Democratic party fund-raiser Trie held

WASHINGTON, Feb 4: Democratic party fund-raiser Yah Lin `Charlie' Trie returned to the United States and surrendered to federal authorities ...

WASHINGTON, Feb 4: Democratic party fund-raiser Yah Lin `Charlie’ Trie returned to the United States and surrendered to federal authorities for trial on 15 counts of alleged campaign abuses.

In a major breakthrough for an investigation into funding of the 1996 presidential campaign, Trie agreed to return to the US and was arrested at Dulles international airport outside the capital, the Justice Department said yesterday.

“Under an agreement with the (campaign financing) taskforce, Trie surrendered to the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the department said in a statement. Officials said Trie returned from Indonesia via Paris.

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A grand jury last week brought 15 charges against Trie and a business associate, Taiwanese national Antonio Pan, accusing him of funnelling illegal foreign contributions to Democratic party campaign committees during the 1996 campaign. Trie left the United States in late 1996 and was thought to have taken refuge in Beijing. An old friend of President Clinton who ran a Chineserestaurant in Little Rock, he was one of the most colorful figures in a scandal which has badly embarrassed the Democratic party and tarnished Clinton’s 1996 election victory.

At one point, Trie walked into the office of Clinton’s legal defence fund and dumped $4,60,000 in personal checks and money orders on the table.

According to testimony to the senate governmental affairs committee, the money came from members of a Buddhist sect based in Taiwan. The committee is due to release a lengthy reprot on the campaign fund-raising scandal next week.

Trie’s money to the legal defence fund was all returned, as was some $6,00,000 dollars that he donated to the Democratic National Committee.