Huang Tied to Illegal Foreign Donation

Documents released on Tuesday at Senate hearings revealed that controversial fund-raiser John Huang wired his Indonesian employer seeking repayment for a contribution to the Democratic Party in 1992, the first direct evidence produced by the panel probing campaign finance abuses of an illegal foreign contribution.

Other documents provided at the hearings by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee showed that a wealthy Hong Kong businessman pledged $100,000 to the Democrats as he sought a private foreign policy meeting at the White House. These documents lend support to allegations that the Democratic National Committee may have exchanged access for donations.

The revelation concerning Huang--a central figure in the fund-raising scandal--involved a $50,000 contribution to the “DNC Victory Fund” when Bill Clinton was first running for president.

The disclosure immediately prompted the DNC to announce that it would return the $50,000 contribution. “If we had known the contribution was illegal, we wouldn’t have accepted it,” said Steve Langdon, a DNC spokesman.

The contribution was made on Aug. 12, 1992, by the Rosemead-based Hip Hing Holdings, a subsidiary of the Indonesia-based Lippo Group. That conglomerate is headed by Mochtar and James T. Riady, longtime friends and financial supporters of Clinton dating back to his days as governor of Arkansas.

According to an Aug. 17, 1992, memo produced at Tuesday’s hearings, Huang instructed the Lippo Group offices in Jakarta, Indonesia, to “Please kindly wire” money to the LippoBank in Los Angeles. The reason, the document says, was to cover several expenses, including “DNC Victory Contribution, $50,000.”

Hip Hing Holdings owns a parking lot in Los Angeles’ Chinatown; in 1992, it reported an operating loss of almost $482,000, according to committee documents.

“It certainly looks like the movement of foreign money into an American campaign in 1992,” said Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), a committee member.

Federal election law prohibits contributions by foreign nationals or corporations. A U.S. subsidiary--such as Hip Hing--may contribute to an election campaign if it can show that the revenues were generated through its domestic operations.

Before Tuesday, the focus on Huang had concerned his activities as a DNC fund-raiser for the 1996 campaign. But on Tuesday, the committee sought to look at prior years in an attempt to establish a pre-1996 pattern of foreign donations tied to Huang.

During his stint as a DNC fund-raiser, Huang collected $3.4 million for the party. But because of questions about its origins, especially whether it was from foreign sources, the party has returned nearly half of that amount.

Overall, the party has returned about $2.8 million in money collected for the ’96 campaign because of questions about its origins.

Last week, as the Senate committee began its hearings, evidence surfaced that two Democratic Party donors--Johnny Chien Chuen Chung of Torrance and Yogesh K. Gandhi of Walnut Creek--received large wire transfers from overseas sources before making contributions to the DNC in 1996. But that evidence was circumstantial. Huang’s 1992 memo requesting the wire transfer directly links overseas money to a donation.

The other documents released by the committee Tuesday showed that Hong Kong real estate mogul Eric Hotung and his wife, Patricia, sought a 1995 session with the top two members of the White House’s National Security Council--Anthony Lake, who then headed the council, and his chief deputy, Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger. The couple wanted to discuss U.S. policy toward China and Taiwan.

In a DNC memo dated Sept. 14, 1995, to then-party Chairman Don Fowler, a DNC fund-raiser says the Hotungs “will be contributing $100,000” to the committee and they would be attending a White House dinner with the President and Mrs. Clinton.

The fund-raiser, David Mercer, said in the letter that the DNC would help arrange a meeting for the Hotungs with Berger. That meeting--which a White House spokesman on Tuesday said lasted only five minutes--occurred on Oct. 4, 1995.

A few days later, Patricia Hotung, a U.S. citizen, donated $99,980 to the DNC, according to federal election records. Eric Hotung is a British citizen.

Lanny J. Davis, White House special counsel, denied there was anything improper about the meeting with Berger, who now serves as head of the security council. “There is no truth to the suggestion that the meeting with Mr. Berger, or with anyone else at the White House for that matter, was in exchange for a campaign contribution,” Davis said.

He added: “Mr. Berger had no knowledge of any contributions or promise of contributions by Mr. Hotung. We do not consider such a meeting with Mr. Berger to have been inappropriate.”

But Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee, painted a different picture. He said the documents “set forth pretty clear evidence that a foreign citizen, I think through his wife, offered to make a large contribution, $100,000, to the DNC in return for assistance in arranging for a meeting with a top national security official.

Thomas Corcoran, an attorney for Eric Hotung, could not be reached for comment.

Release of the fund-raising documents concerning Huang and the Hotungs highlighted the start of the second week of hearings conducted by Thompson’s committee.

In contrast to last week, partisan bickering on Tuesday was at a minimum as the committee moved more briskly, going through three witnesses. Last week, only one witness testified.

The evidence of the $50,000 contribution handled by Huang surfaced during testimony by the day’s first witness, Juliana Utomo, a former Hip Hing employee who signed the check to the DNC. Utomo said she did not know that DNC stood for the Democratic National Committee when she signed the check at the request of Huang or another Lippo employee.

“So, this was literally a blank check that you signed,” said Lieberman.

The committee also heard testimony about the ties between Lippo and the Chinese government, as well as how Huang maintained close contact with Lippo officials even after he became a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Huang took that job in between working for Lippo and joining the DNC.

Republican committee members are attempting to establish whether Huang was part of a Chinese government effort to funnel overseas money to the Democratic Party, a contention that LippoBank official Harold Arthur called “hogwash” during his testimony Tuesday.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Huang made more than 400 calls to Lippo companies or officials during his tenure at Commerce--which amounts to more than a call a day. Collins said that “makes me wonder who John Huang was really working for during the time he was at the United States Department of Commerce.”

Times staff writer Marc Lacey and researcher Janet Lundblad contributed to this story.

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A Meeting and a Donation

The following memorandum shows that Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler asked the White House to arrange a meeting between major campaign donors and senior national security officials. A session was held two weeks later. Eric Hotung’s wife, Patricia, a U.S. citizen, contributed $99,980 to the DNC shortly thereafter. A White House spokesman said the meeting was not set up “in exchange for a campaign contribution.”

Source: Senate Governmental Affairs Committee

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Today’s Witnesses

Questions in today’s hearings are likely to concentrate on John Huang’s role as a mid-level Commerce official, his security clearances, the frequency and nature of his top-secret briefings and his numerous telephone calls to his former employer, the Jakarta-based Lippo Group, while working for the government.

THE LINEUP

Jeffrey E. Garten: Former Commerce undersecretary for International Trade, the division of Commerce in which Huang worked.

Robert Gallagher: A senior security official at Commerce who was involved in issues concerning Huang’s security clearance.

John Dickerson: A CIA analyst assigned as an intelligence liaison to Commerce who gave Huang numerous top-secret briefings on China, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Paula Greene: Former secretary at the Washington office of Stephens Inc., an Arkansas-based investment banking firm, which Huang used to make phone calls while at Commerce.

William W. Ginsberg: Former chief of staff to then-Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown who approached by Huang’s boss about a consultancy for Huang when Huang moved from Commerce to the Democratic National Committee.

Timothy Hauser: Former deputy undersecretary for international trade in Commerce.

Compiled by D’JAMILA SALEM FITZGERALD