[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 75 (Thursday, June 11, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H4543-H4546]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CAMPAIGN FINANCE PROBE: 94 WHO AREN'T TALKING
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I do not anticipate taking the
whole 60 minutes, but I did think it was important to illuminate a few
issues for my colleagues and for anybody in the country take might be
paying attention.
We have been investigating the illegal campaign contributions that
have come into the Democrat National Committee and the Clinton-Gore
Committee of 1996 for about a year now. One of the biggest problems we
have had, Mr. Speaker, is that 94 people, 94 people, have either taken
the Fifth Amendment or fled the country.
Now, when I had the FBI director, Mr. Louie Freeh, before my
committee not long ago, I asked him if he had ever seen anything of
that magnitude, and the FBI director said, ``Well as a matter of fact,
Mr. Chairman, I have.'' And I said, ``Really? When was that?'' He said,
``When I was investigating organized crime in New York City.''
Now, during this past week, the Washington Post, on the Federal Page,
for the first time of any major newspaper in the country listed
everybody who has taken the Fifth Amendment or fled the country, and I
commend them for that. The Washington Post is not a bastion of
conservatism, as most people know, but the fact of the matter is, they
have listed all these people and given a brief explanation as to why
they have not testified before our committee or any committee of the
Congress.
I want to go through these real briefly for my colleagues and the
American people, who have a right to know why people are leaving the
country or taking the Fifth Amendment and not telling why these
contributions came in from Communist China, from Macao, from Indonesia,
from Egypt, from Taiwan and from South America.
Now, this is very important, because these people who are giving
contributions from other parts of the world are not doing it for their
health. They are doing it because they want something from the United
States.
We just heard about the technology transfer that took place, giving
China the ability to target more accurately American cities with their
ICBM's and nuclear warheads. We also gave them MRVing technology, which
allows them to put as many as three or four warheads on each rocket.
That means that not just 18 cities are targeted here in the United
States by the Communist Chinese Government and the Chinese communist
Army, but 54 cities are possibly targeted at one time if we ever have a
confrontation with them. That is a very, very sobering thought.
Every man, woman and child in this country ought to be asking the
question, was there a quid pro quo? Was there an exchange of
contributions for technology? Was the Loral Company, headed by Mr.
Schwartz, involved, and did the contributions he gave have anything to
do with it? He was the largest single contributor to the Democrat
National Committee and the Clinton Gore campaign.
But let us get to the issue at hand. John Huang, the first person on
this chart, he was born in China. He is a U.S. citizen, raised in
Taiwan, and a former executive of the Lippo Group in Indonesia. He
started out with the Worthen Bank in the United States, in Little Rock,
Arkansas, and became a friend of the President of the United States.
Mr. Huang met with the President and others at the White House ten
times between June 21 and June 27, 1994, and, right after that, Mr. Web
Hubbell, who was about to be indicted by a Federal grand jury, received
$100,000 from the Lippo Group. Many people believe that was hush money,
and that is one of the things we have been investigating.
Shortly after this possible hush money was given to Mr. Hubbell, Mr.
Huang, two weeks later, got a job over at the Commerce Department as
Assistant Secretary of the Commerce Department, which was a very
influential department, because they had a hand in determining
technology transfers and other transfers that went to places like
Communist China. Anyhow, Mr. Huang has taken the Fifth Amendment. His
wife, Jane Huang, has taken the Fifth Amendment.
Arief and Soraya Wiriadinata, they have left the country. They fled
the country. Those people, he was a gardener over in Virginia, a
gardener in Virginia, yet he gave $450,000 to the DNC. Now, I do not
know how much gardeners make in other parts of the country, Mr.
Speaker, but $450,000 from a man who is probably making $20,000 to
$25,000 a year is a lot of money. It makes you wonder where that money
came from.
