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    Question What is Hillary hiding?

    What is Hillary hiding?

    IBD wonders about Hillary Clinton’s secrets:


    http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArti...71983072736809

    Two million pages of Hillary Clinton's files as the most active first lady in history are locked up until after next year's election. Candidates are usually proud of their record. Does she have things to hide?

    The Los Angeles Times reports that calendars, memos and reams of other records from the office of the first lady in the Clinton administration will stay off-limits to public scrutiny until after the 2008 presidential election, according to federal archivists at the Clinton presidential library.

    While former President Bill Clinton has authorized lots of the records regarding Hillary’s secret health care task force in 1993-94 to be publicly available, more than 1,000 pages have been censored, purportedly because they contain confidential advice protected under the Presidential Records Act.

    But that act, amended by President Bush in 2001, makes it clear that the ex-president is the one who makes the call.

    “Because the former President independently retains the right to assert constitutionally based privileges,” Bush’s order states, “the Archivist shall not permit access to the records by a requester unless and until the incumbent President advises the Archivist that the former President and the incumbent President agree to authorize access to the records or until so ordered by a final and nonappealable court order.”

    We can only imagine some of the comments in those 1,000-plus pages that Bill and Hillary consider to be obstacles to their returning to the White House.

    Is there outrage over the Republican efforts to prevent her from stopping people from choosing their own doctor? Is there admiration expressed for the socialized health care systems of other countries? France perhaps? Or even Cuba?

    Knowing Hillary’s real thinking on health care will be imperative for voters.
    Because activists for a government-run single-payer system are hopeful the next election will allow a Democratic president to join with a Democratic Congress and succeed in a massive health reform based on government management.

    There are also signs the senator from New York is interested in embracing a free-market-oriented health reform proposal as a means of moving to the center if she becomes her party's choice next year. She has been involved in at least one briefing regarding non-socialist, consumer-friendly reform.

    Should she veer right on the issue, Hillary's less guarded thoughts on health care — as contained in the records from her White House years — could be relevant in knowing what she'd do as president.

    The conservative Judicial Watch group is now suing the National Archives after waiting over a year, to no avail, on its request for Hil-lary's schedules and diaries.

    There's no denying confidential conversations among presidential advisers, including a "co-president" first lady, are protected by executive privilege — a fact lost on many Democrats in regard to President Bush: Two prominent House committee chairmen, Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and John Dingell, D-Mich., are behind a Government Accountability Office lawsuit to scrutinize the deliberations of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force.

    For voters in 2008, however, finding out what the first lady was up to a decade and a half ago may mean knowing exactly who the real Hillary is — before giving her the highest office in the land.

    -----

    Judicial Watch is now suing the National Archives after getting no action or response on its request for Hillary’s schedules and diaries.
    http://www.corruptionchronicles.com/...g_in_whit.html

    [b]Recent polls indicate that Hillary Clinton has effectively promoted her White House experience as a strong reason to be elected president yet the New York Senator insists on keeping information from her First Lady Era secret until after the 2008 election.

    Although she has swayed many Americans by touting her experience as unique among all candidates, Clinton wants to keep the gory details of that eight-year tenure under wraps and federal archivists are following orders, ignoring hundreds of public records requests in the process.

    Nearly 2 million documents detailing Clinton’s White House years are securely locked up in a room at her beloved husband’s presidential library in Little Rock Arkansas. They are, under no circumstances, to be released prior to the 2008 presidential election.

    The information includes calendars, appointment and telephone logs, schedules and memos as well as thousands of pages of documents from her work as the country’s miserably failed healthcare reformer.

    Judicial Watch has worked endlessly to obtain the records in order to offer Americans the kind of information and transparency they should have on a presidential candidate. More than a year ago Judicial Watch filed a public records request and last month the organization sued.

    After all, Clinton has used the information—albeit selectively—to promote her presidential candidacy. Many Americans have evidently bought it, recently indicating in a national poll that the senator is more experienced and a stronger leader than her major rivals for the 2008 Democratic nomination. Incidentally, Clinton didn’t score as high in the poll when it came to most likeable and most honest candidate.


