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September 21, 2007
Hsu is Singing to the FBI
Rick Moran
Yes, but how much is he really going to divulge?
Norman Hsu, the Democratic fund-raiser with a habit of fleeing the law, confessed to FBI agents last week that he pressured investors in what he now admits were phony business deals to contribute to political campaigns, prosecutors said in an indictment.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and unsealed Thursday, accused Hsu of bilking at least $60 million from hundreds of investors in a nationwide Ponzi scheme, and using some of that money to illegally reimburse at least two people who made a total of $60,000 in campaign donations at his request...
The indictment said that while in Colorado, Hsu reached out to FBI agents on three occasions and asked to speak to them without his lawyers present. He is said to have told the agents that his business deals involved no real investments but were in fact fraudulent, and "admitted that he made implied threats to his investors to pressure them to contribute to political candidates he supported." The FBI is saying that Hsu used his political contributions to give his scheme a certain "allure." That may well be true. But there are still numerous unanswered questions about Hsu's relationship to the Clinton campaign as well as questions about many donors who are claiming to have fallen for the scheme but should have known better.
Some of these "clients" that Hsu bilked are savvy investors and it seems incredible that they couldn't see through the Ponzi scheme. And then they are "threatened" into giving political contributions?
The FBI still has some work to do.
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