T
Taylor
Guest
Taking money from communist Chinese criminals, again?
______________________________________________
Clinton Donor Under a Cloud in Fraud Case
By MIKE McINTIRE and LESLIE WAYNE
Published: August 30, 2007
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign said yesterday that it would give
to charity $23,000 it had received from a prominent Democratic donor, and
review thousands of dollars more that he had raised, after learning that the
authorities in California had a warrant for his arrest stemming from a 1991
fraud case.
The donor, Norman Hsu, has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for
Democratic candidates since 2003, and was slated to be co-host next month
for a Clinton gala featuring the entertainer Quincy Jones.
The event would not have been unusual for Mr. Hsu, a businessman from Hong
Kong who moves in circles of power and influence, serving on the board of a
university in New York and helping to bankroll Democratic campaigns.
But what was not widely known was that Mr. Hsu, who is in the apparel
business in New York, has been considered a fugitive since he failed to show
up in a San Mateo County courtroom about 15 years ago to be sentenced for
his role in a scheme to defraud investors, according to the California
attorney general's office.
Mr. Hsu had pleaded no contest to one count of grand theft and was facing up
to three years in prison.
The travails of Mr. Hsu have proved an embarrassment for the Clinton
campaign, which has strived to project an image of rectitude in its
fund-raising and to dispel any lingering shadows of past episodes of tainted
contributions.
Already, Mrs. Clinton's opponents were busy trying to rekindle remembrances
of the 1996 Democratic fund-raising scandals, in which Asian moneymen were
accused of funneling suspect donations into Democratic coffers as President
Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore were running for re-election.
Some Clinton donors said yesterday that they did not expect the Hsu matter
to hurt Mrs. Clinton unless a pattern of problematic fund-raising or
compromised donors emerged, which would raise questions about the campaign's
vetting of donors. Mr. Hsu's legal problems were first reported yesterday by
The Los Angeles Times; The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday about his
bundling of questionable contributions.
"Everyone is trying to make the implications that it's Chinese money, that
it's the Al Gore thing all over again, but I haven't seen any proof of
that," said John A. Catsimatidis, a leading donor and fund-raiser for Mrs.
Clinton in New York.
Some donations connected to Mr. Hsu raise questions about his bundling
activities, although there is no evidence he did anything improper. The Wall
Street Journal reported that contributors he solicited included members of
an extended family in Daly City, Calif., who had given $213,000 to
candidates since 2004, even though some of them did not appear to have much
money.
A lawyer for Mr. Hsu, E. Lawrence Barcella Jr., has said that Mr. Hsu was
not the source of any of the money he raised from other people, which would
be a violation of federal election laws.
On his own, Mr. Hsu wrote checks totaling $255,970 to a variety of
Democratic candidates and committees since 2004. Even though he was a
bundler for Mrs. Clinton, his largess was spread across the Democratic Party
and included $5,000 to the political action committee of Senator Barack
Obama, Democrat of Illinois.
Last month, Mr. Hsu was among the honored guests at a fund-raiser for
Representative Patrick J. Kennedy, Democrat of Rhode Island, given by
Stephen A. Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group at the New York Yacht Club.
Al Franken, a Democratic Senate candidate in Minnesota, said he would divest
his campaign of Mr. Hsu's donations, as did Representatives Michael M. Honda
and Doris O. Matsui of California and Representative Joe Sestak of
Pennsylvania, all Democrats.
Mr. Hsu's success on the political circuit was not always matched by success
in business.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Mr. Hsu came to the United States when he was
18 to attend the University of California, Berkeley, as a computer science
major. He later received an M.B.A. at the Wharton School at the University
of Pennsylvania, according to a brief biography that appeared in apparel
industry trade publications in 1986.
With a group of partners from Hong Kong, Mr. Hsu started a sportswear
company in 1982 called Laveno that went bankrupt two years later, not long
after he left the company. From that, he cycled through several other
enterprises, mostly men's sportswear, under the Wear This, Base and Foreign
Exchange labels.
