Democrats Sought Funds on Asia Trip, Memos Show

When Democratic Party aide Melinda Yee mapped out a 1991 trip to Asia for the party’s chairman, she saw dollar signs. Bringing home the money would be a cadre of fund-raisers.

“John Huang has offered to host an event in Hong Kong with a goal of $50,000,” Yee wrote in an Oct. 22, 1991, memo.

“Maria Hsia will identify key donors to give to us directly during the Taiwan portion of the trip.”

In Hawaii, Nora T. Lum “has personally guaranteed $25,000.”

“Chairman,” Yee urged then-Democratic Party Chief Ronald H. Brown in her exuberant conclusion, “the bottom line is that if we take the trip as proposed, we will raise at least $100,000.”

The 10-day trip Brown and his Democratic entourage subsequently took was little noticed inthe political world at the time. But six years later and 17 months after Brown’s death in a plane crash, the Asian foray looms as a potentially serious problem for a Democratic Party beset by a fund-raising firestorm.

The explicit memos and itineraries laying out at least one of the trip’s purposes are now in the hands of House, Senate and Justice Department investigators and they appear to contradict a central defense of the Democratic National Committee: that its foreign-linked financial abuses in the 1996 presidential campaign were an aberration precipitated by a handful of rogue fund-raisers operating under lax supervision.

To assess the scope of possible wrongdoing, investigators are now examining these internal memos and other evidence to see whether they outline an intentional effort by the Democrats to troll for big money overseas--with the blessing of high-level officials.

The provocative documents also represent another case in which Democratic or White House officials withheld damaging evidence only to have the material later emerge amid multiple inquiries into the party’s all-out bid to keep pace with Republican fund-raising.

Democratic officials refused to disclose these documents for many months, providing only a sanitized version of the planned trip itinerary to The Times last spring. It emphasized meetings with Taiwan and Hong Kong officials and included none of the specific fund-raising language.

However, copies obtained by The Times show that Yee talked eagerly about the fund-raising windfalls that awaited the Democrats both during the trip and in its aftermath. In an itinerary dated Dec. 2, 1991, just two days before the scheduled departure, Yee indicated that the Democratic delegation would cash in through no fewer than seven lunches, dinners and receptions in Taiwan. In Hong Kong, funds would be sought through two events hosted by Huang’s employer, the Lippo Group, an Indonesian-based conglomerate that was seeking to cultivate closer ties to prominent U.S. political figures.

Lest the point be lost, she highlighted references to each session unmistakably with the following notation: “$$.”

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These new details about the 1991 trip are likely to command particular attention from the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, which opens its hearings into campaign excesses Wednesday. Unlike the investigation by its Senate counterpart, the House panel’s purview is not restricted to the 1996 election contest.

“We’re going to step back and take a very strong look at the matter of foreign money in the American system and not just in the 1996 election,” Richard Bennett, the committee’s chief counsel, said in an interview describing the panel’s overall approach. He declined to comment on the 1991 documents.

In May 1996, Huang, then Democratic finance vice chairman, was back in Taiwan on a mission that party officials later described as prospecting for donations from legal sources. Citing the perils of such ventures, Clinton later said that this was a mistake because “we ought to finance our campaigns in America.”

Huang, Hsia and Nora Lum have all emerged as key figures in various federal inquiries into fund-raising practices. Huang and Hsia are being investigated for their roles in illegal Democratic fund-raising ventures in 1996. Nora Lum and her, husband, Gene Lum, have pleaded guilty to funneling illegal campaign donations to Democratic candidates in 1994. Members of the Riady family, who control Lippo and are longtime allies of President Clinton, also figure prominently in the inquiries.

Despite the 1991 documents’ open references to fund-raising and their smattering of dollar signs, a Democratic spokesman and Yee’s attorney both sought to downplay their significance.