Soraya's father, Hashim Ning, was a business partner of Mochtar Riady
and the Lippo Group in Indonesia, and he wired $500,000, which the
couple used to make these $450,000 in contributions. Evidently they
kept $50,000 of that. But that was obviously money that was
[[Page H4544]]
laundered from Indonesia through the Wiriadinatas into the Democrat
National Committee, and they fled the country.
The next person on the list is Agus Setiawan. He was an another Lippo
employee of Indonesia who worked with John Huang and donated $5,500 to
the Federal Campaigns and Political Action Committees, which has all
since been refunded by the Democrat National Committee because it was
illegal. He fled the country.
Pauline Kanchanalak, a business consultant from Thailand and a legal
resident of the United States who was solicited by John Huang for
donations, the DNC returned all of $253,000 she contributed, because
they thought that money came from outside the United States as well,
illegal contributions coming from abroad, for what reason we know not.
She has fled the country.
Duangnet Kronenberg, she is the sister-in-law of Pauline Kanchanalak.
She donated $50,000 to the DNC on the day of a White House coffee that
she attended in June 1996. She has taken the Fifth Amendment.
Irene Wo, she worked for Johnny Chung's fax machine business. She has
taken the Fifth Amendment.
Na-chi ``Nancy'' Lee, an engineer at Chung's fax machine business who
has allegedly solicited contributions from co-workers and reimbursed
them, she has taken the Fifth Amendment.
Yah Lin ``Charlie'' Trie, an American citizen and one of the first
two suspects, along with Antonio Pan to be indicted on January 29,
1997, as a result of the Justice Department's Task Force Campaign
Finance Investigation.
Charlie Trie had a Chinese restaurant in Little Rock, Arkansas, was a
close personal friend of the President of the United States, came to
Washington without any experience whatsoever, and he gathered $640,000
for President Clinton's legal defense fund. All of that money was
returned because it was in sequential money orders, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, with
the same handwriting, but different names on them. So the head of the
President's legal defense fund thought this was ``phony money'' coming
from someplace it should not have, and it was returned.
He also gave an additional $645,000 to the Democrat National
Committee. Most of this money was from illegal foreign sources and the
money was returned. He fled the country, but ultimately did come back
and was indicted by the Justice Department, mainly because our
committee proved beyond a reasonable doubt that his sister and her
boyfriend and some others were laundering money for Charlie Trie, even
though they did not know they were doing it. He used them as dupes to
launder money coming from outside the country.
Suma Ching Hai, leader of the Taiwan Buddhist sect whose members gave
the bulk of $640,000 that Trie delivered to the President's legal
defense fund, they refused to be interviewed.
Wang Jun, a Communist Chinese arms dealer and chairman of the China
International Trust and Investment Corporation, the largest Communist
Chinese government-owned company. Wang Jun was invited to a February 6,
1996, coffee at the White House at the behest of Charlie Trie, and he
refused to be interviewed.
Ng Lap Seng, a Macao businessman and Trie's business partner, they
jointly owned a Macao company which, according to the FBI, through
which Ng wired Trie more than $900,000, we believe it was well over $1
million which went into New York and Virginia banks, part of which Trie
donated to the Democrat National Committee.
Now, listen to this. All these millions of dollars were coming from
outside the United States, from all over the world. What did Communist
China want in exchange for these campaign contributions being laundered
erred to the DNC?
Could it have been the Long Beach Naval Station in Long Beach,
California, where the Chinese Shipping Company, which is owned by the
Chinese communist government, wanted that whole facility? The DIA, the
Defense Intelligence Agency, and the CIA both have concerns about the
Chinese Communist Shipping Company having control of the Long Beach
Naval Station, and they gave, we believe, millions of dollars through
conduits into the United States of America.
Johnny Chung, whom I will talk about in a minute, we know got
$300,000 from the head of the aerospace company in Communist China to
be laundered and given to the Democrat National Committee, and her
father was the head of the Chinese Communist Army, the People's
Republican Army in Communist China.
