What's Legal And Not In Non-U.S. Citizen Donations

Non-citizens may give IF they are legally admitted as permanent residents (i.e., have a "green card") AND are living in the U.S. at the time.

U.S. units of non-U.S. corporations may give, IF those U.S. subsidiaries supply the money from their own revenues AND are not acting on orders from overseas.

What's Not Legal

Non-citizens may NOT give to any federal, state OR local U.S. candidate or political party UNLESS they have a "green card."

Non-U.S. corporations may NOT give to any federal, state OR local U.S. candidate or political party. (It's also illegal for U.S. corporations to give to federal candidates, but they get around that by using the "soft money" loophole, giving to political parties which spend the money on state and local political activities where that is legal. But this "soft money" avenue isn't open to non-U.S. corporations because they are barred by federal law from giving even at the state and local level.)

What's Uncertain

It MAY violate the law for ANY non-citizen to give while living outside the U.S., even if they have a "green card." The Democratic National Committee (which took $450,000 from an Indonesian couple, $320,000 of it after they had gone back to Jakarta) says it's permitted. But some Republican election lawyers say it is not, and some independent legal experts say the GOP lawyers may be right. The Federal Election Commission is expected to review this matter after the election.

So What About the Fanjul Family?

The fabulously wealthy Fanjul clan resides in Palm Beach, Fla., and owns enormous sugar plantations covering hundreds of thousands of acres in south-central Florida and the Dominican Republic. According to news accounts, they settled in Florida after Castro's takeover of Cuba, where the family was said to be Cuba's most wealthy. They are reported to have Spanish passports, but are legal residents of the U.S.

The Fanjuls reap many millions of dollars a year in profits as a result of the U.S. sugar program, which keeps the price of sugar grown in the U.S. well above the price of sugar grown in places like the Caribbean and sold on the world market. For many years they have given to both political parties, and one of the brothers was a big financial backer of Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential bid. He held a fund-raiser for Clinton in 1992, participated in Clinton's post-election "economic summit" in Little Rock and was a backroom participant in working out an agreement in 1993 by which sugar growers agreed to pay a relatively small amount to clean up their pollution of the Everglades.

Another brother was prominent in Republican circles and according to the Boston Globe helped Bob Dole's campaign.

How The Fanjul Money Compares To The Democrats' Asian Money

Related Stories:

• Dole Proposes Campaign Finance Reforms -- Oct. 21, 1996
• Trading Barbs Over Campaign Contributions -- Oct. 20, 1996

Related Links:

• Follow The Money