White House Lists Donors to ’93 Inaugural

They lavished $100,000 gifts and loans on President Clinton to help stage his first inaugural bash. Then many of these wealthy benefactors reaped their rewards, from White House dinners to government appointments.

The first complete accounting of the major donors and lenders to the 1993 inauguration, released by the White House at the request of the Associated Press, included the names of James Riady and John Huang, executives of Indonesia’s Lippo banking conglomerate who got private Oval Office audiences with the president. Riady and Huang, who have emerged as central figures in the Asian donation controversy, were listed as giving a joint donation of $100,000. Huang later got jobs at the Commerce Department and the Democratic National Committee.

In all, the organizers of Clinton’s last inauguration collected more than $2.5 million in donations and $17 million in interest-free loans as seed money for the January 1993 celebration, the documents show.

In all, there were 14 donors who gave $100,000 or more and did not ask to be repaid. Seven of those donations came from companies and four from unions.

Individuals who gave that much were D. Inez Andreas, Riady and Huang jointly, and Richard Park, president of U.S. Woopon Co.

The largest donor was the Wall Street brokerage firm Merrill Lynch, which donated $250,000 and loaned an additional $100,000.