Clinton's Indonesian Connection Raises Questions

WASHINGTON (Oct. 11) -- Republican critics have started to raise character questions about President Bill Clinton's connections to a banking syndicate in Indonesia. They're calling it Clinton's "Indonesian Connection," and saying it's a rich source of political money for the Democratic party.

On a trip to Indonesia in 1994, Clinton stopped by a reception in Jakarta given by his old acquaintance James Riady, scion of a $5-billion Asian business empire.

The president is also longtime friends with former Riady employee John Huang, who now works for the Democratic National Committee, where he has reportedly raised $4 million from Asian Americans so far. In California last July, Clinton effusively praised Huang's efforts. "I'd like to thank my longtime friend John Huang for being so effective," Clinton said.

The biggest donation Huang has brought in so far is $425,000 from Arief Wiriadinata, who is a wealthy son-in-law of a Riady business partner, and now lives in Jakarta.

Huang's former employer was the Riady family's Lippo Group conglomerate, which was founded, and is still run, by James Riady's father, Mochtar Riady. It is headquartered in Jakarta but has global reach through Hong Kong, China and even California. The Lippo Group holds interests in insurance, banking, securities, land and electronics and has its own home page on the World Wide Web.

For a time, the Riady clan also owned a piece of Worthen Bank in Little Rock, Ark. It was there that James Riady worked and met Clinton in the 1970s.

Clinton's Indonesian connection is drawing fire from conservative New York Times columnist Bill Safire and editorial writers at The Wall Street Journal.

One reason for the attention is that Democrats had to return a $250,000 contribution from a Korean company, reportedly solicited by Huang, when it turned out to be illegal because the company had no U.S. income.

Another reason is that Whitewater figure Webster Hubbell got work from the Riady empire just before he went to prison. Hubbell testified on those connections at a Senate Whitewater hearing last February: "The Lippo Group itself was not my client, but a representative of that group -- one of their affiliates -- was a client of mine." Republican investigators suggested that the job was meant to provide Hubbell with money to keep him quiet about Whitewater, a charge Hubbell denied.

White House officials say the president has personally met twice with both James Riady and Huang at the White House. They say there's nothing wrong here. White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry told reporters, "There's a friendship that developed there, this was a prominent family that did business in and around Little Rock, and they are supportive of President Clinton's political efforts."

It's illegal for political parties to take money from non-U.S. citizens unless they are residing legally in the U.S. As for Wiriadinata's $425,000, he lived in Virginia at the time of the donation.

Democratic party officials won't say how the illegal contribution from the Korean company slipped through, or how much money the Indonesian connection has raised. In fact, they won't say anything about it on camera.

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