Word: lippo
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...expectations, Thompson surprised everyone with his full-throated opening statement, referring to "the existence of a Chinese plan to subvert our election process." And indeed the most intriguing revelation of the week was a letter showing that as far back as 1994, the Riady family, proprietors of the giant Lippo Group, was talking to a Chinese-American activist about introducing Asian businessmen to the Clinton Administration and using them to funnel money to the Democratic National Committee. There were also new revelations of wire transfers from banks in Asia to two of the D.N.C.'s most generous donors, Johnny Chung...
...John Huang was the Lippo Group's front man in Washington, investigators say, Joe Giroir was its back-room brains. The Arkansas lawyer emerged from the sidelines of Donorgate last week when the Senate hearings put a spotlight on his frenetic lobbying to land a Democratic fundraising job for Huang, Lippo's favorite son in the U.S. But investigators tell TIME that Giroir played a more pivotal role for the Indonesian conglomerate in its quest for influence in Washington: after securing Lippo as a $3 million investor in his company, Giroir contributed a total of $175,000 to the Democrats...
...news to anyone. But last week's swing-and-a-miss performance has forced Thompson and his committee to downshift, laying the groundwork for what they see as a pattern of illicit Asian contributions to political campaigns. Today's Exhibit A: a memo in which John Huang asked the Lippo Group, for whom he worked in 1992, to "please kindly wire" some $50,000 to the Democratic Party. Before long, a red-faced DNC was announcing the return of the money. Said Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Democrat: "It certainly looks like the movement of foreign money into an American campaign...
...mess. And yet he remains a mystery. If he was a P.R.C. spy posing as a fund raiser and didn't want to leave any footprints, why would he submit receipts for taxi rides to the Chinese embassy? If he was busily slipping secrets to his old firm, the Lippo Group, why did he refuse the chance to win higher security clearances...
...betting they acted as "straw donors" (foils) for wealthy foreign contributors. Meanwhile, some big fish may be falling. Rep. Gerald Solomon, chairman of the House Rules Committee, said Wednesday he has government intercepts that indicate John Huang "committed economic espionage" by passing trade secrets to his former employer, Lippo Group, while he worked in the Commerce department. And though the announcement may itself be a breach of federal law, Solomon may be betting that an FBI espionage charge is just the spark Republicans need...