Where Does Hsu Get The Money? (Chinese funny money)

Captain's Quarters ^ | 8/31/07 | Ed Morrissey

[teddyballgame]

The mystery of Norman Hsu deepens today with a New York Times report on his collapsing cover stories. While the Gray Lady tries to focus on the sudden retreat of Democrats from a man who has raised almost a million dollars for them, the real story comes in the second half of the article -- in which Hsu appears to be a front:

People who met him said they knew only that he ran an apparel business. Efforts to learn more about his trade hit dead-ends yesterday. Visits to companies at addresses listed by Mr. Hsu on campaign finance records provided little information. There were no offices in buildings in New York’s garment district whose addresses were given for businesses with names like Components Ltd., Cool Planets, Next Components, Coopgors Ltd., NBT and Because Men’s clothing — all listed by Mr. Hsu in federal filings at different times.

[mewzilla]

Thanks for the info, Liz! More proof of why Upstate needs its own state.

[Grampa Dave]

HSU, YOUR SUGAR DADDY NOW, HILL?

[Liz]

The reasons why Congress' approval rating us in the toilet.

[counterpunch]

Abramoff is small potatoes compared to Hsu. We must hang him around the Democrats’ necks like an albatross.
Everyone who as much as said hello to Jack Abramoff was villified. The same standard must be applied to Hsu.
If the story is able to reach critical mass as Abramoff’s did, we can ride it right through the ‘08 election and ride the Democrats right out of office.

[counterpunch]

People who met him said they knew only that he ran an apparel business

Ok, I have the catchphrase to run against the Democrats in '08:
Couture of Corruption

 

[okie01]

...the money should be used to compensate the victims of this con-man. That’s probably where it came from anyway.

A used latex glove swindle isn't going to net that much cash.

It's almost certain this money originated in Beijing and was drawn on a bank in Hong Kong.

The Clintons have friends in high places...in Beijing.

[GOPJ]

“Why aren’t the MINORITY party screaming for an investigation? If they start yelling that this is worse than Ambramhof... Spineless!” Hit post before I realized minority means Republicans now. Indeed, they rarely take the offensive when things are handed to them on a golden platter.

If they did "take the offensive" how would we know? The MSM doesn't carry water for Republicans - only for dems.

This story would be front page for a year if it was about a Republican.. When it's a dem the press moves on...

[Unicorn]

BTTT

[calcowgirl]

Add Ta-Lin Hsu to your possible suspect list.

Fundraising Fun
Gerrye Wong. Asianweek. San Francisco, Calif.: Jun 29-Jul 5, 2007. Vol. 3, Iss. 45; pg. 9, 1 pgs
--(text also published in PDF form, here--midpage, left column)

(snip)

Democratic National Committee Vice Chair and Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Honda celebrated the sixth anniversary of his 60th birthday at a fundraiser at the Atherton home of Ta-Lin and Joyce Hsu. Among those hosting the event were Lucia Cha, Dr. Jerry Huira, Sandy Chau, Norman Hsu, Arun Ganguly, Tae Yun Kim, Scott Tse and CC Yin.

If you compare contributions, they have many common interests in candidates and causes, many on the same day (although Ta-Lin seems to be financially capable of funding his own). A bio of Ta-Lin can be found here

...Dr. Hsu is an Advisory Board Member of the Haas School of Business at University of California at Berkeley, a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Member of the Board of Trustees of The Asia Foundation and represents H&Q Asia Pacific at the World Economic Forum....

Here are their pics... brothers? (they both would have been attending Berkeley about the same time, too.)

[TommyDale]

Wow! Good work! How do you find the time for such research?

[calcowgirl]

Thanks! I can see it impressed a lot of people. ;-)
Time? A little bit here—a little bit there. So many crooks, so little time!

I did notice that there are lots of contributions among the players to David Rockefeller. I believe the Rockefeller’s also have some longstanding ties with The Asia Foundation (mentioned in Ta-Lin’s bio, above).

I’ll keep poking around. :-)

[Uncle Miltie]

TONS OF LEADS ON TAI-LIN HSU HERE:

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Over a drink, coincidentally, we fell upon a common link with Mark Hsu, vice president of private equity firm H&Q Pacific. Now, this is significant because I’d heretofore been trying — unsuccessfully — to meet Mark. He is son of Ta-Lin Hsu, one of the earliest venture capitalists to create a pan-Asian investment strategy, and who entered China 12 years ago. Before I left from the U.S., two friends had recommended I look up Mark, a passionate and plugged-in young man of 35. However, despite emails back and forth, we’d missed each other — he is a busy guy.
Then here I was, being introduced to him at 3am in a bar with next to some Ukrainian and Brazilian models. This wouldn’t have happened in Silicon Valley — namely because there’s no such thing as a hip bar that jams until 5am — or at least one that I know of, or which VCs frequent. And alas, no Ukrainain or Brazilian models.

