First Fund-Raising Sentences Meted Out

Handing out the first sentences growing out of the Justice Department’s investigation of Democratic fund-raising practices, a federal judge on Tuesday ordered a Long Beach husband and wife incarcerated for conspiring to hide illegal contributions to two congressional campaigns.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina sentenced Nora T. Lum, 55, and her husband, Gene K. H. Lum, 58, to 10 months’ confinement and fined them $30,000 each.

Nora Lum took the main responsibility for funneling about $50,000 in illegal contributions in 1994 and 1995 to the congressional campaigns of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and W. Stuart Price, a son-in-law of then-Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Maine). Price was running for a House seat in Oklahoma in 1994.

Crying as she struggled through a brief statement, Nora Lum said she was sorry for the suffering she had caused her husband and other family members and told the court how she had seen “many friends turn their back on us” since they agreed last spring to plead guilty to felony charges and cooperate with investigators.

Urbina recommended that the Lums spend five months at a community confinement center and five months in home confinement, with electronic monitoring. They were released on their own recognizance until authorities set a surrender date.