[NYTr] Clinton returning $850,000 linked to Hsu

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

LA Times - Sep 10, 2007 via rick kissell
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-hsu11sep11,0,1526846.story?coll=la-home-center

Clinton returning $850K linked to Hsu

The money came from 260 donors associated with the disgraced Democratic 
fundraiser. The campaign had recently called him 'legit.'

By Robin Fields, Chuck Neubauer and Tom Hamburger


WASHINGTON --- Confronted with new evidence that it had ignored
warnings about fundraiser Norman Hsu, Hillary Clinton's presidential
campaign abruptly announced late today that it was returning $850,000
from 260 donors associated with Hsu.

The announcement was made five minutes after the Los Angeles Times 
asked Clinton officials to respond to mid-June campaign e-mails the 
newspaper obtained that dismissed concerns about Hsu and his business 
practices.

"I can tell you with 100 [sic] certainty that Norman Hsu is NOT
involved in a ponzi scheme," wrote Samantha Wolf, who had the title
West Coast finance director for the campaign. She has since left the
campaign. "He is COMPLETELY legit." She wrote the e-mail in June to a
party official who was asking questions about Hsu and his reputation in
the financial world.

The campaign also announced it was instituting new procedures to check 
out major contributors, including running criminal background checks.

Hsu, 56, has contributed or raised more than $1.2 million for Clinton 
and other Democrats -- one of the party's leading fundraisers. But Hsu 
became a source of embarrassment after The Times revealed in late 
August that he was a fugitive wanted on a 15-year-old bench warrant 
stemming from an early 1990s investment fraud case. He called the
matter a misunderstanding, then failed to show at a San Mateo County
hearing and was rearrested last week in Colorado after falling ill
there on an eastbound train.