    Here’s the complaint. http://www.judicialwatch.org/archive....complaint.pdf



    Hillary’s first campaign ad is titled “Invisible,” by the way.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3xepwid_sY


    A fitting description of the papers she’s keeping stashed away from public view ?
    Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

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    Jolie Rouge's Avatar
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    What say you now, Hillary?

    Hilary caught taking money from a swindler? Mon dieu! The Los Angeles Times has the story of Hillary’s fund-raising “fugitive in plain sight:”
    http://www.latimes.com/news/politics...,2313285.story

    For the last 15 years, California authorities have been trying to figure out what happened to a businessman named Norman Hsu, who pleaded no contest to grand theft, agreed to serve up to three years in prison and then seemed to vanish.

    “He is a fugitive,” Ronald Smetana, who handled the case for the state attorney general, said in an interview. “Do you know where he is?”

    Hsu, it seems, has been hiding in plain sight, at least for the last three years.

    Since 2004, one Norman Hsu has been carving out a prominent place of honor among Democratic fundraisers. He has funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions into party coffers, much of it earmarked for presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

    In addition to making his own contributions, Hsu has honed the practice of assembling packets of checks from contributors who bear little resemblance to the usual Democratic deep pockets: A self-described apparel executive with a variety of business interests, Hsu has focused on delivering hefty contributions from citizens who live modest lives and are neophytes in the world of campaign giving.

    On Tuesday, E. Lawrence Barcella Jr. — a Washington lawyer who represents the Democratic fundraiser — confirmed that Hsu was the same man who was involved in the California case. Barcella said his client did not remember pleading to a criminal charge and facing the prospect of jail time. Hsu remembers the episode as part of a settlement with creditors when he also went through bankruptcy, Barcella said.
    Mull over the WSJ piece about Hsu’s Daly City address yesterday. In that piece, the Clinton campaign defended Hsu thusly: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118826947048110677.html

    A Clinton campaign spokesman, Howard Wolfson, said in an email: “Norman Hsu is a longtime and generous supporter of the Democratic party and its candidates, including Senator Clinton. During Mr. Hsu’s many years of active participation in the political process, there has been no question about his integrity or his commitment to playing by the rules, and we have absolutely no reason to call his contributions into question.”

    Here is the follow up article from today by the WSJ. Some interesting background, or lack there of, about Mr. Hsu.

    Leading Clinton Donor Stays Below the Radar
    http://online.wsj.com/public/article....html?mod=blog


    Will the IRS investigate the folks that “donate” more than they earn in a year? Isn’t that unreported “income” that ends up as a political donation a matter for the IRS?

    They do not even talk about the Tskopoulos Family and I hope she does a follow up story on this at the WSJ or maybe Michelle can.

    Just a quick check at:

    http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/index.asp

    Donor: Tsakopoulos
    State: CA
    Recipient: Clinton
    I wonder how these poor Unemployed/Student or just plain Student in the occupation list can dontate $13,440 in since 2005 to Clinton.

    What say you now, Hill?
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    Huang v. Hsu — 1996 v. 2008
    Question — Will Hillary’s Rivals Attack Her While Her Husband Got a Pass?



    The blogosphere is starting to buzz a little bit over Hillary’s “John Huang”. Articles in yesterday’s WSJ, a follow-up today, and even a piece in the LAT have got to have the Clinton camp worried about what to say about Norman Hsu.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1188...ics-and-Policy

    http://online.wsj.com/public/article....html?mod=blog

    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...adlines-nation

    John Fund at the WSJ has now posted a entry at the sites Political Diary that he made available to Powerline.

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/

    As a refresher, recall from 1996:

    Bill Clinton benefitted from the political largesse of the Lippo Group, owned by the ruling Riady and Suharto families from Indonesia.

