Campaign Finance Key Players:
The Riady Family
This profile was compiled from Washington Post and washingtonpost.com staff reports.
Headed by Mochtar Riady, this wealthy Indonesian family controls the Lippo Group – a giant Indonesian banking and real estate conglomerate.
From The Post:
• Riady Rejects Senate Panel's Allegations, Feb. 28, 1998
• Findings Link Clinton Allies to Chinese Intelligence, Feb. 10, 1998
• The Riadys' Persistent Pursuit of Influence, May 27, 1997
• Hubbell Meetings With Riady Draw Probers' Scrutiny, March 23, 1997
In February, the draft report by Republicans on the Senate committee that investigated campaign finance abuses alleged that Mochtar Riady and his son James "have had a long-term relationship with a Chinese intelligence agency."
But the report failed to back up the charge with specifics, and James Riady later denied that he or his company have any such ties.
The Riadys' links to Bill Clinton date back to Little Rock. In 1984, the Riady family bought a bank with Arkansas financier Jack Stephens. James, one of Mochtar's three sons, was dispatched to Little Rock to help run the operation, and reportedly first met Bill Clinton at one of Stephens's weekly lunches.
James Riady made about 20 visits to the White House after Clinton was elected in 1992. He met privately with the president three times. During one of those visits, former Lippo executive John Huang asked for Clinton's approval to move from the Commerce Department to the Democratic National Committee. On another visit, Riady urged Clinton to push trade with China.
And in 1994, a Lippo subsidiary reportedly paid Webster L. Hubbell $100,000. Hubbell, a former law partner of Hillary Rodham Clinton's, had left his Justice Department job in disgrace and was the focus of inquiries by Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr. Starr later started investigating whether the coterie of Clinton friends who paid Hubbell were doing so to buy his silence.
While Riady lived in California, he also had close ties with Maria Hsia, who has been indicted on federal charges of laundering campaign contributions by the Hsi Lai Temple.
washingtonpost.com |
