[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 67 (Tuesday, May 20, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E985]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            DOES MONEY TALK?

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 20, 1997

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, they say that money talks. If it doesn't, 
enough of it certainly seems to gain access to the White House. At 
least, that seemed to be the case for the Riady family of Indonesia. A 
recent Washington Times editorial reminds us that the Riady family has 
given various Democrat candidates and committees nearly $2 million 
since 1991. It also seems to have been money well spent, because Riady 
managed to have one of their own, John Huang, strategically placed at 
the Commerce Committee.
  Mr. Speaker, a White House or a foreign policy for sale is not a 
laughing matter. I submit the Washington Times editorial in today's 
Record.

                          What Mr. Riady Wants

       The Pacific Leadership Council (PLC), a fund-raising and 
     influence-seeking organization formed in the 1980s by Lippo 
     Group magnate James Riady, Maria Hsia and John Huang, all of 
     whom figure prominently in the Democratic Party's growing 
     money scandal, was anything but indirect about its motives. 
     One original PLC member acknowledged to the Los Angeles Times 
     recently that the group's political support ``wasn't 
     altruistic at all.'' The Riady family and its PLC colleagues 
     ``wanted to know what kinds of appointments and what kinds of 
     contracts we could get out of all this,'' the member candidly 
     admitted.
       How much is ``all this''? According to the Times, the now-
     disbanded PLC and its members donated about $500,000 through 
     1990, $250,000 of it to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign 
     Committee (DSCC). Since 1991, Riady-controlled corporations, 
     their executives and close associates have donated nearly $2 
     million to various Democratic committees and candidates, 
     including more than $850,000 to the Democratic National 
     Committee (DNC). Since the presidential election, the DNC has 
     returned $450,000 it received from the daughter and son-in-
     law of a Riady business partner.
       At one PLC fund-raiser held in his home in April 1988, Mr. 
     Riady raised $110,000 for the DSCC. Four days later, Mr. 
     Riady wrote a highly detailed three-page memo to Ms. Hsia 
     instructing her to ``follow up and let me know of progress'' 
     in pursuing the numerous quid pro quos Mr. Riady meticulously 
     outlined in a summary appropriately headlined, ``DSCC Issues 
     and Agenda.'' Indeed, so blatantly and crassly self-
     interested was Mr. Riady's modus operandi that the then-DSCC 
     chairman, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, later described Mr. 
     Riady's letter to Ms. Hsia as a ``raw, graphic memo'' 
     reflecting the kind of special-interest agenda that is 
     ``usually communicated discreetly and verbally, not in 
     writing.'' Mr. Riady was even more direct in a second memo 
     that month, this one sent to DSCC Executive Director Robert 
     Chlopak: ``The issues and concerns that were discussed [at 
     the Riady fund-raiser] need to be followed up and actions 
     need to be delivered.''
       Among other things, Mr. Riady wanted the Democratic 
     senators to ``impress upon Taiwan to allow Asian-American 
     banks (or at least the Bank of Trade [the former name of 
     LippoBank] to be allowed to open a branch office in Taiwan.'' 
     He also sought ``appointments of Asian-Americans to policy-
     making positions in the federal government.'' As it later 
     developed, thanks in part to a letter of recommendation 
     overflowing with praise from Senate Minority Leader Tom 
     Daschle, Mr. Riady's former top U.S. executive, Mr. Huang, 
     was appointed to an influential position in the Commerce 
     Department, where he received more than 100 secret briefings, 
     including CIA information about China, and routinely 
     telephoned LippoBank from his office. The FBI is now 
     investigating whether economic espionage occurred and whether 
     the Riadys, Mr. Huang or anyone else may have laundered and 
     then funneled illegal campaign contributions from the Chinese 
     government. In March, the vice president of the Asian-
     American Business Roundtable charged Mr. Huang with 
     attempting to funnel $250,000 illegally to the DNC through 
     the group's members. Meanwhile, Mr. Huang has asserted his 
     Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing 
     to cooperate with a congressional investigative committee.
       And whaddya know? After Sen. Daschle could ``personally 
     attest to John's strong background'' in a 1992 letter to the 
     Clinton transition team, Sen. Daschle's aide recently told 
     the Times that the senator ``actually doesn't know John Huang 
     well at all.'' Moreover, after receiving a telephone call 
     from an irate President Clinton at one o'clock in the morning 
     following Wisconsin Sen. Russell Feingold's call for an 
     independent counsel to investigate Mr. Clinton's 1996 fund-
     raising, Sen. Daschle has managed to close the barn door, 
     locking in all the other Democrats except Daniel Patrick 
     Moynihan of New York.
       As for Ms. Hsia, she later helped Mr. Huang arrange the 
     illegal fund-raiser at the tax-exempt California Buddhist 
     temple where Vice President Gore shook down impoverished 
     monks, bagging nearly $150,000, much of which the DNC has 
     promised to return. More laundering problems. As a founding 
     member of the PLC, Ms. Hsia enticed then-Sen. Gore to visit 
     Taiwan in 1989, promising him in a letter that she ``will 
     persuade all my colleagues in the future to play a leader 
     role in your [next] presidential race'' if ``you decide to 
     join this trip.'' Although political contributions from 
     foreign nationals who are not U.S. residents are expressly 
     forbidden, the PLC had planned to use that trip ``to recruit 
     new members overseas and potentially to raise some money for 
     PLC,'' according to a document obtained by the Los Angeles 
     Times.
       Whether it is bankrolling Webster Hubbell to the tune of 
     $100,000 during the period when he was supposed to be 
     cooperating with the Whitewater prosecutor or whether it is 
     orchestrating nearly $2 million in political contributions 
     from family and associates to Mr. Clinton and associates, one 
     thing ought to be clear by now: James Riady does nothing for 
     nobody that is not intended to benefit his interests, 
     including White House access to lobby for expanding trade 
     with China and to downplay Indonesia's notorious human-rights 
     record on East Timor.

     

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