-Caveat Lector- November 10, 1999 --Wall Street Journal Huang's FBI Debriefing Shows Election Fraud, but No Conspiracy By GLENN R. SIMPSON Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WASHINGTON -- It has been three years since John Huang emerged as the central figure in the political fund-raising scandal involving more than $1 million in illegal foreign contributions to the Democratic Party. Yet despite massive and costly investigations by Congress and the Justice Department, the consequences of that scandal have been strikingly small. A few junior Democratic fund-raisers have entered guilty pleas, but none have gone to jail. Meanwhile, no charges have been brought, and none seem likely to be brought, against any major political figures. And while initial revelations about possible Chinese government involvement in the affair undermined U.S.-China relations, the two governments are now pursuing a new trade agreement. Mr. Huang himself struck a deal with the Justice Department, agreeing to tell all in return for a lenient sentence and a limited admission of fraud. His debriefing by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, made public last week, provides a coda of sorts to the unsavory three-year affair. There was no grand conspiracy, Mr. Huang says, either by the Democrats or the government of China. Yet he portrays his own efforts to commit large-scale election fraud, allegedly in tandem with several associates, as deliberate and elaborate. Moreover, new information in the Huang interviews supports the possibility that Lippo Group of Indonesia acted as a political advocate in the U.S. for the Chinese trade ministry. Mr. Huang relates how Lippo Group and its California-based Lippo Bank allegedly wired hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign funds into U.S. accounts to reimburse contributors over six years. It appears that little of the more than $1 million in contributions linked to Lippo represented legal donations. With regard to his own contributions of more than $100,000 over about seven years, Mr. Huang said he was "taken care of" by Lippo in the form of bonuses. Mr. Huang said he also tended to Lippo-Indonesia's reimbursement of soft-money contributions by related U.S. entities such as Los Angeles real-estate arm Hip Hing Holdings and two other companies, San Jose Holdings and Toy Co. Holdings. Mr. Huang "speculated" that they were approved by Lippo Chairman James Riady, the FBI said. One 1993 reimbursement request bears the handwritten notation "ok." Mr. Huang identified the writing as that of Mr. Riady, who has repeatedly denied violating U.S. election law and reiterated his denial to a Wall Street Journal reporter last week in Jakarta. Rounding Up Contributors After Mr. Riady allegedly promised Bill Clinton in 1992 that he would raise $1 million for the 1992 campaign, Mr. Huang rounded up more than a dozen people who together gave at least $250,000 to the Democratic Party. "HUANG assumed that these people would be 'made good' or 'taken care of' for their contributions because HUANG himself had been 'taken care of' for his contributions through his bonus payments," FBI agents wrote. Mr. Huang said he arranged some of these reimbursements himself. Many Lippo-associated donors are described by Mr. Huang as mere lackeys of the Riady family. He said he didn't have to explain his contribution requests to a Riady relative whose $250,000 check to the Democratic National Committee through Mr. Huang triggered the first scrutiny of his activities, because the man had "no clue," which, the FBI thought, meant that he "was not particularly bright." One series of Lippo-related contributions from offshore, mostly to state candidates in California and never previously disclosed, was made by Mr. Huang through a Lippo-linked Netherlands Antilles firm called B.O.T. Corp N.A. In one tantalizing reference, the FBI says Mr. Huang received more than $100,000 from B.O.T. in January 1993 for what Mr. Huang believes were expenses related to President Clinton's inauguration. He describes only slight dealings with some of the better known fund-raisers from 1996 now under indictment or convicted, such as Charlie Trie and Pauline Kanchanalak. If there was a larger conspiracy involving these people, Mr. Huang says, it wasn't with his knowledge. Bank-Account Scruples At times, Mr. Huang exhibited scruples. Amid his elaborate campaign money frauds, he received $30,000 from Lippo that was deposited into his Hong Kong bank account -- so that, he suspected, he wouldn't have to pay U.S. taxes on it. He was nonetheless careful to report it to the Internal Revenue Service. After his activities became an object of intense law-enforcement interest, Mr. Huang alleges he received "gifts" from the Riady family of $18,000 in 1997 and $20,000 in 1998. The FBI also questioned Mr. Huang extensively about whether Lippo fronted in the U.S. for Chinese-government interests because of business ties between the company and government-controlled China Resources Corp., long a subject of interest for investigators. In 1985, the FBI interrogation record says, China Resources allegedly paid for a Lippo-organized trip to Asia by then-Arkansas Gov. Clinton. In 1992 and 1993, according to the FBI, China Resources bought a large number of shares in Lippo-controlled Hong Kong Chinese Bank, for about 80% of equity. And a China Resources purchase of shares in Lippo itself, Mr. Huang said, saved Lippo from bankruptcy during a real-estate downturn. The FBI says Mr. Huang called that deal an explicit agreement for favors from Lippo, but "Huang did not know what the 'quid pro quo' was for having China Resources as a partner." The FBI says, though, that China Resources was controlled by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the primary lobbying agent for most-favored-nation trade status for China. During the 1992 presidential campaign, Mr. Clinton signaled he might revoke the trade preference to punish the "butchers of Beijing." After the election, in 1993, Mr. Riady personally lobbied Mr. Clinton to renew China's MFN status, which Mr. Clinton did with conditions. Mr. Huang himself was very active in lobbying for MFN renewal in early 1994 before he joined the Commerce Department to work on Asian trade issues. While he claimed to have done so for his own reasons, he acknowledged that Lippo financed a trip he took to Beijing for meetings on the subject, as well as his membership in a pro-MFN lobbying group called the Committee of 100. After first denying it, Mr. Huang also reluctantly acknowledged receiving faxes around that time from the Committee of 100 regarding news accounts and a Senate report on Chinese espionage activities. Asked by his interrogators whether this wasn't odd behavior for someone about to become an employee of the U.S. government, Mr. Huang replied, "I wouldn't blame you for feeling it was odd. I have no explanation." ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day. ================================================================= DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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