Records Show Wider Role on Asia for Fund-Raiser

For the past month, officials at the Commerce Department have asserted that John Huang, the former Lippo Group executive and prodigious Democratic fund-raiser within the Asian American community, had virtually no involvement in U.S. trade policy and few dealings with Asian nations during his 18 months at the agency.

They said Huang, in his role as principal deputy assistant secretary for international economic policy, was responsible for budget and personnel issues. “He was a deputy who largely concerned himself with administrative matters,” said department spokeswoman Anne Luzzatto.

But government appointment books and telephone logs show that Huang devoted much of his time to U.S. economic relations with China, Indonesia and other Asian countries where the Lippo Group had business interests. His activities included participating in meetings to develop commercial strategy between the United States and the Pacific Rim, to organize the annual Asian Pacific Economic Conference, to plan former Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown’s 1994 trade mission to China and to consult with officials of the U.S. Trade Representative’s office.

In addition, Huang received 35 individual briefings on U.S. foreign intelligence during a 13-month period. These intelligence briefings indicate that Huang “had a need to know” sensitive information about U.S. contacts with foreign countries, said a Commerce Department official.

The records, released this week under the Freedom of Information Act, underscore growing questions about the separation between Huang’s government service at the Commerce Department and his previous employment with the Lippo Group, a $12-billion worldwide conglomerate based in Indonesia.

Huang worked for the Lippo Group from 1985 to 1994, while raising money for the Democratic Party as a volunteer. He then served in the Commerce Department from July 1994 to December 1995 before leaving to become a full-time fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee.

Questions About Past

Questions about a mingling of Huang’s roles have emerged since the disclosure that he solicited a controversial $450,000 donation last year from an Indonesian couple associated with Lippo and living in Virginia. Suspicions have been underscored by Huang’s presence at a White House meeting in 1995 between James Riady, scion of the founder of the Lippo Group, and President Clinton, and by Lippo’s payment of an $879,000 compensation package to Huang when he moved from the company to the Commerce Department.

The DNC has suspended Huang’s fund-raising activities while the Federal Election Commission investigates several questionable donations he solicited, including one already declared illegal.

Huang’s participation in Asian policy and access to classified government information in this area is considered sensitive because of Lippo’s extensive business holdings in Asia. In his Commerce Department post, Huang kept himself apprised of U.S. economic policy positions toward Asian countries, specifically China, according to the documents and interviews.

The appointment books and telephone logs obtained from the department provide dates, times, places and names of people Huang was scheduled to meet as well as names and messages from people who called Huang at the department.

Lippo Contacts

While working at the Commerce Department, according to the records, Huang kept in contact with Lippo employees. He had lunch and several phone conversations with Webster Hubbell, the former associate attorney general who was paid an undisclosed sum by the Lippo Group while under contract to the conglomerate in 1994 before starting a two-year prison term for defrauding his former law partners.

Huang received 13 phone messages from Mark E. Middleton, a former White House liaison to the business community who was accused recently of soliciting politicians in Taiwan for Democratic campaign donations--an allegation that Middleton vigorously denies. Middleton helped arrange many of the dozen or more visits to the White House since 1993 by Riady, a friend of the president, and his family.

Huang has declined to answer questions about his work at the Commerce Department or his fund-raising activities. In response to written questions submitted last month, he denied having any dealings with Lippo while at the department.

“Since it would have been an obvious conflict of interest to work on any such matters . . . I scrupulously avoided any contact with any Commerce Department matters involving Lippo,” Huang wrote.

Ruzzatto, the Commerce Department spokeswoman, said agency officials “have seen absolutely nothing to suggest that [Huang] involved himself with any Lippo-related matter while he was here.”

Since Huang became a central figure in the controversy concerning questionable Democratic donations with foreign ties, Commerce Department officials have downplayed his role at the agency.

