ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 17, 1996 TAG: 9612170083
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Newsday
THE QUESTIONABLE CONTRIBUTIONS were were returned long before the DNC fund-raising controversy developed.
The trustees of President Clinton's cash-strapped legal defense fund have returned more than $600,000 in donations delivered in two large manila envelopes by an American businessman with long-standing personal ties to the president, because of questions about the legitimacy of the money.
Much of the rejected money was raised at meetings of a Taiwan-based Buddhist sect called Ching Hai that has chapters in several U.S. cities, according to the fund's executive director, Michael Cardozo, who disclosed the return of the money Monday.
The funds were collected by Charles Yah Lin Trie, owner of a Chinese restaurant once frequented by Clinton in Little Rock, Ark. Trie, who contributed more than $130,000 to the Democratic National Committee and raised campaign contributions in the Asian community, became enmeshed in a DNC fund-raising scandal last month when he acknowledged that one of his companies inadvertently contributed $15,000 in foreign funds to the party.
Most of the questionable contributions to the legal defense fund were delivered March 21 and were returned in June, long before the DNC fund-raising controversy developed. Cardozo said the trustees decided to disclose the action Monday partly because of concern ``that this would trickle out, and trickle out inaccurately.'' But he strongly denied that the disclosure was designed to pre-empt impending revelations of the contributions in the news media.
Cardozo said Trie came to his office in downtown Washington March 21 and handed him envelopes containing checks and money orders totaling about $460,000. He said he quickly determined that about $70,000 could not be accepted because it was in the form of corporate checks or exceeded $1,000 and therefore violated the fund's voluntary guidelines.
He said the rest of the money raised questions in his mind about its origins because some checks or money orders ostensibly from different individuals had what appeared to be identical handwriting, while others were numbered sequentially but supposedly came from donors in several different cities. ``It just was curious,'' he said.
As a result, Cardozo said, he locked the contributions in a safe-deposit box and hired an outside investigator to probe the money's origins. In April, he said, when Trie returned and offered additional contributions totaling $179,000, he refused to accept them.
Also in April, Cardozo said, he briefed Hillary Rodham Clinton and then-White House deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes about the matter. He said both urged that the fund's guidelines be ``strictly adhered to.'' He said she did not recall knowing Trie at first, but later remembered him as the owner of a restaurant her husband frequented during his tenure as governor.
Private investigators hired by the defense fund turned up evidence that most of the money was raised at meetings of a Taiwan-based Buddhist religious organization known for its controversial recruiting techniques.
In June, the trust decided to give back all of the Trie money, sending checks to 409 contributors. In the six months since, it has received another $122,585 from 136 of the original donors but has returned all of that as well.
The Buddhist organization involved is not the same temple that hosted a DNC fund-raiser featuring Vice President Gore.
This organization, headed by Ching Hai, 46, a Vietnam-born master, claims more than 100,000 believers in the hybrid of Buddhism, Christianity and meditation she founded more than a decade ago. Her disciples operate Meditation Associations and Centers in more than 30 countries, including the United States.
Ching Hai also produces music videos, designs clothing and has auctioned off personal items such as her Volvo and old handkerchiefs, according to news reports.
One disciple told a San Francisco reporter she outbid a throng of others to own a pair of Ching Hai's sweaty socks for $800 last year.
Margaret Singer, a clinical psychologist who has studied cults since the 1950s, said the Suma Ching Hai International Association is one of the fastest growing in the United States and ``very controversial.''
Once members join the group, she said, they pressure their spouses and partners to join. If they resist, devotees are told ``to divorce them or stop having sex with their partner or just separate off from them.''
The Washington Post contributed to this report.
LENGTH: Medium: 84 linesby CNB