Campaign Fund Investigation Hits Snags, Glenn Claims

WASHINGTON — Senate investigators trying to track down sources of foreign money in American political campaigns--a key element in the campaign finance controversy--have run into serious roadblocks, according to a confidential document obtained by The Times.

While the document highlights Democrats’ deepening disapproval of the Republican majority’s investigative focus, it also raises questions about whether the probe will succeed in unraveling the mysteries behind millions of dollars in questionable donations.

A letter from Sen. John Glenn of Ohio, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, to the panel’s chairman, Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), said a team of investigators traveling to Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan and Macao has lined up interviews with just two of the 25 people the team wants to question.

Many have refused to be interviewed; others have failed to respond and some cannot be located.

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Among those declining to meet with Senate staffers are some of the biggest names in the investigation: Mochtar and James T. Riady, Arief and Soraya Wiriadinata and several associates of the Lippo financial empire who are suspected of illegally funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Democratic Party.

Glenn, noting the trip would cost at least $40,000, questioned the need for the venture if so few people were willing to talk.

“There is a legitimate question as to the appropriateness of expending that amount of money to send committee personnel overseas for almost three weeks on what very well could end up a fruitless attempt to track down individuals who, in all likelihood, will not want to talk to them in the first place,” Glenn wrote.

Glenn also accused Republican leaders of trying to impede the Democrats’ access to the investigation, noting that the six-member investigating team includes just one Democrat. Glenn said the lone Democratic staffer would have difficulty keeping up as the other investigators fanned out across Asia.

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In addition, Glenn charged that the Republican-dominated committee had failed to inform him of other leads the investigators intended to pursue.

Glenn’s letter echoed his public remarks last week, when he accused Republicans of focusing exclusively on alleged Democratic wrongdoing and of failing to conduct a bipartisan investigation.

A Republican staffer on the committee discounted Glenn’s concerns, and predicted that the Asia trip would bear fruit. He said the investigators had lined up more than two interviews, though he declined to say exactly how many.

Paul Clark, spokesman for the panel, said, “If we go over and get one or two pieces of information, then the trip will be worthwhile.”

Clark said he did not expect the investigators to make contact with everyone on their list, particularly individuals as wealthy and influential as the Riadys, whose family controls the $12-billion Lippo Group conglomerate.

“Most of these people fled this country to avoid answering questions, and the last thing they want to do is meet with investigators,” Clark said.

He said the investigators had targeted several friends and associates of the key players, hoping they would be more accessible.

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Clark said Glenn’s complaints about the way the Republicans were carrying out the investigation were unfounded. The Democrats were free to send as many investigators as on the trip as they wanted, he said.

The team of investigators that departed for Asia on Friday included federal agents who speak Chinese. They are on loan to the committee, Clark said. The investigators intend to stay in Asia for at least three weeks.

The trip is supposed to take the investigators to some of the main countries where wealthy donors are suspected of having tried to influence the outcome of last year’s U.S. election. One country notably excluded from the itinerary is China, whose government is suspected of orchestrating illegal donations during the 1996 campaign.

The two people who, according to Glenn’s letter, have agreed to be interviewed are Taiwanese government officials sought primarily for background briefings. They are not targets of the investigation, Glenn said.

Six other people sought by investigators in Taiwan have not responded to requests for interviews, his letter said.

The investigators will travel to Indonesia to try to question Mochtar Riady, the patriarch of the Lippo empire and the former employer of John Huang, a central figure in the fund-raising controversy who raised more than $3 million for the Democrats.

Investigators will also try to question Mochtar Riady’s sons, Stephen, chairman of the Hong Kong branch of Lippo, and James, a top Lippo executive who contributed to President Clinton’s campaign and met the president in the Oval Office.

According to Glenn’s letter, the three Riadys have refused to meet with investigators.

While in Indonesia, the Senate investigators also want to talk to the Wiriadinatas, Indonesian citizens who donated more than $450,000 to the Democrats. Calls to the couple made by the American Embassy have not been returned, Glenn wrote.

The other two people sought by agents in Indonesia also have not agreed to interviews, Glenn said.

In Hong Kong, Glenn’s letter says, none of the seven people sought by investigators has agreed to talk. In Macao, a Portuguese enclave on the Chinese mainland, none of the four people sought by investigators has responded to interview requests.

Clark said the investigators would nonetheless try to interview as many people as they could.