    John Huang was a formerly the head of US Operations for the Lippo Group, controlled by the Riady family of Indonesia, before being named a mid-level Commerce Dept. official in the Clinton Admin. He enjoyed enormous access to the WH for such a mid-level employee. As a DNC fundraiser in 1996, he raised $3.4 million for the party and the Clinton re-election effort — mostly from the Aisan-American community. Huang had been hired in the early 1980s by the Riady Family-owned “Worthern Banking Group” in Little Rock.

    Huang took a 50% pay cut to join the Clinton Admin in 1993, but the blow was softened by a $750,000 severance package from the Lippo Group. Among the dubious contributions obtained by Mr. Huang was $200,000 donated by an Indonesian gardner, who later had to return to Indonesia to avoid testifying in the Senate investigation into 1996 fundraising practices. Charlie Trie was the Arkansas restaurantuer and generous financial contributor who received wire transfers of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Bank of China, but mysteriously relocated to Bejing when subpoenas started to roll out.

    Now Hillary has the ubiquitous Mr. Hsu.

    As reported by the WSJ, Mr. Hsu — a wanted felon and fugitive from justice for a fraud conviction in California — has raised more than $1 million already for Hillary’s campaign, including more than $45,000 from the Paw family in San Francisco, who have contributed more than $200,000 to various Democrat candidates and organizations through Mr. Hsu.

    Mr. Paw is a mail carrier, earning $49,000 a year. He donated $4600.

    His wife is a homemaker. She donated $4600.

    Their four adult children have various occupations — one is an executive at a mutual fund, while another is a local high school “attendance liason”. All donated $4600. ( EACH )

    The recently refinanced their 1200 square foot house near SF Airport for $270,000.

    What else they all have in common is that their contributions closely track the contributions made by Mr. Hsu to the same candidates and organizations.

    The question is whether Hillary’s rivals on the Demo crowd will want to make an issue of this.

    Bill got a pass in 1996 because he had no challenger, and the key facts didn’t come out until after the 1996 election.

    Now such pass for Hillary.

    I predict many days of deep discomfort as they try to figure out what to do about this.

    Rough water ahead.

    [i]
    4 Comments »
    Who cares about whether or not her opponents give her a pass. The media has already demonstrated that they will give her and Bill a chance at every opportunity. Didn’t she have a prior fundraiser get in some serious hot water?

    Comment by JD — 8/29/2007 @ 6:13 pm
    It will be impossible for the press to ignore internecine warfare among the Demos. This gaurantees its widest possible distribution, and portends maximum damage to her.

    This kind of episode plays right into the hands of Obama’s theme of not returning to the past.

    Bill’s two biggest scandals were getting BJs under the desk, and Chinese campaign money.

    Hillary’s not likely to replicate the first, but the second is certainly an area of concern in today’s world.

    Hillary The ChiComm — Just what the DNC didn’t want to hear.

    Comment by WLS — 8/29/2007 @ 6:30 pm

    What else they all have in common is that their contributions closely track the contributions made by Mr. Hsu to the same candidates and organizations.
    I’m a little fuzzy as to the meaning of this sentence. What does it mean to “closely track”? Did they all make donations at the same time? Did they all give to the same parties/campaigns at the same time?

    Comment by Darkmage — 8/29/2007 @ 6:57 pm
    Darkmage — that language is taken from the WSJ article, and I think that is the point being made. That the Paw family’s contributions are at the same times, in the same amounts, and to the same candidates and organizations as to the ones to whom Hsu was making contributions. Hsu is a “bundler” for Hillary and the DNC — sort of like a Bush “Ranger”.
    http://patterico.com/2007/08/29/huan...nd-got-a-pass/
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    Probably wanted to hide that she has a husband that used to be President of the United States. LOL!

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    The Hillraisers: Another day, another fugitive
    August 30, 2007


    His name is Abdul Rehman Jinnah, 56, originally from Pakistan. He allegedly funneled loads of money to the Clinton campaign, stood accused of same, and fled to Pakistan. In May, he surrendered to the FBI, flew back to the US to answer the charges against him, and collapsed in court.

