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Politics : Should Clinton resign? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brinks who wrote (495)	9/21/1998 11:31:00 AM
From: Les H	Respond to of 567

Clinton also continually kept saying "return grifts" instead of "return gifts". Sounds like Freudian slip in light of today's Washington Post article. Fund-Raiser Set Up Fake Firms for Chinese By George Lardner Jr. Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, September 21, 1998; Page A02 Democratic fund-raiser Johnny Chung set up fake businesses in California with at least a half-dozen Chinese executives to make it easier for them to get U.S. visas, according to testimony and records compiled by House Republican investigators. Chung brought most of the executives, who included the offspring of two retired Chinese generals, to fund-raisers for the Clinton-Gore 1996 reelection effort. Irene Wu, Chung's top assistant from 1995 to 1997, said in a deposition to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee that "all of these companies" were set up to facilitate travel to the United States by the Chinese business officials and eventually help them establish permanent residency here. The companies engaged in no real business activity, Wu said in her July 28 deposition. Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman Russ Bergeron said setting up dummy companies to acquire visas is a "growing fraud," particularly in faraway countries such as China. He said it involves "all kinds of scams," including bogus business cards, letterheads for nonexistent companies, phony tax returns and fake photos of business locations. Wu said Chung used "a lot of invitation letters" that the associates in China could use when requesting visas. The letters typically urged them to come to Los Angeles for business discussions about upcoming projects. Two of the companies, Sino-American Economic Development Inc. and Yuangao International Inc., were established in 1995 by Chung and Chen Shizeng, the head of a Chinese beer company. The Taiwanese-born Chung met Chen the year before on Chung's first trip to China. Through Chen, "Johnny met a lot of other people," Wu said. From 1994 to 1996, Chung visited the White House 49 times and attended numerous Democratic fund-raising events, sometimes escorting Chinese business officials who were photographed with President Clinton or first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Chung gave $366,000 to the Democratic National Committee for the 1996 election, all of which has been returned. Chung, a businessman from Torrance, Calif., began cooperating with federal prosecutors in March after pleading guilty to making illegal campaign contributions. He told Justice Department investigators that a Chinese military officer who is an executive with a state-owned aerospace company gave him $300,000 in the summer of 1996 with the understanding that some of the money would be used for contributions to Democratic campaigns. China called the report a "sheer fabrication." Wu said the officer, Liu Chaoying, daughter of an Army general who retired last year, made two visits to the United States -- in July 1996 when Chung accompanied her to two fund-raising events Clinton attended and in August 1996 when she came with plans to buy spare parts for aircraft. "She thought Johnny had connections" with U.S. aerospace companies, Wu said. "To my knowledge, he didn't." Chung filed papers in California on Aug. 9, 1996, setting up Marswell Investment Inc. He listed Liu as president and himself as vice president and stated its purpose as "import/export of auto accessories." Wu said Marswell did no business and now is dormant. Six days after the company was established, one of Chung's three bank accounts received a $79,980 wire transfer from Hong Kong; an attorney familiar with the transaction told The Washington Post in May the money came from Liu. Chung has told investigators that Liu told him the money came from Chinese military intelligence. Liu has denied Chung's account. According to Wu, Chung also had dealings with Liu Bin, the son of another retired Chinese general, who was Chung's guest at a September 1995 Clinton-Gore fund-raiser in Century City, Calif. Chung set up a company called C.L. International with Liu Bin (no relation to the aerospace executive) in July 1996, but Chung resigned from it a few months later. According to Wu, Chung quit after learning that Liu Bin, a hotel and nightclub executive, had written four bad checks for $220,000 on C.L. International's bank account from China.