Close Clinton Friend Enjoys Dramatic Rise in Fortunes

Of the many Americans who claim to be “friends of Bill,” few, if any, have had their lives so dramatically transformed because they know President Clinton as Yah Lin “Charlie” Trie.

Just a few years ago, Trie, a Taiwan-born naturalized U.S. citizen, was serving up Chinese food at a restaurant in a shabby section of downtown Little Rock, Ark.

Today he is known as an international deal-maker and Democratic high roller who maintains an address at the luxury Watergate apartments in Washington and has access to the White House.

Nearly everyone acquainted with Trie knows one important thing about him: He and the president are every bit as good friends now as they were during the 1980s, when then-Gov. Clinton frequented Fu Lin’s restaurant near the Arkansas state Capitol.

Trie is said to call the president “Lao Ke”--a Chinese term of familiarity meaning “old Clinton.” And when they meet, the two men embrace like lost brothers, as they did back in Little Rock years ago.

Despite the embarrassment that Trie has caused him, the president made it clear Tuesday that he still has fond feelings for him.

“I knew him when he and his family started a little restaurant about a mile from my home 20 years ago,” Clinton told reporters. “I saw them build up their family enterprise. They’ve worked very hard in this country and they’ve done well.”

Just last Friday night, Trie was among 250 guests invited to a formal White House dinner. White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said that the president, while standing in the receiving line before the meal, “had a brief conversation with him [Trie] that was of a personal nature.”

Friday’s dinner was just one of many invitations Trie apparently has received from the White House, although the president’s aides have not yet provided all records related to his visits.

But unfortunately for the president, Trie’s efforts to repay Clinton for his friendship have lately gone awry.

In recent months, serious questions have been raised about Trie’s efforts to raise money for the Democratic National Committee and the president’s legal defense fund. In at least some cases, the contributions were judged to be illegal or improper.

The president’s lawyers announced Monday that they had rejected or returned about $600,000 that Trie had delivered to the Clinton defense fund, which goes to help pay legal bills for various cases involving the president and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. They said that an investigation had raised “significant concerns” about the true sources of the money.

Trie makes no secret of his friendship with Clinton, nor does he hesitate to use it in his business dealings. Indeed, he has told business associates that his ties to the president were crucial in his efforts to establish business relationships in Asia.

But little could be determined Tuesday about the precise nature of Trie’s business activities since he sold his Little Rock restaurant in 1991. Most acquaintances either refuse to discuss his business dealings or say that they know nothing about them. Trie’s activities are said to involve trade between the United States and China. He always has deals in the making, some friends said.

Nor is it clear what relationship Trie has with members of the Ching Hai sect that made many of the questionable donations to Clinton’s legal defense fund. Members of the sect in several cities have said that they do not know him.

In addition, Trie has been honored by the administration with recognition normally reserved for more accomplished business figures. Among them: He was appointed last April to serve on the Commission on U.S.-Pacific Trade and Investment Policy, a 16-member group that advises the government on Asian trade matters.

Government records also show that Trie was included in an illustrious group of U.S. business leaders and foreign trade ministers invited to a special reception hosted by the late Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown during the meeting of the Asian-Pacific Trade Ministers in Jakarta, Indonesia, in November 1994.

But government officials who have dealt with Trie under these circumstances were not informed about his business dealings.

Jude Kearney, a former official in the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration, acknowledged in an interview that he had some official contact with Trie, whom he knew to be a friend of the president. Kearney said that he knew Trie was involved in “China matters” but he had no idea what business he was doing in China.

Trie identifies himself as president of Daihatsu International Trading Co., with offices in Little Rock, Washington, Shanghai and Bejing. But the phone is not answered at these offices. In Shanghai, in fact, Daihatsu’s number rings at the Shangri-la Portman, a well-known hotel, where an operator had never heard of Trie.

In Little Rock, one of Trie’s friends, Jennifer Russell, said in a brief telephone interview that she is not at liberty to disclose the exact nature of his business.

Trie has some business ties to the wealthy Riady family of Indonesia, apparently going back to the mid-1980s when young James Riady went to Little Rock to work for Worthen Bank.

The Riadys’ LippoBank loaned Trie money during his restaurant days, Asian sources say.

Antonio Pan, one of Trie’s business partners, is a former Lippo employee. And records show that Trie frequently contacted another former Lippo employee, John Huang, while Huang was working as an official at the Commerce Department in 1994 and 1995.

At Commerce, Huang worked in the International Trade Administration. At the Democratic National Committee, where Huang went to work as a fund-raiser in early 1996, he was responsible for raising campaign contributions from Asian Americans such as Trie. Nearly $1.2 million of the money Huang raised has been returned, however, because Democratic officials determined that the contributions were either improper or illegal.

By all accounts, Trie’s most lucrative business partnership is with Ng Lap-Seng, a real estate developer in Macao. Together, Ng and Trie run San Kin Yip Trading Corp.

In 1994, Trie and Ng bid unsuccessfully to acquire The Camelot, an aging landmark hotel in Little Rock. Shortly thereafter, San Kin Yip incorporated in Little Rock and the company made a $15,000 donation to the Democratic National Committee. The money was returned recently by Democratic officials, who determined that it was not a legal contribution because it had come from foreign sources.

The San Kin Yip money was the earliest of many contributions orchestrated by Trie which have since come under scrutiny.

Times staff writers Maggie Farley in Hong Kong and Peter Hong in Los Angeles contributed to this story.