A couple of days later, I met up with Mark, at his office at H&Q. Mark is pretty plugged in across Asia: We’ve mentioned his father, Ta-Lin. But his grandfather, on his mother’s side, had been the personal secretary for Chiang Kai-Shek, and his uncle started the first English newspaper in Taiwan in the 1960s.

Mark also has a good basis with which to compare Shanghai and other major business areas such as Silicon Valley or New York. He’s been in Shanghai for nine months, having previously worked in the H&Q office in SF for four years (though taking most of last year to work full-time for the Kerry presidential campaign), and before that, New York for five years.

And here’s what Hsu says about Shanghai: “I can’t imagine being in any other city of the world, from a business, social or cultural angle.” New York, he says, has become “pretty stable.” It still has energy, but is no longer as dynamic as Shanghai. Everyone in New York he knows works for a big investment bank, a multinational, an accounting or law firm. Here, in Shanghai, everything’s changing. People circulate, move in and out of new ventures, and all economic fundamentals are growing — despite temporary “bubbles” here and there in real estate or technology. Shanghai, he said, “brings New York to Silicon Valley in the best way.” It has New York’s cosmopolitan offerings, but blends that with the entrepreneurialism of Silicon Valley. As for investment potential, the major story in the world is China, “and within China, it’s Shanghai,” he says.

He points out two major downsides to Shanghai: the relative lack of nature, and a troubled healthcare system. These are not be underestimated.

Sorry to meander here, but it worth noting that Hsu has been politically active (Kerry campaign, etc) because he says he fears the Asian-American community, having attained relative prosperity, has become too politically complacent. Moreover, they need to participate in a dialogue about the relationship with China. China is emerging as the primary threat to U.S. world hegemony, bringing clouds to U.S.-Chinese relations. A growing trade deficit, conflicts over exchange rate policy, and military-foreign relations (i.e., Taiwan or North Korea) are all sore spots. “We’re going to see China flex its muscles,” Hsu says.

He and his firm are participants at the World Economic Forum, the Council of Foreign Relations and the Pacific Council of International Policy. That same evening, Hsu was headed off for more socializing, this time to celebrate a twin city event (SF-Shanghai) where SF mayor Gavin Newsom and U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif) were visiting the Bund.

China now makes up about 50 to 60 percent of his firm’s activity, Hsu said. But like most firms active in China for a while, H&Q has moved up-market. It has raised more and more money to invest, so it needs to find bigger deals to put the money to work. It isn’t doing much seed funding, but invests into later-stage companies — those mature enough to soak up millions of H&Q’s dollars.

H&Q owns much of China’s Starbucks chain, including the one across from the Great Wall. It has invested in real estate in Shanghai (for example Shanghai Links, the golf course designed by Jack Niklaus), biotech, manufacturing technology, financial services, and branded consumer/media companies. With China’s expanding middle-class, and rapid process of deregulation, a lot of these sectors are white hot.

This focus on later-stage deals means, however, a lack of sufficient seed funding, according to people here — which we’ll try to explore in a later post.

That, despite the flood of capital coming in from other sources, namely classic US buyout firms, domestic state-run firms, European firms, hedge funds, and other institutional investors. All of this money means entrepreneurs have the advantage. They can negotiate high valuations, forcing investors to pay big-time in order to play. “There are not a lot of other places in the world to put money in right now,” Hsu says of China. “The downside is the valuations. Lots of money chasing late-stage deals.”

So Hsu says he’s going after the large number of mid-sized companies, many of them family owned or state-affiliated. Many of them are profitable. Notably, though, Hsu says he doesn’t like to invest in Chinese companies run by Chinese entrepreneurs with no outside managerial help. He calls these “Chinese Chinese” deals. For anyone questioning this caution, read the unending number of fiascos documented by Clissold and Studwell (referenced below) involving foreigners losing their shirts on China investments — despite hundreds of years of trying.

Of course, all that is changing now that China has joined the World Trade Organization, and is reforming its economic and financial laws — grist, perhaps, for a later post. Suffice to say that dozens of U.S. venture firms have shown up over the past two years to exploit what appears to be — finally — the China investment dream. If you come here, you will see why.

*The following books are helpful for background on the folly of foreigner investment in China during the mid 1990s, where most lost millions of dollars. They also both contain brief summaries of Pudong’s amazing growth.

— Mr. China, by Tim Clissold. (HarperCollins 2005)
— The China Dream, by Joe Studwell (First Grove Press, 2003)

Posted by Matt Marshall on December 6, 2005 6:14 AM | Linking Posts

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http://www.siliconbeat.com/entries/2005/12/06/the_shanghai_scene_phallic_symbols_and_my_encounter_with_mark_hsu.html

[Uncle Miltie]

H&Q Asia Pacific
(That’s Hambrech & Quist, a large investment firm....)

