House finds money trail from
China
By Mary Ann Akers
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
ouse investigators say they have pieced together an
elaborate network showing how Charles Yah Lin
Trie, now under federal indictment, funneled money from China
into Democratic Party coffers with the help of an Arlington,
Va., woman with close personal and financial ties to top
Chinese government and business officials.
Investigators say the network raises "serious questions"
about whether the highest echelons of the Chinese government
used Mr. Trie and Keshi Zhan, a single mother living in
Arlington, to infiltrate the U.S. political process and, in turn,
influence U.S. policy toward China. But the investigators also
stressed they have drawn no conclusions in the probe.
"The material developed by the committee regarding Charlie
Trie, Keshi Zhan and others raises serious questions," said
House Government Reform and Oversight Committee
Chairman Dan Burton, the Indiana Republican who has
spearheaded the House campaign-finance probe.
"Did representatives of the Chinese government have a
hand in this conduit contribution scheme or is it all just a
coincidence?" Mr. Burton asked.
Committee investigators drew close ties between Mr. Trie
and former White House aide Mark Middleton, who, they
said, had "24-hour, seven-day-a-week access" to Mr. Trie's
Watergate apartment and
-- Continued from Front Page --
between Miss Zhan and Susan Lavine, a former White House
liaison for the Democratic National Committee who shared a
joint cellular telephone account with Miss Zhan.
The heart of the House findings: a money trail leading from
Chinese government and business officials through Macao
businessman Ng Lap Seng to Mr. Trie and Miss Zhan and then
through a series of straw donors to the Democratic National
Committee.
The House investigators focus much attention on Miss
Zhan, a Chinese immigrant who has portrayed herself as a
poor, uneducated nonpolitical person making less than
$25,000 a year. But House investigators say they have
discovered that Miss Zhan's mother is a former senior
government official and her father a professor at the elite
Beijing University. Her friends and associates include
prominent Chinese government officials.
A yearlong investigation by the Senate Governmental
Affairs Committee sought to portray Mr. Trie as an agent of
Chinese efforts to influence the 1996 elections. That probe
traced more than $1 million wired to Mr. Trie from Asia,
including $470,000 from Mr. Ng.
Miss Zhan also shared joint bank accounts at the
International Monetary Fund with Shao Zhengkang, the
secretary-general of China Everbright, one of the biggest
state-owned conglomerates in China, and with Su Yongli, a
former attache at the Chinese Embassy. Mr. Shao, according
to GOP investigators, is the "protege" of Everbright Chairman
Zhu Xiaohua, who works closely with Chinese Prime Minister
Zhu Rhongji.
Miss Zhan also had power of attorney over other bank
accounts of Mr. Trie and Mr. Ng. And despite her seemingly
modest means, she gave $12,500 to the DNC in 1996 and
about $8,000 more to state and federal Democratic
candidates.
"What was someone like Keshi Zhan, who, for all intents
and purposes, controlled the funds in Trie's and Ng's accounts
that were used to make illegal political contributions, doing with
a joint account with a Chinese diplomat, or for that matter, with
someone of Shao Zhengkang's stature in China?" asked Jay
Jakub, a senior investigator for Mr. Burton.
Mr. Jakub also noted that Mr. Shao was "in a position to
oversee Trie's illegal campaign-finance activities and to report
right up the line to the very top."
But the investigator stopped short of making any
accusations, saying, "Whether he did this or not is of course still
a question."
Mr. Shao, a permanent U.S. resident whose wife and son,
investigators say, live in Burke, Va., told investigators that he
did not know Miss Zhan, although he said he did know Mr.
Ng. There is no evidence that Mr. Trie received any money
from Mr. Shao or China Everbright.
But Mr. Ng, who has evaded federal and congressional
investigators, funneled some $1 million from China into Mr.
Trie's U.S. bank accounts between 1994 and 1996, about a
third of which was given to the DNC. It is illegal for U.S.
political parties and candidates to accept contributions from
foreign sources.
The DNC returned a total of $642,500 that was donated or
solicited by Mr. Trie, who, along with his business associate,
Antonio Pan, was charged in January with obstructing justice,
conspiring to defraud the government, and wire fraud in
connection with illegally reimbursing contributors.
Mr. Trie's attorney, Reid Weingarten, declined to comment
for this story.
Mr. Ng was able to visit the White House on at least a
dozen occasions, often to meet with Mr. Middleton, at a time
when he was showing up in the United States with huge
amounts of money.
"Why did Ng bring in large sums of cash on so many
occasions between 1994 and 1996, then almost immediately
go to the White House for meetings with Middleton and
sometimes to fund-raising events shortly thereafter?" one
congressional investigator asked.
They said they also wondered why Miss Lavine, the DNC's
White House liaison, used Miss Zhan's credit card to open up
a joint cellular telephone account. Miss Lavine, who was
deposed by investigators on the House Government Reform
and Oversight Committee last summer, said Mr. Trie gave her
a cellular telephone as a "Christmas gift" and that she used Miss
Zhan's credit card to open up an account because she did not
have one herself.
Miss Zhan could not be reached for comment.
White House spokesman Jim Kennedy reiterated the White
House position when questions first arose last summer during
Senate hearings about Mr. Ng, saying his visits to the White
House with Mr. Trie were "social visits." He explained that Mr.
Trie and Mr. Middleton were personal friends.
Senate investigators already had determined that Miss Zhan
reimbursed two Asian Americans living in suburban Maryland
for their political contributions to the DNC. The two "straw
donors" were given immunity from prosecution and testified
before the Senate committee |
