New Questions About Huang's Lippo Connections

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Nov. 13) -- New documents show that Democratic fund-raiser John Huang may not have "scrupulously" avoided contact with his former employer, Indonesia's Lippo Group, while working at the Commerce Department, as Huang recently testified.

In a court-ordered deposition, Huang said he cut all ties with the Indonesian banking and real estate firm after becoming a top Commerce official in July 1994. But his calendars and phone message slips indicate otherwise.

The agency records show Huang took calls from several Lippo figures around the time the Commerce Department was preparing for a trade mission to China, where the company had business dealings.

Two calls came from former No. 3 official in the Clinton Justice Department, Webster Hubbell, while he was working for Lippo before being sentenced on federal Whitewater-related charges. It is also possible the two men met for lunch.
Four calls from Joseph Giroir, a former Little Rock, Ark., law partner of Hubbell and First Lady Hillary Clinton. Giroir has since started a company that matches the Lippo conglomerate with American companies eager to do business in Indonesia and China.
Two calls from Julian Liu, a former executive of the Lippo Bank of California.

Questionable foreign contributions to the Democratic National Committee raised by Huang have placed him in the middle of investigations by Congress and the Commerce Department.

New Questions About Huang's Lippo Connections

Related Stories: