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 | LIPPO IN THE SPOTLIGHT
July 15, 1997 |
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 The Online Explainers take your question on the investigation.  The NewsHour's coverage of the Congressional Investigation.  The inside stories on the political fight behind the public investigation.  The investigation is big news in Washington, but how's it playing around the country.  A closer look at the issues really under scrutiny by the Congress.
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SEN. FRED THOMPSON, Chairman, Governmental Affairs Committee: (pounding gavel) The committee will come to order, please. KWAME HOLMAN: Chairman Fred Thompson promised the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee would sharpen its focus this week on alleged foreign funding of the 1996 Democratic presidential campaign and on the central figure in those allegations, John Huang. SEN. FRED THOMPSON: It turned out Mr. Huang facilitated the raising of hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal contributions that have been shown by the committee's investigation to be of foreign origin. KWAME HOLMAN: John Huang was a top executive of the Indonesia-based Lippo Group, whose owners reportedly have close ties to the Democratic Party. Huang later joined the Commerce Department, then moved over to the Democratic National Committee and raised $3.4 million for the 1996 campaign. Almost half that money was returned by the DNC because of questions about its source. SEN. FRED THOMPSON: We'll look at Mr. John Huang's activities when he worked at Lippo, including whether he engaged in illegal money laundering there. I think the significance there is that apparently both Mr. Huang and Lippo were perfectly willing and adept at putting illegal money into the United States. Would you please stand and raise your right hand, please. KWAME HOLMAN: The committee called Juliana Utomo, who worked as a bookkeeper for Huang in the late 1980's, when he ran several Lippo subsidiaries in Los Angeles. Republican Counsel Michael Madigan questioned her about political contributions the cash-strapped Lippo subsidiaries made, including one for $50,000 to the Democratic National Committee in 1992. MICHAEL MADIGAN, Chief Counsel: Each of those companies for each of those years lost money, right? JULIANA UTOMO, Lippo Employee: It appears so, yes. MICHAEL MADIGAN: And 102 is a document that is from John Huang and Mr. Settiwan, which according to the document seeks reimbursement for the $50,000 given to the DNC from Jakarta, correct? Isn't that what the document says? JULIANA UTOMO: It appears. KWAME HOLMAN: The Jakarta, Indonesia-based Lippo Group specializes in real estate and construction and reportedly has assets of $3 ½ billion, much of it in joint ventures with companies run by the government of China. In the 1980's, Lippo established three subsidiaries in Los Angeles under the control of John Huang. Committee Democrat Joseph Lieberman acknowledged Lippo apparently reimbursed its Los Angeles subsidiary for that 1992 contribution. SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN, (D) Connecticut: There's a pretty clear document here requesting a reimbursement for a $50,000 donation to the DNC Victory Fund, which certainly looks like the movement of foreign money into an American campaign in 1992. JULIANA UTOMO: If I may add, actually the DNC exactly meant--I didn't know until recently. SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: Could you say that again? The DNC--I didn't hear the second word. SPOKESMAN: She didn't know what the DNC stood for until recently. SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: Oh, didn't know what it was. This was literally a blank check that you signed. I mean, who asked you to sign the check? JULIANA UTOMO: I cannot remember. SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: You don't know--well, who might have-- JULIANA UTOMO: But usually Mr. Agustian or Mr. Huang. SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: Or Mr. Huang, one or the other would have asked you to sign. Okay. Thank you. KWAME HOLMAN: The committee then called on an international business specialist to describe the Lippo Group conglomerate and its growing ties to state-run companies in the People's Republic of China. THOMAS HAMPSON, International Business Consultant: Over the past few years the record is very clear that the Lippo Group has shifted its strategic center from Indonesia to the People's Republic of China. Lippo currently is involved in dozens of large scale joint ventures on the mainland, including construction and development of apartment complexes, office buildings, highways, ports, and other infrastructure. SEN. ROBERT BENNETT, (R) Utah: Tell us a little more about China Resources and what they can bring to the table as a joint venture partner. THOMAS HAMPSON: Well, China Resources is a huge trading company. It's 100 percent owned by the government of the People's Republic of China. It's involved in everything from peanuts to property development and from minerals to machinery. It has hundreds of subsidiaries. Its sheer size dwarfs even the Lippo Group. Its purpose is to foster trade and to promote development of the mainland's economy. Through business ties it has established the group seeks out technology that the country needs and buys it. China Resources also has a more geopolitical purpose. It is well established in the public record that the government of the People's Republic of China uses China Resources as an agent of espionage, economic, military, and political. If its agents can't buy the technology, they obtain it by other means. They acquire interest in companies in order to use them as surrogates, as well as to provide cover for covert operatives. A company is kind of like a smiling tiger. It might look friendly, but it's very dangerous. KWAME HOLMAN: But Democratic counsel Alan Baron drew out the point that Lippo does business with countries around the world. ALAN BARON, Minority Counsel: Countries like Taiwan? THOMAS HAMPSON: Yes. ALAN BARON: Japan? THOMAS HAMPSON: Yes. ALAN BARON: France? THOMAS HAMPSON: Yes. ALAN BARON: England? THOMAS HAMPSON: Yes. KWAME HOLMAN: And that many companies in the American mainstream have business relationships with the Chinese government similar to Lippo's. ALAN BARON: General Motors has the same kind of relationship with Chinese companies in which the Chinese government has a stake. THOMAS HAMPSON: Yes. ALAN BARON: Eastman-Kodak has business ventures of that type, do they not? THOMAS HAMPSON: I don't know. ALAN BARON: It wouldn't shock you to find out that they did? THOMAS HAMPSON: No. ALAN BARON: A great place to sell film, would it not--over a billion in population. THOMAS HAMPSON: I would think so. ALAN BARON: Are you aware that Microsoft has business ventures involving companies in which the Chinese government has a stake? Are you aware of that? THOMAS HAMPSON: No. ALAN BARON: It wouldn't shock you to find out that that was the case, though, would it? THOMAS HAMPSON: No. KWAME HOLMAN: This afternoon the committee heard from Harold Arthur, who shared office space with John Huang at the Lippo Bank, one of the Lippo subsidiaries in Los Angeles. Arthur said he knew nothing about the 1992 $50,000 donation to the DNC but did have a view of the strongest allegations against John Huang. SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: Some have charged, as you know, that John Huang was a spy for either the Lippo Group or the Chinese government. And you knew him. You've told us what you thought about him. You worked right next door to him. I'm interested in hearing your reaction to those charges, and I suppose, more specifically, in your experience with Mr. Huang, did you see anything that would support those claims? HAROLD ARTHUR, Former Lippo Executive: I think the answer--if I may-- SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: Please. HAROLD ARTHUR: --to the claims is hogwash, and the answer to your other specific question is no, I never saw anything that would indicate that. KWAME HOLMAN: The committee reconvenes tomorrow morning. Some of John Huang's former co-workers at the Commerce Department are expected to testify. |
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