And The Stink Gets Results
Well, well, well. The stink over Norman Hsu has paid dividends at last. Hillary! Clinton is returning $850,000 in contributions from the disgraced - and prone to go fugitive - fundraiser for Democrats. The dam just broke and there will be a scramble to unload Hsu's dirty money as fast as possible.
Clinton, D-N.Y., previously had planned only to give to charity $23,000 she received from Hsu for her presidential and senatorial campaigns and to her political action committee, HillPac.
The FBI is investigating whether Hsu paid so-called straw donors to send campaign contributions to Clinton and other candidates, a law enforcement official said Monday.
"In light of recent events and allegations that Mr. Norman Hsu engaged in an illegal investment scheme, we have decided out of an abundance of caution to return the money he raised for our campaign," Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said in a statement Monday night. "An estimated 260 donors this week will receive refunds totaling approximately $850,000 from the campaign."
Wolfson said the Clinton campaign also will vigorously review its fundraisers, including thorough criminal background checks, in the future. "In any instances where a source of a bundler's income is in question, the campaign will take affirmative steps to verify its origin," he said.
The amount that the campaign identified as raised by Hsu would make him one of her top fundraisers. During the first six months of this year, her presidential campaign raised $52 million from individual contributors, second to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who raised $58.5 million.
Since 2004, Hsu has donated $260,000 to Democratic Party groups and federal candidates, and raised hundreds of thousands of additional dollars. He was regarded as a top party fundraiser until recent reports surfaced that he was wanted on a warrant in California in connection with a 1991 grand theft charge.
Federal authorities are looking into whether Hsu leaned on investors to contribute to political candidates after paying them big earnings from a shady business venture he was running, the law enforcement official said. Such a scam — using conduit contributors known as straw donors — is a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act, which limits how much money individuals can give to candidates and political committees.
And Flip has some grim news for Democrats. There is a lot of stinky money in play here - and the hits just keep on coming.
Hillary Clinton announced today that instead of the $23,000 in direct Norman Hsu contributions she'd agreed to give up, she'll be refunding an astounding $850,000, representing not only Hsu's donations, but the "bundled" fundraising he ostensibly raised from a group of friends and associates, who have come under scrutiny as possible conduits through which Hsu may have funneled additional contributions in order to circumvent campaign finance laws.
In my most recently posted compilation, I'd found roughly $174,000 in Hsu-connected funds. I've been continuing to trudge through the disclosures in the days since, but to date, I've only come up with a total of $217,200, meaning there's still more than $600,000 in the Clinton coffers yet to be independently connected to Hsu's network.
This is going to get ugly - Clinton is only the tip of the iceberg. There will be a lot of Democrats diving for cover real soon. Whatever is that smell? Could it be a culture of corruption? Sometimes that old karmic wheel turns awfully fast.
Other Links to this Post
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JammieWearingFool — September 10, 2007 @ 7:56 pm
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Blue Crab Boulevard » Timing Is Everything — September 10, 2007 @ 8:46 pm
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Clinton to return $850,000 raised by Hsu - The Detroit Times — September 10, 2007 @ 10:16 pm
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Outside The Beltway | OTB — September 11, 2007 @ 5:16 am
By FedUp, September 11, 2007 @ 7:49 am
I just love it! Ms. Clean gives back ill-gotten gains. I’m sure she had NO IDEA where the money came from. That’s what happens when you have no principles or scruples! Wake up America… she could be our next commander-in-chief - scary, ain’t it? Wonder who would be the Sec’y of the Treasury…