Treasurer of Kim’s Campaign Indicted in Probe

California Rep. Jay C. Kim’s campaign treasurer was indicted Tuesday on charges of receiving illegal corporate contributions, failing to report donations to the Federal Election Commission and pressuring a witness to lie to a federal grand jury last month.

The indictment of Seokuk Ma, a longtime political supporter, appeared to move the FBI’s four-year probe of campaign finance fraud closer to the doorstep of the Diamond Bar Republican.

Ma’s attorney, Sherryl Michaelson, declined to say “one way or another” whether federal prosecutors had offered her client a deal if he agreed to testify against the congressman.

“My client categorically denies all of the charges in the indictment and looks forward to defending his innocence in court,” she said.

In the past year, five South Korea-based companies have pleaded guilty to funneling illegal campaign contributions to Kim, the first Korean American elected to Congress.

Kim has not been charged with any wrongdoing, although his attorney has said the congressman considers himself to be the prime target of the federal investigation.

In Washington, an aide to Kim would say only that “until we have further information and have a chance to analyze the details, we are not in a position to comment.”

The indictment grew out of a fund-raiser held on behalf of Kim on Jan. 21, 1994, in Los Angeles.

Ma, 51, is accused of knowingly accepting $5,450 from seven corporate donors. Corporate contributions to federal election campaigns are illegal.

The indictment also accuses Ma of hiding from the Federal Election Commission the $5,450 as well as another business firm’s $1,250 donation.

The contributors were identified as Haitai America, which paid a $400,000 fine last week for laundering corporate donations to Kim’s 1992 campaign; and Bacco Inc., the Korean Federation of Los Angeles, Sun Princess Cosmetics, Dong-A America, Universal Market Supply Corp., Tiger Contract Services and Yoko’s The Ring Co.

In a plea agreement with the government, Haitai America has promised to cooperate with the FBI in its ongoing investigation.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Stephen A. Mansfield, who is prosecuting the Ma case, declined to say, however, whether any of the other companies named in the indictment were cooperating or were under investigation for possible illegal conduct.

Ma also is charged with witness tampering. On Nov. 6, according to the indictment, Ma tried to persuade Lola Park to provide “false and incomplete” testimony to a federal grand jury.

Park was to testify about a $2,500 contribution she made at the Kim fund-raiser for a framed note signed by the congressman.

Ma, who lives near Kim in Diamond Bar and operates Samas Telecom, a telecommunications parts supply sales company in Pomona, is to appear before a magistrate today in Los Angeles federal court for the setting of an arraignment date on two felonies and one misdemeanor count.

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Kim entered politics in 1990 when he ran successfully for the Diamond Bar City Council. In 1992, he won election in the newly apportioned 41st Congressional District and has been reelected twice since. The district includes Diamond Bar, most of Ontario, Montclair, Upland, Pomona, Chino and Yorba Linda.

The FBI investigation was launched in 1993 after The Times disclosed that Kim had used corporate funds from his own firm, JayKim Engineers, to bankroll his first bid for Congress.

After the story was published, Ma spearheaded a monthlong campaign in the Korean community to boycott The Times. He accused the newspaper of targeting Kim because of his Korean heritage.

Little was heard of the investigation until about a year ago when a federal grand jury handed up a string of indictments against American subsidiaries of some major South Korean conglomerates.

In return for their guilty pleas, Hyundai Motor America, Korean Airlines, Samsung America, Daewoo International America and, most recently, Haitai America, have paid a total of $1.6 million in fines.

The government lost the only trial growing out of the investigation, that of Hyundai executive Paul Koh. However, the trial did force the FBI to reveal some details of its investigation.

They included allegations by a former campaign worker that Kim and his wife, June, accepted corporate checks, crossing out the word, ‘Inc.’ so they could be reported to the Federal Election Commission as donations from individuals; that June Kim kept secret lists of illegal contributors, and that the congressman’s wife ordered the destruction of computerized campaign finance records when she learned of the FBI investigation.