    Gateway Pundit has the Wanted poster that the FBI released on Jinnah last year. http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/20...sought-by.html




    Mr. Sadiq, Senator Hillary Clinton and Mr. Rehman Jinnah

    Rantburg saved the article that was later purged from the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...ck=1&cset=true

    Rantburg has the original LA Times article about Jinnah’s flight.
    http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.p...03-04&SO=&HC=2

    A Pakistani immigrant who hosted fundraisers in Southern California for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is being sought by the FBI on charges that he funneled illegal contributions to Clinton's political action committee and Sen. Barbara Boxer's 2004 reelection campaign. Authorities say Northridge businessman Abdul Rehman Jinnah, 56, fled the country after an indictment accused him of engineering more than $50,000 in illegal donations to the Democratic committees. A business associate charged as a co-conspirator has entered a guilty plea and is scheduled to be sentenced in Los Angeles next week.

    A federal law enforcement source said prosecutors had not dealt with the political committees in conducting their investigation and had no evidence that the committees knew the contributions were illegal. Officials for both committees said they were unaware of the investigation or indictments until they were contacted by The Times, and said they would not keep the donations.

    The case has transformed Jinnah from a political point man on Pakistani issues, a man often photographed next to foreign dignitaries and U.S. leaders, into a fugitive with his mug shot on the FBI's "featured fugitives" wanted list. Jinnah's profile peaked in 2004 and 2005 as he wooed members of Congress to join a caucus advancing Pakistani concerns and brought Clinton to speak to prominent Pakistani Americans, lauding their homeland's contributions to the war on terrorism and calling relations with Pakistan beneficial to U.S. interests.
    Michelle Malkin has a few more details about the case.
    http://michellemalkin.com/2007/08/30...tive-moneymen/


    I have a few questions:

    Who else has been illegally donating to the Clinton campaign machine?

    In two days we’ve learned of two illegal contributors who went on the lam.

    Yesterday’s miscreant, Norman Hsu, wasn’t just an illegal Hillraiser himself: The available evidence suggests that he was using the Paw family as a conduit to pass his own money through, on the way to the campaign coffers of scores of Democrats. The Clinton campaign, along with all the other Democrats who have been connected to Hsu, have promised to return all the money they received from him. What about the Paws’ money? And are there any other shells out there whom Hsu used to illegally contribute to Clinton or any other Democrats?

    Where did all the money that Hsu was bundling for the Clinton and other campaigns come from in the first place?

    Are there any other fugitives who’ve made their way onto the mighty Hillraiser list?

    Does the Clinton campaign vet its donors for legality before or after they get caught contributing illegally?



    http://hotair.com/archives/2007/08/3...ther-fugitive/
    Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

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    Stop the ACLU has a very useful timeline on the Peter Paul affair. The allegation at the base of that affair is that Hillary Clinton flagrantly violated campaign finance law by filing false FEC reports, and thereby committed a felony. Update: Stop the ACLU has a very useful timeline on the Peter Paul affair. The allegation at the base of that affair is that Hillary Clinton flagrantly violated campaign finance law by filing false FEC reports, and thereby committed a felony.

    http://stoptheaclu.com/archives/2007...wanted-by-fbi/
    Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

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    Top Dem fundraiser turns himself in
    By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer
    20 minutes ago


    REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - A top Democratic fundraiser wanted as a fugitive in California turned himself in Friday to face a grand theft charge.

    San Mateo County Superior Court Judge H. James Ellis ordered Norman Hsu handcuffed and held on $2 million bond. A bail hearing was scheduled for Sept. 5, at which the judge will consider reducing his bail to $1 million.

    Hsu appeared in court accompanied by a lawyer and publicist, both of whom declined to say whether the New York apparel executive would immediately post bail. A warrant was issued for his arrest after he skipped the sentencing for a 1991 grand theft charge.

    In the ensuing years, Hsu became a top donor to numerous Democratic candidates and was a fundraiser for presidential contender Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. He also had contributed to Sen. Barack Obama's past Senate campaign and his political action committee.