Mr. Hsu's career hit a low in 1989, when he began raising $1 million from
investors as part of a plan to buy and resell latex gloves.
Ronald Smetana, a lawyer with the California attorney general's office, said
Mr. Hsu was charged with stealing the investors' money after it turned out
he never bought any gloves and had no contract to resell them.
When Mr. Hsu was to attend a sentencing hearing, he faxed a letter to his
lawyer saying he had to leave town for an emergency and asking that the
court date be rescheduled, Mr. Smetana said.
He failed to show up for the rescheduled appearance, and a bench warrant was
issued for his arrest. That was the last that prosecutors saw of Mr. Hsu.
"We assumed he would go back to Hong Kong, where he could recede into
anonymity," Mr. Smetana said.
The California attorney general's office declined to comment on how it
intends to pursue Mr. Hsu.
Mr. Hsu issued a statement yesterday, saying he was "surprised to learn that
there appears to be an outstanding warrant" and insisting that he had "not
sought to evade any of my obligations and certainly not the law."
"I would not consciously subject any of the candidates and causes in which I
believe to any harm through my actions," he said.
At some point, Mr. Hsu resurfaced in New York, where he was connected to
several clothing-related businesses, according to campaign finance records,
which list his occupation variously as an apparel consultant, clothing
designer, retailer or company president. He also began to donate to the
Democratic Party, and arranged for friends to do the same.
He has been referred to in news accounts of campaign fund-raising events as
an "apparel magnate" and his quick rise in the New York political and social
scene - as well as his open checkbook - catapulted him into the big leagues.
He became a trustee at the New School and was elected to the Board of
Governors of Eugene Lang College there. He endowed a scholarship in his name
at the college and was co-chairman of a benefit awards dinner in 2006 that
featured Mrs. Clinton, who had secured a $950,000 earmark for a mentoring
program at the college for disadvantaged city youths.
Asked yesterday about Mr. Hsu, Brian Krapf, a spokesman for the New School,
said in a statement that "it is inappropriate to talk about a matter
involving one of our trustees, particularly while we are still gathering all
the facts."
______________________________________________
Clinton Donor Under a Cloud in Fraud Case
By MIKE McINTIRE and LESLIE WAYNE
Published: August 30, 2007
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign said yesterday that it would give
to charity $23,000 it had received from a prominent Democratic donor, and
review thousands of dollars more that he had raised, after learning that the
authorities in California had a warrant for his arrest stemming from a 1991
fraud case.
The donor, Norman Hsu, has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for
Democratic candidates since 2003, and was slated to be co-host next month
for a Clinton gala featuring the entertainer Quincy Jones.
The event would not have been unusual for Mr. Hsu, a businessman from Hong
Kong who moves in circles of power and influence, serving on the board of a
university in New York and helping to bankroll Democratic campaigns.
But what was not widely known was that Mr. Hsu, who is in the apparel
business in New York, has been considered a fugitive since he failed to show
up in a San Mateo County courtroom about 15 years ago to be sentenced for
his role in a scheme to defraud investors, according to the California
attorney general's office.
Mr. Hsu had pleaded no contest to one count of grand theft and was facing up
to three years in prison.
The travails of Mr. Hsu have proved an embarrassment for the Clinton
campaign, which has strived to project an image of rectitude in its
fund-raising and to dispel any lingering shadows of past episodes of tainted
contributions.
Already, Mrs. Clinton's opponents were busy trying to rekindle remembrances
of the 1996 Democratic fund-raising scandals, in which Asian moneymen were
accused of funneling suspect donations into Democratic coffers as President
Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore were running for re-election.
Some Clinton donors said yesterday that they did not expect the Hsu matter
to hurt Mrs. Clinton unless a pattern of problematic fund-raising or
compromised donors emerged, which would raise questions about the campaign's
vetting of donors. Mr. Hsu's legal problems were first reported yesterday by
The Los Angeles Times; The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday about his
bundling of questionable contributions.
"Everyone is trying to make the implications that it's Chinese money, that
it's the Al Gore thing all over again, but I haven't seen any proof of
that," said John A. Catsimatidis, a leading donor and fund-raiser for Mrs.
