Clinton Donation Case
[
www.govinfo.gov]
Yah Lin ``Charlie'' Trie also solicited large amounts of
foreign money. In Trie's case, the cause was the Presidential
Legal Expense Trust, set up to help satisfy the legal bills
incurred by President and Mrs. Clinton. In March 1994, Trie
brought nearly half a million dollars in small-denomination
checks and money orders to the law office administering the
Trust. The checks and money orders, it turned out, were written
by followers of a Buddhist Sect called Suma Ching Hai. Many of
the followers were reimbursed in the amount of their
contributions. Ultimately, the reimbursement money came from
accounts in Taiwan and Cambodia.
None of the aforementioned individuals would speak to the
Committee about their fund-raising activities. Sioeng left the
country soon after the campaign finance scandal broke. The
Riadys likewise have stayed out of the United States, and
declined to meet with Committee staff working in Indonesia.
Huang and Hsia have remained in this country but have both
asserted their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-
incrimination. Trie initially left the country but recently
returned and was arrested. He was indicted on January 28, 1998
and charged on 15 counts, including conspiracy to defraud the
DNC and the United States. The indictment charges Trie with
participating in the conspiracy by, among other things,
purchasing access to high level government officials through
contributions made to the DNC.
B. The Rose of the Ching Hai Buddhist Sect
During its investigation, IGI conducted extensive computer
information searches, interviewed numerous donors
telephonically, and contacted several experts on cults and
religious sects. Based on these efforts, IGI determined that
Trie likely laundered some or all of the funds through members
of the Ching Hai Buddhist sect to the Trust and that many sect
members were, in fact, coerced into making the donations.
The Ching Hai Buddhist organization is headed by the
Supreme Master Suma Ching Hai. According to IGI's findings and
other published information, the Supreme Master studied
Buddhism in Taiwan, where she maintains her headquarters. Aside
from leading the sect, she also designs her own line of clothes
and conducts fashion shows.\51\ She encourages her followers to
make donations to and purchase items from Ching Hai.
Notwithstanding her teachings to her followers to focus on the
spiritual and not the material, IGI found that Suma Ching Hai
generally travels and lives in an opulent style. Indeed, IGI
reported that she is considered a fraud by many other Buddhist
groups.\52\ IGI also reported on certain unconventional
practices within the sect, such as the sale of the Supreme
Master's bathwater to her followers (which she apparently
claims has curative properties).\53\
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\51\ Final report of IGI, stamped ``Draft,'' May 15, 1996, p. 5
(Ex. 10).
\52\ Id. at p. 4.
\53\ Id.
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As a result of its interviews with experts who had studied
the Ching Hai sect extensively, IGI learned that its
membersoften donate sums to the organization greater than they can
afford.54 IGI concluded that it was highly likely that the
funds donated by members of Ching Hai to the Trust were not given
voluntarily.55
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\54\ Berger deposition, p. 24.
\55\ Ex. 10.
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IGI also discovered that the donors to the Trust were
solicited by the Supreme Master at large meetings in Los
Angeles, Houston and New York. Many of the members IGI
interviewed said they did not have check books or sufficient
funds with them at the meetings, so in some cases fellow
members wrote checks on their behalf, and in other cases money
orders were provided and people simply filled them out with
their addresses and social security numbers.56
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\56\ Berger deposition, p. 24.
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For obvious reasons, the Committee looked closely at
whether the Ching Hai members reimbursed the sect for the money
orders they had filled out or whether the sect simply funneled
its funds through its members to Trie and ultimately the Trust.
The organizer of the Ching Hai meeting in New York, Zhi Hua
Dong, addressed this issue when he testified before the
Committee on July 31, 1997.
C. Testimony of Zhi Hua Dong
Zhi Hua Dong is a computer systems administrator in the
physics department at Columbia University. He served as the New
York contact member for Ching Hai and was one of the organizers
of a March 16, 1996 meeting of the group in New York. Dong
testified before the Committee and explained how the donations
were gathered at that meeting. A couple of days prior to March
16, Dong was contacted by one of the Supreme Master's
assistants and told to purchase $20,000 in money orders and was
assured that he would be reimbursed for the purchase. He was
not told why the money was needed. Later the same day he
received another call from the same individual and was told to
purchase as many money orders as he could. After contacting a
few other members from the New York area, Dong was able to
purchase $70,000 in money orders.57
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\57\ Testimony of Zhi Hua Dong, July 31, 1997, p. 151.
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Dong testified that he and his wife met the Supreme Master
Suma Ching Hai at Kennedy International Airport along with
other sect members.58 Dong's wife, Tracy Hui, drove
Charlie Trie and the Supreme Master into Manhattan. Dong
followed in another vehicle. Upon arriving at the Ritz Carlton
Hotel in midtown, Dong went up to the Supreme Master's room
where he delivered the money orders he had been asked to
purchase. At that time the Supreme Master explained to him that
they were helping President Clinton raise funds for his
personal legal expenses. Trie, who was to be initiated into the
sect at the meeting, was also in the room and wrote down the
full name of the Trust so that people would be able to spell it
correctly on their money orders and checks. Before leaving,
Dong observed the Master removing $20,000-25,000 from the stack
of money orders for sect-related expenses.59
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\58\ Deposition of Zhi Hua Dong, June 17, 1997, p. 49.
\59\ Dong testimony, p. 153.
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During the meeting that night, which was held at the Inn at
57th Street, the Supreme Master addressed about 150 new
initiates, all U.S. citizens, and told them that President
Clinton was a good person and needed their help. After
requesting them to contribute to the Trust, the Master turned
to leave the room and to go downstairs to a private meeting.
