Donor a China Agent, Panel Reportedly Told

Top U.S. legal and intelligence officials told the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Thursday that an executive of a Chinese-language newspaper in Southern California who has had close contact with President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore attempted to influence U.S. elections on behalf of the Chinese government, sources said.

Ted Sioeng, an Indonesian entrepreneur whose family owns the International Daily News in Monterey Park, as well as other businesses, has emerged as a key player in a covert scheme to expand China’s influence in the U.S. political process, according to intelligence data. But the evidence remains in dispute and has not proven that Sioeng acted on behalf of Beijing, said a committee source.

Investigators are looking at contributions by Sioeng’s daughter, Jessica Elnitiarta, and family companies to both political parties--including a $250,000 contribution to the Democratic National Committee in 1996 and $50,000 to the National Policy Forum, a GOP-linked think tank, in 1995.

The Senate committee received the information, first outlined by The Times in May, in a closed-door briefing by Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh, CIA Director George J. Tenet and National Security Agency Director Kenneth A. Minihan, according to committee sources.

Sioeng, who lives in Asia, could not be reached for comment but Thursday night his attorney vehemently denied that Sioeng or any member of his family had acted on behalf of the Chinese government or in any improper way.

“Neither Ted Sioeng nor Jessica Elnitiarta have ever been agents of the Chinese government or any government,” said Washington attorney Mark J. MacDougall. “Any money they ever gave was their own money.”

But sources familiar with the ongoing investigation say that Sioeng apparently came under suspicion because of evidence gathered from secret Chinese communications from Beijing to the Chinese Embassy in Washington.

If true, the government’s revelation about Sioeng’s role could be embarrassing to high-level officials of both political parties. Clinton sat next to Sioeng at a Democratic fund-raiser in Century City in July--the day before his daughter gave an installment of $100,000 to the Democrats. Gore sat at the same table as Sioeng at the ill-fated Buddhist temple fund-raiser in Hacienda Heights in April 1996.

Sioeng’s daughter, who runs real estate businesses in Los Angeles, gave the Democrats a total of $250,000 personally and through a family company, Panda Estates Investments Inc., in 1996. Democratic fund-raiser John Huang handled the contributions.

But Sioeng also has reached out to the Republican Party.

He met personally with House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) in mid-1995, which Gingrich’s office has dismissed as nothing more than a “photo op.” Two Gingrich political advisors, Joe Gaylord and Steve Kinney, helped set up a $50,000 donation to the National Policy Forum from Elnitiarta.

Democrats have photos of Gingrich and Sioeng together that appeared in Sioeng’s newspaper, the pro-Beijing International Daily News, along with an article outlining Gingrich’s 1995 visit to a Beverly Hills gathering of Asian American business leaders, which Sioeng hosted.

Sioeng has been a contributor to at least one California official. State Treasurer Matt Fong, a Republican who set up Sioeng’s meeting with Gingrich, returned $100,000 in contributions from Sioeng and Panda Estates. Fong returned the funds in late April.

As questions mounted concerning the source of Sioeng’s contributions, the National Policy Forum returned the $50,000 it had received from his company. The DNC has said that it is examining the contributions it received.

Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Government Affairs Committee, has taken heat for announcing at the start of his hearings that the Chinese had implemented a covert operation to influence U.S. elections. Democrats, while acknowledging that intelligence data shows China had plotted such an effort, have repeatedly argued that Thompson has not proven it was ever carried out.

Times staff writer James Risen contributed to this story.