    On Friday, Hsu, who has an apparel business in New York, also resigned from the board of trustees of The New School and from the board of governors of The New School's Eugene Lang College. The college received a federal appropriation secured by Clinton last year, but a spokesman for the school said Hsu was not involved in seeking money for the school.

    After reports surfaced this week of Hsu's fugitive status in California, Clinton joined other candidates in returning thousands of dollars he raised, but the allegations distracted her campaign just as it prepared to ramp up for the intense post-Labor Day stretch.

    The campaign announced Wednesday it would return $23,000 in contributions that Hsu made to her presidential and senatorial campaigns and to HillPac.

    On Thursday, Obama's campaign said he would give to charity the $2,000 Hsu contributed to his 2004 Senate campaign and the $5,000 Hsu gave to his political action committee, Hopefund. Hsu's $43,700 in donations to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $2,500 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also will go to charity, both groups announced Thursday.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070831/...z3cPRL5wV2wPIE
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    The WSJ reports in an online article dated Sept. 1 that the Justice Department is now looking into Norman Hsu’s possible straw campaign donations as a result of the paper’s investigation published earlier this week: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1188..._us_whats_news


    The U.S. Justice Department is investigating possible campaign-finance violations by top Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu, according to people familiar with the probe.
    Ready for the complaints from Asian-American groups about being “profiled?”

    They’re coming, I promise you.


    What say you, Hillary? Nothing:

    Mrs. Clinton’s campaign declined to comment yesterday. The New York senator, along with other Democrats, has said she would turn over donations received from Mr. Hsu to charity.

    But Mr. Hsu’s legal woes are a political blow to the many prominent Democrats who accepted his funds, in particular Mrs. Clinton. While there is no sign any of them were aware of Mr. Hsu’s actions and prior record, they could be embarrassed by the probe of his fundraising.
    The probe will chase the Paw family’s fingerprints, along with other Hsu associates:

    The investigation began following a Wall Street Journal story this past week about donations by these people — mail carrier William Paw and the five other members of his family who list their Daly City address as 41 Shelbourne Ave., a small house near San Francisco airport.

    Mr. Hsu has denied reimbursing any associates for their donations, which would be a felony, or other wrongdoing in his fund-raising activities. “I’ve asked friends and colleagues of mine to give money out of their own pockets, and sometimes they have agreed,” he said in an email to the Journal this past week. A member of the Paw family also has said the family’s donations were their own.

    The amounts and dates of the Paws’ donations were similar to those of Mr. Hsu, who once listed the Paw’s address as his own. The Paws, Mr. Hsu and other associates collectively donated nearly $1 million to an array of candidates the past few years, including the presidential campaign of Mrs. Clinton.
    Flip Pidot has done yeomen’s work compiling summary results of a nationwide scour of all state and federal campaign finance disclosure documents published since the 2004 cycle for donations from Hsu and his associates identified by the WSJ. He’s found “65 Democratic candidates (even one Republican(!), though he lost…) running for everything from State Assembly to President. You’ll find them running in 32 states. You’ll find 9 Democratic campaign committees and 10 Democratic state parties in the mix…With the state-level data added, we’ve now shot past $1.3 million. The municipal data looks to drive the total significantly higher. So stay tuned.”

    http://suitablyflip.blogs.com/suitab...ly-big-hs.html

    Here’s one of Flip’s graphs charting top recipients of Hsu funny money:



    Check Flip’s blog to see which state and federal recipients in your neck of the woods might have received Hsu funds.

    ***
    How about a Top 10 list about *this* story? David? Hillary?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_c6921tBK4&eurl=
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    Bill Clinton 'shocked' Hillary donor was a fugitive
    BY GLENN THRUSH | glenn.thrush@newsday.com
    5:31 PM EDT, September 2, 2007

    Contoocook, N.H - Former President Bill Clinton said he was "shocked" by revelations that a top fundraiser for his wife is a fugitive from justice and claimed he didn't even know what "HillRaiser" Norman Hsu did for a living.

