Riady, Key Figure in Asian-Fund Issue, Visited White House 15 Times

James Riady, son of one of Indonesia’s wealthiest businessmen and a central figure in the growing series of questions about the Clinton administration’s Asian fund-raising efforts, visited the White House at least 15 times, perhaps more, during President Clinton’s tenure, White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said Monday.

McCurry said White House officials, who have been searching through visitor logs and other records, are not yet sure how often Riady visited the complex or who he may have met.

Last month, White House aide Bruce Lindsey confirmed that Riady had met twice with Clinton. According to McCurry, the men, who have known each other for many years, talked “philosophically” about the importance of U.S. ties with Asia. Beyond that, “we don’t have enough information about the substance of the conversations he had to establish” whether Riady and Clinton had ever talked about specific policy issues that might have been of concern to the businessman, McCurry said.

The two, for example, might have discussed the U.S. debate over granting most favorable nation trading status to China, he said, adding that “Clinton was lobbied by just about everyone on that, including a lot of Republicans,” he said.

At one point, he said, Riady had sought a meeting with Thomas F. (Mack) McClarty, then the White House chief of staff, to discuss a policy issue. McClarty referred his request to Robert E. Rubin, then the head of Clinton’s National Economic Council, and now secretary of the Treasury. White House officials have not found a record that Riady and Rubin met, and Rubin does not recall such a meeting, McCurry said.

In addition to his more formal meetings with Clinton, Riady encountered the president three other times at the White House, McCurry said, once having his picture taken with the president, once joining a group of people who listened while Clinton recorded his Saturday radio speech and once bumping into him in a West Wing corridor.

Riady, son of one of Indonesia’s wealthiest entrepreneurs, Mochtar Riady, finds himself in the middle of growing questions about the influence of foreign money on this year’s presidential election. James Riady helps run the worldwide conglomerate Lippo Group. Several people with connections to Lippo have either given or solicited questionable contributions, including Los Angeles banker John Huang, until recently the top Asian American fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee, who formerly worked for Lippo.