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Clinton remarks hit as 'misleading'

Clinton papers reveal donor, embargo ties

By Jerry Seper
March 24, 2008

Riady

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With a large charitable donation in hand, Indonesian businessman Mochtar Riady flew to Little Rock to dine with first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at a 1993 gala honoring her as an "Arkansan of the Year" at a time his company, a multibillion dollar banking conglomerate, was seeking an end to a 30-year trade embargo with Vietnam.

Five days after the March 4, 1993, dinner at the Excelsior Hotel, Mr. Riady took the embargo question directly to President Clinton, saying in a four-page letter that its demise would bring political reforms in that communist country.

By that time, Mr. Riady's banking conglomerate, the $12 billion Indonesia-based Lippo Group, its subsidiaries and its employees, including his son James and executive John Huang had funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to Mr. Clinton's 1992 presidential race and had guaranteed a $3 million last-minute loan to a cash-short Clinton campaign just before the crucial New York primary in 1992.

Within six months of the dinner, the Lippo firm opened its first offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and a further five months later Mr. Clinton signed an executive order lifting the embargo, which had been in effect since 1964.

The close proximity of Mrs. Clinton's contact and Mr. Riady's Little Rock donation to his efforts to lobby for an end to the embargo were never disclosed at the time and only became public with the release last week of 11,046 pages of Mrs. Clinton's White House activity calendars.

The calendars, released in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit by Judicial Watch, a Washington-based watchdog group, show that Mr. Riady and his wife were among nine people who sat with Mrs. Clinton at the head table. His name is listed next to the notation, "**giving large donation**."

Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign, in response to questions by The Washington Times, said only that Mr. Riady had flown to Little Rock to see Mrs. Clinton receive the award, presented by the March of Dimes, and donated $50,000 to the charity "on the spot."

The campaign declined to answer questions on whether Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Riady discussed lifting the embargo during the dinner or at any other time.

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