When some of the new initiates tried to follow her, she turned
and in an angry tone told them to stay put and attend to
business.60 When one of the followers tried to ask a
``spiritual question,'' she angrily told him that it was not
the time for spiritual questions.61 According to
Dong, her tone made some of the members uncomfortable,
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\60\ Dong Deposition, p. 79-80.
\61\ Dong testimony, p. 170.
The voice was very strong, very strong, you know,
from my perspective, I feel some energy coming out, and
her tone, you know, could make people uncomfortable . .
. there is one person stand up, after Master talked,
stand up, asked a spiritual question regarding the
practice. Master was very angry . . . It's a very
strong voice. That could irritate people.62
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\62\ Dong deposition, p. 112.
Immediately following the event, Dong went back to the
Master's room at the Ritz-Carlton and helped count the funds
that had been raised. Between sixty and one hundred of the
blank money orders had been filled out by individuals who did
not pay for them.63 The Master added a number of
checks and money orders from another meeting, and, according to
Dong, the total amount finally given to Trie could have been
more than $400,000.64
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\63\ Dong testimony, p. 158.
\64\ Id. at p. 161.
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Dong had never met Trie prior to the New York meeting, and
he testified that from the way Trie talked, he was under the
impression that he worked directly for President
Clinton.65 This was the only time Dong was aware of
the Supreme Master ever asking for support for a political
figure.66 Four days after this New York meeting--on
March 20--Trie called Cardozo to set up their initial
meeting.67
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\65\ Id. at p.163-164.
\66\ Dong deposition, p. 114.
\67\ Id. at p. 24.
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Dong testified that in May, 1996, Trie called him and asked
him if they could meet at the airport while Trie was changing
planes in New York. At this meeting Trie was very upset because
the Trust was investigating the source of the contributions. He
told Dong that the Trust was being ``very cautious'' because it
was ``an election year.'' 68
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\68\ Dong testimony, p.163.
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Several weeks after the event, Dong contacted the Ching Hai
headquarters in Taiwan requesting that he and his fellow
membersbe reimbursed for the $70,000 in money orders that they
had purchased with their own money. Dong testified that up to this
point he had received little or no reimbursement from the individual
members. Dong and the other members who had advanced funds for the
money orders were eventually reimbursed by the sect in three wire
transfers, one for $20,000 from Taiwan, one for $30,000 from Cambodia
where the sect had a chapter, and the balance in a wire transfer from
Los Angeles chapter.69
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\69\ Id. at p.165.
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VI. May 9, 1996 White House Meeting
After receiving the initial investigative report from IGI,
including information about the Ching Hai Buddhist group,
Cardozo scheduled another meeting at the White House for May 9,
1996 to again discuss the Trie donations.70 The
meeting was attended by Cardozo, Schwartz and Libow on behalf
of the Trust, and Harold Ickes, Jack Quinn, White House
Counsel, Bruce Lindsey, Deputy White House Counsel, Cheryl
Mills, Deputy White House Counsel, Evelyn Lieberman, Deputy
Chief of Staff, and Maggie Williams, Chief of staff to the
First Lady, on behalf of the White House. Cardozo did not know
why it was necessary to meet with so many senior members of the
White House staff, especially in light of his insistence that
the Trust operated independent of the White House.71
The White House apparently made the decision as to which staff
members would attend.
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\70\ On April 24, 1996, Trie visited the Trust for the second time.
He met with Cardozo and Schwartz and brought a shopping bag with him.
Cardozo testified that when he saw Trie approach he thought to himself
``Oh my God, he's got a million dollars.'' In fact, Trie had an
additional $179,000 for the Trust. Because the Trust was investigating
the first batch of donations, Cardozo refused to accept the donations.
Because IGI had been specifically instructed by Cardozo not to
interview Trie, they had instead prepared a list of questions to be
asked of Trie at the April 24 meeting in order to gain a better
understanding of the source of the donations. However, neither Cardozo
nor Schwartz asked any of IGI's questions at the meeting. Deposition of
Michael Cardozo, May 7, 1997, pp. 129-130.
\71\ Id. at p. 115.
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During the May 9 meeting, Cardozo explained the key facts
surrounding Trie's donations to the Trust, and called upon
Libow, the Trust's attorney, to provide the group with a
summary of IGI's findings regarding Ching Hai and its leader,
Suma Ching Hai. Libow described IGI's findings in great detail
including their conclusion that at least some of the donations
may have been coerced.72
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\72\ Id. at pp. 155-156. IGI's conclusion was ultimately proven
correct when in July Cardozo received a letter from Ching Hai member
David Lawrence. Cardozo circulated the letter to all of the people who
had attended the May 9 meeting, as well as Mrs. Clinton. The Lawrence
letter confirmed that in fact many of the donors did not contribute
their own funds:
Unfortunately as you suspected, the funds were raised by
the efforts of a concerned party who was unaware of some of
the terms mentioned in your letter. In particular, none of
those in the private association involved in the fund
raising knew that the individual U.S. citizen donors were
required to use only their own funds. In my case, $500
given by money order was advanced by the association or its
leader and not reimbursed by me. We were led to believe
that reimbursement was optional. I am sure that none of the
members or leadership of the association knew otherwise. In
addition, I was not made aware of the other terms mentioned
in your letter. I was not aware that the Trust ``will make
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periodic public reports of fund contributors.''
Letter from David Lawrence to the Trust, July 5, 1996, p. 2 (Ex. 11).
The group discussed the pros and cons of returning the
donations and the type of press coverage such a story would
generate.73 Mills raised the question of whether
returning the money would be seen as some sort of
discriminatory act against Asian-Americans, but in the end the
group supported the Trustees preliminary recommendation to
return the money.74