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Peter J. Kadzik, a lawyer for the party, said that the principal purpose of Brown’s trip was to meet with government leaders in Taiwan to burnish his credentials for a future Cabinet appointment and that party officials raised no money in Taiwan or Hong Kong. Moreover, he said, the intent of the trip was merely to lay the groundwork for future fund-raising efforts involving legitimate donors--legal U.S. residents living in Asia or U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies.

“This is sort of pie-in-the-sky speculation by fund-raisers when, in fact, none of this money came in, nor were any fund-raisers held,” said Kadzik, a Democratic lawyer. “The primary purpose of this trip was to raise Ron Brown’s international stature.”

Asked whether the documents reflected a broader foreign fund-raising effort, Kadzik replied: “Absolutely not. There is no indication or any inference that can be drawn from these documents that that occurred.”

Kadzik said the national committee had not previously disclosed the internal memos because “I don’t believe that these documents alone accurately depict the purpose and scope of the trip.”

Nancy Luque, Yee’s attorney, said her client, then a 28-year-old political aide, was not herself a party fund-raiser, was not steeped in the intricacies of election law and “just had the wrong expectations of what was going to happen over there. . . . Apparently none of the money that they talked about ever came through, or very little.”

Attorneys for Huang and Hsia also said that no fund-raising actually occurred in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Kadzik said that a check of party records showed no money was raised in Asia. A review by The Times of contributions disclosed by the Democrats to the Federal Election Commission also did not reveal any such donations.

Overseas contributions would not necessarily appear on FEC reports if they were laundered through straw donors. Investigators have identified several instances where Democratic fund-raisers engaged in this practice in a bid to conceal foreign-linked donations.

Nora and Gene Lum, who Brown first met on this trip, delivered $26,000 from themselves and various businesses in Hawaii, records and interviews show.

Kadzik said the Democratic National Committee could not determine which of the planned events on the trip occurred because the participants no longer work for the party or are deceased.

After Brown decided to accept an invitation to visit Taiwan, he asked Yee, the Democratic official charged with liaison to the Asian American community, “to look into fund-raising activity that could be legally conducted,” Luque said.

Yee was told by the party’s counsel that it would be appropriate to solicit “private individuals who are permanent [U.S.] residents and corporations who have business in the U.S.”--language she included in the memos, Luque said. At that point, Brown directed her to make such arrangements and Yee contacted Hsia and Huang, who she knew from Asian American Democratic circles.

In a memo Oct. 15, 1991, to Brown, Yee wrote: “We should be able to bring home at least $100,000 and after subsequent follow-up at least $100,000 more by the end of the year.”

In an Oct. 22, 1991, memo, she said: “John Huang has offered to host an event in Hong Kong with a goal of $50,000.” She had previously called him “our key to Hong Kong.”

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In a memo Nov. 6, 1991, to Brown, Yee said of Hsia’s efforts in Taiwan: “I know that you spoke with her. She has been working diligently to secure $$ there.”

Yee wrote that the Taiwan government would pay for the group’s air fare and other costs in Taiwan. She also noted that Huang’s employer would do the same in Hong Kong and that Nora Lum would “take care of” hotel accommodations, meals and transportation in Hawaii.

Brown was accompanied on the trip by Yee, another party aide and Maeley Tom, an Asian American Democratic activist from Sacramento. Hsia and Huang joined the delegation in Taipei.

The itinerary shows that Hsia was to arrange two lunches and a dinner for the group in Taiwan, all of which were identified by Yee with “$$.”

Luque, who also represents Hsia, said that the Arcadia-based immigration consultant was in Taiwan on business and agreed to arrange for Brown to meet various individuals, including U.S. citizens living there or commuting to the United States. Luque said these events for Brown were not fund-raisers but rather that Hsia “was just making introductions to him in the business community.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Foreign Currency

Excerpts from internal memos from Melinda Yee, director of constituencies for the Democratic National Committee, on DNC Chairman Ronald H. Brown’s 10-day trip to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Hawaii in December 1991.

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Researchers Janet Lundblad in Los Angeles and D’Jamila Salem Fitzgerald in Washington contributed to this story.

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* FUND-RAISING DISPUTE

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