    "You could have knocked me over with a straw, especially when I heard the L.A. people had been allegedly looking for him for 15 years when he was in plain view," he told Newsday while touring a county fair in rural New Hampshire Sunday. "I never knew how he made a living or anything, but I was shocked," said Clinton of Hsu, who has made millions as an investor in tetxtile and other businesses.

    Hsu has been a fugitive after being accused of fraud in the early 1990s in San Mateo, Calif.

    Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Hillary Clinton donated $23,000 in Hsu contributions after his criminal history was revealed by the Los Angeles Times last week.

    Clinton said it wasn't necessary to return $100,000 or more collected by Hsu from other donors. "I think she did the right thing giving the money back pending resolution of his case," Clinton added. "If the other people say they gave the money of their own accord then I think she should keep it."

    http://www.newsday.com/news/nationwo...,6566532.story


    Uh-huh.

    ‘Cuz gosh durnit, geewillikers, the Clintons jus’ don’t know a thang ’bout questionamable folks and their funny munny.


    Red flags?

    What red flags?
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    When Controversy Follows Cash
    Some Fundraisers With Legal Issues Slip Through Campaigns' Vetting

    By John Solomon and Matthew Mosk - Washington Post Staff Writers
    Monday, September 3, 2007; Page A01


    Sant S. Chatwal, an Indian American businessman, has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaigns, even as he battled governments on two continents to escape bankruptcy and millions of dollars in tax liens.

    The founder of the Bombay Palace restaurant chain, Chatwal is one of a growing number of fundraisers in the 2008 presidential campaign whose backgrounds have prompted questions about how much screening the candidates devote to their "bundlers" while they press to raise record amounts.

    Chatwal's case reached from his native India to New York City. The IRS pursued him for approximately $4 million in unpaid business taxes, while New York state placed a lien seeking more than $5 million in taxes. He forfeited a building to New York City on which he was delinquent on property taxes and was sued by federal regulators seeking to recoup millions of dollars in loans from a failed bank where he served as a director.

    Across the ocean, three Indian banks forced him into U.S. bankruptcy, and he was charged with bank fraud. He was out on bond when he showed up in India in 2001 during a visit by his longtime friend Bill Clinton.

    Yet none of the legal and financial woes -- occasionally touched on in American or Indian newspapers or highlighted by political opponents -- raised red flags inside Hillary Clinton's fundraising operation. Chatwal recently said he plans to help raise $5 million from Indian Americans for Clinton's presidential bid.

    Asked whether anything in Chatwal's background caused concerns about his activities on behalf of the campaign, Clinton spokesman Phil Singer answered, "No." He declined last week to be more specific, saying only that major fundraisers are routinely vetted "through publicly available records."

    Rajen Anand, a longtime friend of Chatwal and another Clinton fundraiser, said the campaign encourages strict vetting for fundraisers. "They advise me to be very careful not to associate the campaign with people where there is something wrong," he said.

    Anand said, however, that Chatwal may have slid through any vetting, no matter how vigorous, because of his longtime friendship with the Clintons. The Clintons maintained a close association with Chatwal; both attended one of his sons' weddings in 2002, and the former president attended another son's wedding in 2006.

    While Chatwal raised money for Hillary Clinton's Senate and presidential campaigns and Bill Clinton's charitable efforts, he settled the regulatory and tax cases one by one, mostly by working out plans to pay portions of the debts. He resolved the last of them this spring.

    "The man came to this country, accumulated an empire, lost it during the time of real estate [softness], and has struggled and worked to try to pay off his debts," said A. Mitchell Greene, Chatwal's lawyer for 25 years. "It has been a long battle, but he has cleared up all of his obligations, and in the process he is trying to accumulate his wealth again."

    Ordinarily, campaigns have their legal, finance or research staffs run the names of major fundraisers -- also called "bundlers" because they deliver checks to candidates in bunches -- through public records such as newspaper clips, court filings and government databases to identify problems. Some controversies still slip through.

