Shock: New York Times Investigates Hsu, Finds Direct Payments From His Shell Companies To Alleged "Donors"

The next question is "Where did the money come from originally?"

But for now, this advances the story quite a bit.

The records show that Components Ltd., a company controlled by Mr. Hsu that has no obvious business purpose and appears to exist only on paper, has paid a total of more than $100,000 to at least nine people who made campaign contributions to Mrs. Clinton and others through Mr. Hsu. The payments occurred in the spring of 2003, several months before Mr. Hsu emerged as a contributor to Democrats and more than a year before he started bundling checks from those same people for various campaigns. In all, he has raised more than $1 million for Democrats.

The records make clear that the group was more than just a loose collection of friends, family and co-workers that bundlers typically rely on when raising money for a candidate. Rather, each person had a direct financial relationship with Mr. Hsu, either receiving money from his company or paying into it, even though many of them appear to have other jobs or businesses independent of him. The purpose of the payments, and whether they related to business costs, fees or expenses, is unclear.

...

The timing of Mr. Hsu’s payments is important because federal law sets a $2,300 limit on individual contributions to presidential campaigns and bars fund-raisers from reimbursing donors.

...

The records show that during that one-month period, Components Ltd. took in close to $600,000, about a third of it wired to the company’s account by two people in California and New York who also were part of Mr. Hsu’s circle of campaign contributors. At the same time, the company issued checks and wire transfers totaling $660,000, much of it to the same group of people, including two checks for more than $100,000 apiece that bounced because of insufficient funds.

It's not a mystery. He's laundering illegal contributions, either from those not entitled to donate to political campaigns (foreign nationals) or from very rich donors who have easily exceeded the federal limits. He takes the illegal money in, writes checks to his network of straw (fake) donors, then they give "their" money to Hillary! and Co.

Thanks to David.

posted by Ace at 07:42 PM

| Access Comments