Now, what did they want for that? Could it have been the technology
transfer that allowed the Chinese communist military to be able to
target American cities more accurately through a technology transfer
that the President signed a waiver on? We need to know these things.
That is why these people need to testify. But, unfortunately, 94 of
them have fled the country or refused to testify or taken the Fifth
Amendment.
{time} 1830
Ming Chen, general manager of a restaurant in Beijing owned by Ng Lap
Seng. Ng Lap Seng is a man called Mr. Wu, who is a man I am going to
talk about in just a minute. Mr. Wu, or Ng Lap Seng, reimbursed Ming
Chen's wife for the checks she co-wrote to the DNC, thousands of
dollars.
Ming Chen's wife, Yuefang Chu, a resident of Gaithersburg. She
testified before the Senate about conduit campaign contributions and
has taken the fifth amendment.
Stanley Ho, a Macao developer who gave $250,000 to a fund for the FDR
Memorial. He refused to be interviewed.
Antonio Pan, former Lippo executive who was indicted on charges
related to illegal fund-raising in January of 1997. Pan allegedly
received $80,000 in August 1996 from Mr. Wu, or Ng Lap Seng, in Macao
and used some of the money to reimburse people he persuaded to write
checks to the DNC.
David Wang, one of the people we had before our committee, a
California used car dealer. Wang is alleged to be one of Pan's straw
donors through whom they ran these payments. He testified before our
committee, along with Charlie Trie's sister and her boyfriend, and they
all were conduits for campaign contributions.
Daniel Wu, apparently another Pan straw donor. Wu is a Taiwan-based
businessman.
Mark Middleton, who worked at the White House, one of the President's
close personal aides at this White House. He was a former Democrat
fund-raiser and White House aid who left the administration in 1995 to
pursue business deals with Asian businessmen, sometimes facilitated by
Charlie Trie. I am going to talk about Mr. Middleton more in a minute.
Mark Jimenez, a Miami computer entrepreneur and donor who made his
largest contribution, $50,000, to the DNC after a February 6, 1996
coffee at the White House. He has taken the fifth amendment.
Manlin Foung, Charlie Trie's sister, whom I have already talked
about, who has admitted she was a conduit and whom we have immunized.
Joseph Landon, romantically linked to Manlin Foung, he was involved
in the $35,000 donation that Manlin Foung made, and he was immunized by
us and explained why that conduit payment was made.
Dia Maria Mapili, a longtime employee of Trie's Daihatsu
International Trading Company. An indictment against Trie claims he
ordered Mapili to destroy subpoenaed documents. She has taken the fifth
amendment.
Keshi Zhan worked for Trie and Ng as an office manager. He has taken
the fifth amendment.
James Riady. The Senate draft report on campaign finances accuses the
Riady family of having a long-term relationship with the Communist
Chinese intelligence agency. They are out of Indonesia. James Riady is
an Indonesian who once lived legally in the United States, is the
deputy chairman of the family's main business, the Lippo Group in
Indonesia. The family, including its businesses and partners, donated
more than $700,000 to the Democrats between 1991 and 1996, much of
which has been returned. Riady has denied any wrongdoing in a written
statement. He has refused to be interviewed.
And the Riadys. James Riady was one of those that met at the White
House, along with John Huang, to talk about the problems, we believe,
of Webb Hubbell 10 times between June 21 and June 27, 1994. Shortly
thereafter, $100,000 came from his company to
[[Page H4545]]
Webb Hubbell who was about to be indicted. As I said before, many think
that was hush money.
Later, John Huang, an associate, employee of the Lippo Group and a
friend of James Riady, got a job at the Commerce Department which was
very influential in making decisions regarding foreign commerce.
Mochtar Riady, James Riady's father and chairman of the Lippo Group,
he refused to be interviewed.
Stephen Riady, another son of Mochtar Riady. Stephen heads the
Chinese operations of the Lippo Group, Lippo Limited, and the Hong Kong
Chinese Bank.
Roy Tirtadji, he is the managing director of the Lippo Group. He
refused to be interviewed.