    Former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) faced such questions last week when federal prosecutors in Michigan indicted Geoffrey Fieger, the lawyer famous for defending assisted-suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian, accusing him of channeling $127,000 in illegal contributions into Edwards's 2004 presidential campaign. Edwards's aides said, and prosecutors confirmed, that the activity was concealed from Edwards and that the candidate cooperated once he learned of problems.


    Similarly, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) gave to charity more than $30,000 in donations from Illinois fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko and his associates after Rezko was indicted in a federal corruption case. "We do our best to go through the hundreds of thousands of people who give to make sure there aren't problems," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said. "I wouldn't say it's a perfect process, but we are as vigilant as possible."

    On Friday, another major 2008 Clinton fundraiser generated fresh headlines: Norman Hsu surrendered to authorities in San Mateo, Calif., on an outstanding warrant in a 15-year-old California criminal case involving allegations of grand theft. A judge ordered him held on $2 million bail until a hearing next week. On Wednesday, Clinton's campaign gave to charity $23,000 in donations from Hsu himself, though not the $96,000 or more he had raised for the candidate.

    The Clinton campaign relied on the businessman to raise money and said it had no way of knowing about the warrant, which was not listed in publicly accessible records.

    Chatwal, after making his millions in the restaurant business, saw his fortunes sour when he began dabbling in New York real estate just as the market softened.

    He was forced into bankruptcy in 1995 by three Indian banks that claimed he owed them millions from business loans.

    During the 1990s, the IRS and New York City and state tax authorities also pursued liens, and Chatwal worked out deals to pay them back. When the rents from one apartment building he bought no longer covered the real estate taxes, Chatwal turned over the building to New York City to resolve a reported $2 million tax lien, his lawyer said.

    In 1997, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. sued Chatwal over his role as a director and a guarantor of unpaid loans at the failed First New York Bank for Business. The government alleged that his loans had "resulted in losses to the bank in excess of $12 million," and it questioned his claims that he could not repay the debts.

    The regulators also questioned why Chatwal continued to rent a spacious penthouse apartment in New York in the midst of his financial turmoil. "The debtor has managed to continue living in luxurious style in the same penthouse apartment he resided in at a time he claimed a net worth of tens of millions of dollars without adequate explanation of how his family's limited income is able to support such a lifestyle," the government said in a 1997 filing.

    In September 2000, Chatwal hosted a half-million dollar fundraiser at that Upper East Side penthouse for Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign.

    A few months later the FDIC abruptly settled the case, agreeing on Dec. 18, 2000, to let Chatwal pay $125,000 for the loans that it had said caused at least $12 million in losses.

    Greene, Chatwal's lawyer, said he believed that the actual losses caused by the loans were smaller but agreed that the bankruptcy resulted in a much smaller settlement. "He fully intended to pay the bank until the Indian banks involuntarily forced him into bankruptcy," Greene said.

    The lawyer also said there was nothing wrong with Chatwal raising political money even as he worked to clear up the legal and financial matters. "I see no reason why an individual cannot support a political campaign in which he believes," Greene said.

    Just as Chatwal's U.S. cases were being resolved, Indian authorities in December 2000 charged him with bank fraud. On April 30, 2001, he appeared in a Mumbai court and posted a $32,000 bond, according to court officials there. Chatwal was not under travel restrictions, though, and he went back to New York.

    He returned to India a month later and made headlines in Indian newspapers by appearing with Bill Clinton during a visit with earthquake victims. The trip was underwritten by the American India Foundation, where Chatwal's son was a board member. Aides to the former president said Chatwal was one of about 100 members of the Clinton delegation.

    Eventually, Indian authorities "discharged" Chatwal from the bank case and closed the matter, Greene said.

    Chatwal's allegiance to the Clintons never wavered. Earlier this year, he promised to raise $5 million for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential bid, creating a group called Indian Americans for Hillary 2008. Donors who gathered at least $25,000 were promised a "private VIP meeting" with the candidate, fundraising letters show.





    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...090201436.html
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