Clinton in New York.
Some donations connected to Mr. Hsu raise questions about his bundling
activities, although there is no evidence he did anything improper. The Wall
Street Journal reported that contributors he solicited included members of
an extended family in Daly City, Calif., who had given $213,000 to
candidates since 2004, even though some of them did not appear to have much
money.
A lawyer for Mr. Hsu, E. Lawrence Barcella Jr., has said that Mr. Hsu was
not the source of any of the money he raised from other people, which would
be a violation of federal election laws.
On his own, Mr. Hsu wrote checks totaling $255,970 to a variety of
Democratic candidates and committees since 2004. Even though he was a
bundler for Mrs. Clinton, his largess was spread across the Democratic Party
and included $5,000 to the political action committee of Senator Barack
Obama, Democrat of Illinois.
Last month, Mr. Hsu was among the honored guests at a fund-raiser for
Representative Patrick J. Kennedy, Democrat of Rhode Island, given by
Stephen A. Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group at the New York Yacht Club.
Al Franken, a Democratic Senate candidate in Minnesota, said he would divest
his campaign of Mr. Hsu's donations, as did Representatives Michael M. Honda
and Doris O. Matsui of California and Representative Joe Sestak of
Pennsylvania, all Democrats.
Mr. Hsu's success on the political circuit was not always matched by success
in business.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Mr. Hsu came to the United States when he was
18 to attend the University of California, Berkeley, as a computer science
major. He later received an M.B.A. at the Wharton School at the University
of Pennsylvania, according to a brief biography that appeared in apparel
industry trade publications in 1986.
With a group of partners from Hong Kong, Mr. Hsu started a sportswear
company in 1982 called Laveno that went bankrupt two years later, not long
after he left the company. From that, he cycled through several other
enterprises, mostly men's sportswear, under the Wear This, Base and Foreign
Exchange labels.
Mr. Hsu's career hit a low in 1989, when he began raising $1 million from
investors as part of a plan to buy and resell latex gloves.
Ronald Smetana, a lawyer with the California attorney general's office, said
Mr. Hsu was charged with stealing the investors' money after it turned out
he never bought any gloves and had no contract to resell them.
When Mr. Hsu was to attend a sentencing hearing, he faxed a letter to his
lawyer saying he had to leave town for an emergency and asking that the
court date be rescheduled, Mr. Smetana said.
He failed to show up for the rescheduled appearance, and a bench warrant was
issued for his arrest. That was the last that prosecutors saw of Mr. Hsu.
"We assumed he would go back to Hong Kong, where he could recede into
anonymity," Mr. Smetana said.
The California attorney general's office declined to comment on how it
intends to pursue Mr. Hsu.
Mr. Hsu issued a statement yesterday, saying he was "surprised to learn that
there appears to be an outstanding warrant" and insisting that he had "not
sought to evade any of my obligations and certainly not the law."
"I would not consciously subject any of the candidates and causes in which I
believe to any harm through my actions," he said.
At some point, Mr. Hsu resurfaced in New York, where he was connected to
several clothing-related businesses, according to campaign finance records,
which list his occupation variously as an apparel consultant, clothing
designer, retailer or company president. He also began to donate to the
Democratic Party, and arranged for friends to do the same.
He has been referred to in news accounts of campaign fund-raising events as
an "apparel magnate" and his quick rise in the New York political and social
scene - as well as his open checkbook - catapulted him into the big leagues.
He became a trustee at the New School and was elected to the Board of
Governors of Eugene Lang College there. He endowed a scholarship in his name
at the college and was co-chairman of a benefit awards dinner in 2006 that
featured Mrs. Clinton, who had secured a $950,000 earmark for a mentoring
program at the college for disadvantaged city youths.
Asked yesterday about Mr. Hsu, Brian Krapf, a spokesman for the New School,
said in a statement that "it is inappropriate to talk about a matter
involving one of our trustees, particularly while we are still gathering all
the facts."