Ken Hsui, a dual national. Hsui gave at least $300,000 to the
Democrats, half soon after he attended a dinner at the Jefferson Hotel
with Clinton and three other Asian businessmen.
Eugene Wu, chairman of one of the largest corporations in Taiwan,
Shin Kong Life Insurance. He attended the Jefferson Hotel dinner, and
he refused to be interviewed.
James Lin, Wu's brother-in-law and owner of a Taipei construction
company. Lin attended the Jefferson Hotel dinner and gave money.
John Muncy, executive vice president of the Lippo Group's Hong Kong
Chinese Bank, refused to be interviewed.
Webster Hubbell. He received hundreds of thousands of dollars, we
believe as much as $700,000, and possibly more, between the time he
left the White House and the time he was indicted by Mr. Starr and the
grand jury. We believe that is, in large part, hush money. We believe
that is a real possibility because he did very little work for this
money. He has taken the fifth amendment and has been once again
indicted by the grand jury and Mr. Starr.
Hogen Fukunaga, a leader of the Honohana Sampogyo, a Japanese cult.
In 1995, a follower wired $500,000 to Yogesh Gandhi, a man who tried to
flee this country but was caught by the FBI at the airport before he
left and went to New Delhi. This fellow refused to be interviewed.
Yogesh Gandhi is a great-grandnephew of Mohandas Gandhi, he says, and
a California businessman. Gandhi gave the DNC $320,000, which has since
been returned. Again it was foreign money, illegally given.
Ten Sioeng, an Indonesian-born businessman who travels on a Belize
passport, suspected by committee members of working, along with his
family, on behalf of the Chinese Government interests in the United
States. Senate investigators have found that more than half of the
$400,000 that Sioeng's family contributed to the Democratic National
Committee in 1996 was transferred from a Hong Kong based firm. This is
unbelievable, all this money coming from overseas.
Jessica Elnitiarta, Sioeng's daughter, took the fifth amendment.
I can go on and on and on. I think my friends and colleagues get the
message. All of this money, millions and millions of dollars, was
coming from foreign sources into the Democratic National Committee and
all of these people, all 94 of them, have taken the fifth amendment.
I want to give a graphic illustration of how some of this worked. Ng
Lap Seng, better known as Mr. Wu, from Macao, came into the country on
June 20, 1994, and he brought with him a suitcase with $175,000. Two
days later, he met at the White House with Mark Middleton, one of the
President's chief aides. Two days later, the same day, he went to a DNC
dinner with the President and was seated at the number one table. He
gives $175,000, and 2 days later, he is meeting at the White House and
going to a presidential dinner.
On July 31, 1994, he comes back in with another satchel, $42,000
later. One and 2 days later, he meets at the White House with Mark
Middleton and went to the DNC birthday party for President Clinton,
$42,000.
On October 19, 1994, he came into the country with $25,000 in a
suitcase or a bag. One day later, he met with Mark Middleton again at
the White House.
On February 15, 1995, he brought $12,000 into the country. How do we
know he brought all this money in? Because he had to declare it if it
was over $10,000. He brought in $12,000. One day later, he met with
Mark Middleton at the White House, and he met with the President
upstairs at the President's residence.
February 18, 1996, he brought $19,000 into the country. One day
later, he went to the President's Asian dinner at the Hay Adams Hotel.
Mr. Trie, a friend of his, to whom he wired, we believe, well over a
million dollars to New York and Virginia banks, gave $12,500 to the
President's Asian dinner. Two days later, Ng met with Susan Levine at
the White House.
On August 17, 1996, just before the election, he brought $70,000 into
the country. And 2 days later, he went to the President's 50th birthday
party. Charlie Trie and his friends contributed over $100,000.
My colleagues might say all this is coincidence, that nobody at the
White House knew about this, they did not know this money was coming in
from Ng Lap Seng and Macao, and possibly the Communist Chinese
Government. But you have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars
coming in, and right after he comes in, he goes to the White House and
meets with Mark Middleton or goes to some function with the President
or at the DNC.
