Clinton may now wish he’d spent that time doing something else. The Democratic National Committee has already been forced to return $1.5 million in improper contributions. It may have to give back even more. And much of the tainted cash can be traced to a single event: the May 13 fund-raiser at the Sheraton Carlton Hotel.
The dinner was the brainchild of John Huang, the DNC’s controversial fund raiser. Friends say Huang complained he was under pressure from the party to come up with cash, and quick. Huang knew just where to get it. From his years at the Lippo Group, the Indonesian conglomerate where he was an executive in the early ’90s, he had many wealthy Asian contacts.
The 125 people who filled out the Carlton’s downstairs ballroom were an odd lot. Many of the guests milling around the room, chatting over piano music, knew little or no English. Among those who lined up after dinner to shake the president’s hand were men whose ties to Clinton have since come under scrutiny. There was, for example, Charlie Trie, the Little Rock restaurateur who raised–and had to take back–$640,000 in questionable donations for the Clintons’ legal defense fund.
And there was Yogesh Gandhi, a self-styled peace activist and distant relative of Mahatma Gandhi’s. Like other big contributors at the dinner, he brought several foreign guests. Months earlier, DNC officials now say, Gandhi had contacted the White House asking to give Clinton an “award,” but was turned down because of his questionable credentials. Huang welcomed him to the dinner anyway, and arranged for Clinton to accept the gift–a bust of Mahatma Gandhi–in a private room away from the other guests. The Democrats later returned his $325,000 contribution after federal and state tax liens against his foundation were discovered.
Ted Sieong, an elusive Asian businessman, was another prominent guest. Sieong later asked for–and received–a letter from Clinton praising the International Daily News, a Chinese-language newspaper he runs in Los Angeles. A senior Democratic official tells NEWSWEEK the party is investigating whether it will have to return $250,000 in murky contributions made in the name of Sieong’s daughter.
Huang has told friends it was his job to bring in contributions, not to worry about whether they were legal. And DNC officials admit they did not always ask where money came from. The party now says most foreign citizens will be banned from future fund-raisers. A worthy reform, but Democrats may wish it had come about sooner.
