Politics

Clinton Backer To Plead Guilty

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 11, 2001 / 7:49 PM EST / CBS

Indonesian billionaire James Riady has agreed to pay a record $8.6 million criminal fine and plead guilty to using corporate funds from his foreign Lippo Group to reimburse contributors to Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign for the presidency, the Justice Department announced Thursday night.

Riady, a friend of Mr. Clinton, has agreed to plead guilty to a single felony charge of conspiracy for federal election law violations, the Justice Department said.

It said LippoBank California, which is affiliated with the Lippo Group, the Riady family conglomerate in Indonesia, has agreed to plead guilty to 86 misdemeanor counts charging that Riady and former Lippo employee John Huang made illegal foreign campaign contributions from 1988 through 1994.

Under the plea deal, Riady will avoid any time in prison. Riady agreed to plead guilty to unlawfully reimbursing campaign donors with foreign corporate funds in violation of federal election law, the Justice Department said.

Riady, a key figure in the campaign finance scandal, pledged $1 million in 1992 to support the then-Arkansas governor's campaign, the government said.

Under terms of a plea bargain filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Riady agreed to surrender and come to this country at an unspecified future date even though there is no extradition treaty between Indonesia and the United States.

An FBI summary released last year said Democratic fund-raiser John Huang, a Riady employee, alleged that Riady had told Mr. Clinton, while he was Arkansas governor, during a limousine ride that he wanted to raise $1 million for his campaign.

Last April, Mr. Clinton told federal investigators that he did not have "a specific recollection of what the conversation was, or this fact of the car ride." He said he only remembered seeing Riady "sometime in '92 after I became the nominee," and that Riady pledged to help his campaign.