It sure sounds suspicious. But, once again, we cannot get people to
testify to get to the bottom of this. It is something that we cannot
tolerate.
I want to read to you a little bit about the Ng Lap Seng connection,
Mr. Wu here. He is one of the most prominent people we are going to
have on this list. He is a wealthy Macao businessman with strong ties
to the Chinese Communist Government and has refused to be interviewed.
A former DNC fund-raiser, his good friend and friend of the
President, Charlie Trie, received $1.4 million in wire transfers from
this fellow, in addition to all this money they brought in, $1.4
million in addition to this money, which is about $400,000 between 1994
and 1996. It became, in addition to all these contributions, Mr. Trie's
main source of income, who had been appointed by President Clinton to a
major international trading commission.
Ng Lap Seng visited the White House 12 times during the time he was
wiring hundreds of thousands of dollars to the United States as well as
bringing all this money in. These funds enable Trie, his wife, and two
of Trie's sham corporations, Daihatsu International Trading and San Kin
Yip International Trading, to contribute $215,000 to the DNC. The
President appointed Trie to the Commission on U.S. Pacific Trade and
Investment Policy in April of 1996.
Our committee released documents this year showing that Ng Lap Seng
carried large amounts of cash, this money, totaling $330,000 and
possibly more with him on trips to the United States between 1994 and
1996. Why do I say possibly more?. Because he only had to declare, I
believe, the money he brought in over $10,000. So he may have come in
several times in between here and met at the White House with money
that did not exceed the $10,000 limit.
The committee compared the dates of Ng's trips with his visits to the
White House, as I just illustrated, to show that on five occasions when
Ng arrived in the United States with cash, he visited the White House
within 2 days of his arrival.
The American people have the right to know the facts. The reason we
have a right to know the facts is that strange things have happened.
The Long Beach Naval Station, strategically located, that was closed
down during the base closure bill that we passed here not long ago, a
couple years ago, the Long Beach Naval Station is being given to the
Chinese Communist shipping company.
It is strategically located on the West Coast. Our Defense
Intelligence Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency and the customs
people have grave concerns about giving the Chinese Communist
Government that whole facility because it is so large.
The Chinese shipping company owned by the Chinese Communist
Government, the People's Liberation Army over there, we know have
brought thousands of AK-47s in to be given to street gangs in Los
Angeles on their ships. Customs has a very difficult time policing all
of that.
Yet the President has been involved in a number of meetings trying to
help the Chinese Government get the Long Beach Naval Station. Why is
that? Why
[[Page H4546]]
was the President involved in that? We wonder sometimes if there is any
connection between all these contributions coming from the Far East and
the President's decision to be involved in that.
The Riady group and the Lippo Group, the President made the Utah
Monument a national park. What is the significance of that? The largest
clean-burning coal facility in the United States, billions and billions
of dollars of clean-burning coal are in the Utah Monument. It could
have been mined environmentally safely according to U.S. engineers.
Who would benefit from turning that into a national park so you
cannot mine there? The Riady group, the Lippo Group, and Indonesia has
the largest clean-burning coal facility, mining facility, in southeast
Asia. They were one of the largest contributors. Their hands are all
over, all over these contributions coming in from Communist China, from
Macao and from Indonesia. Could there be a connection there? We need to
know. The American people have a right to know, but we do not know.
These things are of grave concern to me because some of them involve
our national security, as I talked to you about earlier, the technology
transfer that allows the Communist Chinese to be able to more
accurately target targets halfway around the world; i.e., American
cities.
These are things that we need to find out about. These are things the
American people have a right to know. We have 94 people, 94 people that
could shed light on this but have taken the fifth amendment or fled the
country. That is a huge number.
