirmation by the attorney who represents the Hsi Lai Temple.

Concealing the source of a campaign contribution is prohibited by federal law and can lead to criminal charges.

The $5,000 represents the fifth suspect contribution--totaling $300,000--that the DNC has returned in the last month amid reports raising questions about undue foreign influence in the U.S. elections process. The party asked the FEC last week to conduct an expedited inquiry of various donations that have been the focus of published accounts.

Meanwhile, the furor over DNC solicitation practices, primarily in the Asian American community, continued to reverberate.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich, at a news conference in the Sacramento area, termed the controversy part of a pattern for a Clinton administration “that reeks of corruption.” He added: “We have never had this large a scandal be a part of the American presidency. And the time to ferret it out is before the election. . . . “

Rep. Bill Archer (R-Texas), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, released a letter he sent to IRS Commissioner Margaret Milner Richardson recommending the agency open an investigation into whether the April 29 DNC fund-raiser at the Buddhist temple violated the ban on partisan political activity by a tax-exempt organization.

The DNC reiterated that controversial fund-raiser John Huang would not answer questions from the news media despite indications by DNC Chairman Christopher J. Dodd on national television Sunday that he would make Huang available to reporters. Huang, who raised much of the questionable money, has been assigned to deal internally with these matters.

The event at the Hsi Lai temple, which was attended by Vice President Al Gore, raised $140,000. It also has swept the huge religious institution into the fund-raising imbroglio.

The contribution that the DNC has given up was reported as coming from Man Ya Shih, a leader of the temple’s branch in Richardson, Texas. She said she was visiting the temple when a Buddhist colleague 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.

Since Shih was unable to identify the woman who gave her the money, Tobe said, the DNC was sending the $5,000 to the federal Treasury.

She said party officials had not spoken to Shih but were acting on the word of Peter Kelly, the temple’s attorney and a former state Democratic Party chairman, who confirmed Shih’s story.

Kelly said he concurs with the DNC decision to return the funds, adding that the facts “indicate a problem with that one” donation, but they do not indicate there was a broader problem affecting other donations made at the event.

The temple is conducting an investigation of its own to determine whether the contributors were legal residents and had the financial ability to make the donations, Kelly said. “If our investigation uncovers anything like that, we’ll [recommend the DNC] return the money,” Kelly said.

Times staff writers Rich Connell in Los Angeles and Dave Lesher in Sacramento contributed to this story.