One official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, described Huang as an administrative “place-holder who made sure papers got into and out of the office.” Another official, made available for an interview on the condition that he not be identified, said Huang “kept the trains running on time” and primarily reviewed briefing papers and managed correspondence.

This description of Huang’s duties prompted skepticism among several former Commerce Department officials who worked under Republican and Democratic administrations.

Job Description

The office of international economic policy where Huang worked provided policy analysis, planned major overseas trips and prepared briefing papers for the commerce secretary, according to former employees. As the principal deputy assistant secretary, Huang filled in as acting assistant secretary when his supervisor was traveling, which was frequently. As a result, Huang supervised counterparts working on U.S. commercial and economic policy for Europe, the Western Hemisphere, Africa, Asia and the Pacific.

To be sure, current and former officials noted, Huang’s attendance at key meetings and his frequent intelligence briefings do not mean he played an important role shaping Commerce Department policy.

One former high-level Commerce Department official, who served at the department with Huang and who declined to be identified, said that as many as 100 employees were sometimes invited to meetings in the early planning stages of Brown’s trips. He said the final decisions were always made in small sessions not attended by Huang.

“He may have been there in some of those meetings,” the former top aide said. “But there is no possibility that he said anything that would have been influential. . . . In fact, I don’t recall him ever saying anything--ever.”

But two things Huang shared, according to the records and interviews, were an active interest in Asian affairs and broad access to classified information on Far East countries.

Commerce Department officials said earlier that Huang had no involvement in Asian affairs with the exception of Taiwan. The intention was to take advantage of Huang’s expertise on Taiwan, where he was raised and educated, while keeping a “firewall” between Taiwan and China policy, officials said.

But on Tuesday another Commerce Department official said Huang also specialized in China. Moreover, the appointment calendars indicate that Huang was extensively involved in China issues.

Huang recently testified at a hearing on another matter that his job mostly involved “managerial, organizational and budgetary” responsibilities. But he also said that he had “full knowledge” of Commerce Department trade missions, and the “most knowledge” about China.

The Riady family holds major interests in China. Also, the value of Lippo enterprises in Hong Kong would be jeopardized if China, which is due to assume control of Hong Kong from Britain were denied most-favored-nation trade status and commerce with the United States were penalized.

China Sessions

The calendars show that Huang took part in several Commerce Department “China trip” sessions in 1994 at a time when then-Secretary Brown was planning a major visit to Beijing. That same year, according to phone records, an aide to Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) contacted Huang on a query involving most-favored-nation trade status for China.

In April 1995, Huang met with the current U.S. ambassador to China, James Sasser, at a time when Sasser was awaiting Senate confirmation for the post. He also participated in a “China trade” session and met twice with delegations of visiting Chinese officials.

The total amount of Lippo’s investments in China and Hong Kong are unknown, but among the conglomerate’s vast holdings are an interest in twin skyscrapers and a bank in Hong Kong and an industrial park development firm and electronics company in China.

A $1-billion deal between the New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. and the Lippo Group to construct a power plant in China was heavily promoted by Brown during his trade mission to China in 1994. Luzzatto said the Chinese government decided not to proceed with the project.

Top-Secret Clearance

Huang, as part of his job, had top-secret security clearance that gave him access to classified information.

The records show that Huang had 35 scheduled meetings with John Dickerson from the Office of Intelligence Liason, which is staffed by analysts from the Commerce Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and other intelligence-gathering units. The sessions involved one-on-one briefings on international topics of interest to Huang, Commerce Department officials said. They included classified information culled from intelligence sources overseas and research material on the economies of other countries.

According to interviews with former Commerce Department officials who worked in Huang’s department, the regular intelligence briefings indicate that Huang was more involved in substantive matters regarding foreign nations and trade issues than previously portrayed by agency officials.

Times staff writers Sara Fritz, Jim Mann, Alan C. Miller and Josh Greenberg and researchers Barbara Fitzpatrick and D.J. Salem contributed to this story.