Lawmaker seeks FBI probe of Huang

By Jerry Seper
January 22nd, 1997
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The chairman of a House committee urged the FBI yesterday to investigate John Huang, the man at the center of the Democratic Party's fund-raising scandal, on possible national-security violations and economic espionage while at the Commerce Department.

Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon, in a letter to FBI Director Louis J. Freeh, questioned Mr. Huang's possible misuse of a top-secret security clearance to gain information on China during classified CIA briefings and his efforts to promote China-trade policies while delaying those targeting Taiwan.

The chairman of the House Rules Committee also cited discrepancies Mr. Huang made in various visa, passport and Commerce records concerning his date and place of birth.

And the New York Republican questioned the timing of phone calls Mr. Huang made from Commerce to the Lippo Group and the many CIA and department briefings he had on China, where the multibillion-dollar Lippo empire -- which has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Democratic National Committee and President Clinton -- has extensive business interests.

"This is a serious matter, Mr. Director, perhaps the most serious since the end of the Cold War," Mr. Solomon said in the letter, noting that records his committee had received warranted an immediate FBI probe. "I pray history will record that neither Congress nor the FBI was lacking in due diligence."

Mr. Huang, who became a U.S. citizen in 1976, has not been available for comment. His attorney, John C. Keeney Jr., also was unavailable but previously has declined to discuss his client. FBI officials declined comment, referring inquiries to the House Rules Committee.

As a DNC fund-raiser, Mr. Huang solicited about $2.5 million from contributors with Asian business links, about $1.5 million of which has since been returned.

Mr. Huang, former Lippo vice president, DNC fund-raiser and deputy assistant secretary for international economic policy at Commerce, is at the center of campaign-finance probes by various congressional committees and a criminal probe by the Justice Department into his fund raising for Democrats.

He was granted a top-secret clearance in January 1994, five months before he left Lippo to join Commerce. A Jan. 31, 1994, department memo said Mr. Huang got the clearance "due to the critical need for his expertise in the new administration for Secretary [Ronald H.] Brown."

Mr. Huang did not begin work at Commerce until July 18, 1994. Despite extensive foreign experience that included contacts in Indonesia and Taiwan and a posting to Hong Kong in 1984 and 1985, security officials never conducted an overseas background check during the 17 months Mr. Huang was at Commerce with access to highly sensitive intelligence reports.

Mr. Solomon told Mr. Freeh there were concerns that Mr. Huang "did not set aside his loyalties" to Lippo after he went to Commerce and suggested that Congress would be "derelict in its duties if it did not insist on proof that the national-security and economic interests of the United States were not compromised."

He said he was not accusing Mr. Huang, who worked in Lippo banks in Hong Kong, Arkansas and California before his Commerce appointment, of criminal activity, but records raised serious questions about his loyalties to Commerce and pointed out discrepancies in his background. They included:

  • A Dec. 9, 1996, Commerce memo, written in response to a request that Mr. Huang retain his top-secret clearance despite the fact he was leaving the department to go to the DNC. The memo said the department did not issue clearances to non-employees. But five months before Mr. Huang joined Commerce -- on Jan. 31, 1994, while still associated with Lippo -- Mr. Huang got an interim top-secret clearance. During that same period, he received an $879,000 severance package from Lippo.

  • A memo from the Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office that said a top-secret clearance was issued to Mr. Huang on Dec. 12, 1995, valid at least until Dec. 9, 1996. Mr. Huang left Commerce on Jan. 17, 1996 and was vice chairman of the DNC finance committee until Nov. 15, 1996. A listing by Mr. Huang of his birth date on passport records and various Commerce forms as April 14, 1945, and his birthplace as Fukien Fujian, China. On a visa application in June 1995 for visits to China and Korea, Mr. Huang signed a statement saying his date of birth was April 14, 1941, and that he had no relatives or friends in China.

  • A Jan. 27, 1995, Huang memo seeking to delay a Commerce-backed program to increase U.S. business opportunities in Taiwan's domestic market. It suggested the department do "anything" it could to delay the Taiwan program to protect U.S. policies toward China and the Chinese market.

  • A Dec. 23, 1994, handwritten note stapled to documents referring to a reception involving U.S. and Armenian officials that described Mr. Huang as having been in the country "only a few months," and saying he spoke Chinese and Russian. Commerce records indicate Mr. Huang speaks only Chinese and English.

  • A Jan. 13 letter this year from Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor saying Mr. Huang got a "weekly intelligence briefing centered on the People's Republic of China" and that materials related to those briefings "were under the control of the Central Intelligence Agency." Mr. Huang's appointment calendars show he got many CIA and Commerce Department briefings and that many of them corresponded with calls he made to his former employer, the Lippo Group.

    "Any one of these facts would warrant a thorough investigation," Mr. Solomon said. "Together, they represent a compelling need to protect the integrity of American economic and national security."