I would like to state one more time, FBI Director Freeh said the only
time he had heard of anything like this was when he was investigating
organized crime in New York, the John Gotti's and so forth. This is
huge. The American people ought to be outraged because national
security questions have been raised. These people can help us get to
the bottom of it.
The President of the United States, after this technology transfer
took place, and I might add the President signed a waiver which okayed
that after the Justice Department and the FBI had started investigation
into the Loral Company which gave that technology to the Communist
Chinese, and the FBI and the Justice Department told the White House
that they did not think that a waiver should be signed because they
were investigating whether or not national security had been breached
or whether the law had been violated by the Loral Company, and Mr.
Schwartz, the largest Democrat contributor and the largest contributor
to the President's reelection committee, they did not think there
should be a waiver signed.
{time} 1845
Yet the President, after the fact, signed that waiver, which weakened
the Justice Department investigation of the possible case against the
Loral Company and Mr. Schwartz. Why did that happen?
We need to know. These people can testify to many of these issues.
Yet, the President has not insisted that these people, many of whom
worked at the White House, who were friends of his, testify before the
Congress of the United States.
When Ronald Reagan was President we had the Iran-Contra affair, and
he did not hold back any documents. The White House has been
unbelievably hard to get documents from relating to any of this. He
insisted that his staff come down and testify. Nobody took the fifth
amendment. Yet, we have 94 people who have taken the fifth or fled the
country. There is a real contrast between the Reagan administration and
the Clinton administration.
National security questions need to be answered, commerce questions
need to be answered, and the only person who can really force the issue
is the President. He needs to tell these people to come and testify
before our committee.
I do not believe the President should be going to Communist China,
especially after this technology transfer took place. We need to find
the answer to these questions before he goes over there. But he is
taking 1,250 people with him.
He is going to go to Tiananmen Square, where they have a reception
center. Members remember Tiananmen Square, where 9 years ago many young
people were ground under tanks, and hundreds, possibly thousands, were
murdered, and then many thousands later went into Communist gulags.
We now know the Communist Chinese government is killing people in
their prisons and harvesting their kidneys, livers, and hearts, and
selling them around the world for $30,000 to $100,000 a crack. They are
getting at least $60 million by killing people in prisons and giving
their body parts for money around the world. Some of those people are
probably these political prisoners who were at Tiananmen Square. We do
not know.
But all these things bother me a great deal. That is one of the
reasons why I think the President should not be going to Communist
China.
My committee has been investigating this for over a year. I must tell
my colleagues that I have a great sense of frustration, because every
time we ask for documents, every time we try to get to the bottom of
this, the White House throws up another stone wall. They will not give
us documents. They will not let people testify, even people who have
worked at the White House and are friends of the President.
All I can say is the American people ought to ask, why? Why, Mr.
President, are we not allowing people to testify? Why is the President
not insisting that all of these friends of his come before the Congress
of the United States and tell the truth?
All we have to do is get the truth. Lincoln said, let the people know
the facts and the country will be saved. We are talking about national
security. We are talking about foreign entities, from South America to
Egypt to southwest Asia, Macao, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, giving
campaign contributions to the DNC through illegal conduits in this
country.
Why, Mr. President, did these things happen? I submit that the White
House cannot be ignorant of all of this, because most of these people
were going in and out of the White House on a regular basis, meeting
with the President, getting their pictures taken with him, going to
dinners, and raising funds for him.
The American people have a right to know the facts. I hope the
President of the United States will help us get the facts. If he does
go to China, which I do not think he should, but if he does go to
China, I hope he will ask the Chinese government to let our
investigators in there.
They will not let our investigators in there to talk to the Bank of
China or to find out why these Communist Chinese contributions were
coming into the United States, and from whom they were coming. They
will not let us in there. So if the President is going over there, I
think he ought to ask the President of China to work with us to get to
the bottom of this. But I doubt that that will happen.
I would like to end up by saying one more time, the American people
have a right to know. As long as I am chairman of this committee, I am
going to work my dead level best to get to the bottom of this so that
they do have all the facts.
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