Chairman and Founder: Ta-lin Hsu

Dr. Ta-lin Hsu is Founder and Chairman of H&Q Asia Pacific and has been investing in Asia for over 22 years. He joined Hambrecht & Quist Group in 1985 as a General Partner and founded H&Q Asia Pacific (“H&QAP”) in 1986.
Before H&QAP, Dr. Hsu worked at IBM for 12 years. In his last position in senior management, Dr. Hsu held corporate responsibility for all of IBM’s advanced research in mass storage systems and technology.

H&QAP has managed over $2.2 billion in capital and has invested in more than 360 companies. H&Q Asia Pacific is recognized as a pioneer of Asian venture capital and private equity in a number of respects, including being the first firm to bring “Silicon Valley” style venture capital to Taiwan in 1986, the only firm to open four offices in ASEAN countries between 1987 and 1991, one of the first funds to enter China in 1993 (jointly managed with the Bank of China), the first firm to execute a turnaround in Korea following the Asian financial crisis, and the first foreign private equity firm to take a Japanese technology company public in Japan in 2002.

In recognition of his role in helping turn around a major Korean financial institution affected by the Asian financial crisis, Dr. Hsu was named one of the top financiers in Asia in BusinessWeek’s “The Stars of Asia” and ranked as the top 15th Venture Capitalist by Forbes’ Midas List in 2007.

Dr. Hsu plays an active role in developing investment and technology relationships between the U.S. and Asia, and holds advisory positions in government, academic and industry organizations. Dr. Hsu was a founding member of the prestigious Technology Review Board, a group established to advise the Executive Branch of Taiwan on all technology matters. Dr. Hsu was one of the founding members of the Monte Jade Science & Technology organization, the premier non-profit organization promoting business and technology relations between Taiwan and the U.S. Dr. Hsu is an Advisory Board Member of the Haas School of Business at University of California at Berkeley, a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Member of the Board of Trustees of The Asia Foundation and represents H&Q Asia Pacific at the World Economic Forum.

Dr. Hsu received a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, a Master of Science degree in Electrophysics from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from National Taiwan University.

http://www.hqap.com/chairman-founder.html

[Uncle Miltie]

Mark Hsu: BIO
Son of Ta-Lin Hus
(Possible Nephew of Norman Hsu, if Ta-Lin Hsu can be proved to be the brother)

Bio: Mark Hsu
Vice President, H&Q Asia Pacific
Mark Hsu is Vice President at H&Q Asia Pacific, a venture capital firm with 10 offices throughout the Asia Pacific region and $1.8 billion under management. Before joining H&QAP, Mr. Hsu was Director of Business Development at Sina.com, a leading Chinese-language internet portal, in which capacity he directed the development of Sina’s wireless and media strategies.

Prior to Sina, Mr. Hsu was a securities and mergers/acquisitions attorney at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City, specializing on the private equity industry. Mr. Hsu graduated with degrees in English Literature and Philosophy from UCLA and with a JD from Columbia Law School. Mr. Hsu was also a Foreign Scholar at Beijing University and currently sits on the boards of directors of The Churchill Club, AAMA, East West Players and Vision New America.

http://asia.stanford.edu/events/fall01/bio/hsuBio.html

[Uncle Miltie]

More on Mark Hsu, possible nephew, from http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhsu

Mark Hsu
Experienced Entrepreneur, Angel Investor, looking for entrepreneurial opps in Asia-Pacific region
Taiwan

Current Founder & President at Envision
Past Co-Founder, CEO at Skysoft (KKman, KKbox)
Co-founder at Sinanet (now Sina.com)
Education Stanford University
University of California, Berkeley
Connections 209 connections Industry Education Management Websites My Company

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Mark Hsu’s Summary
Ideas that interest me:

(1) Angel investments:
I can provide investments of USD$10,000-$50,000 to help you seed an idea. I like ideas in education, web services, and anything that caters to the needs of the global ethnic Chinese.

Investment criteria:
(a) If I am the sole investor, then I must hold a controlling stake in the firm
(b) If I am one of many investors, I am fine being a minority investor.

(2) Buyout of existing business
I am interested in buying a controlling stake in businesses in Taiwan in any sector. I am looking for businesses that have strong cash flow but whose owner(s) want to exit for retirement or estate planning reasons. My group of investors can commit upwards of $US 3 million.

Mark Hsu’s Specialties:
Taiwan expert, high-level contacts with many leading corporates/families in Taiwan, Internet, Off-shore incorporation (Estate Planning), Entrepreneurial Finance

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Mark Hsu’s Experience
Founder & President
Envision
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Education Management industry)

October 1996 — Present (11 years)

Envision is an educational consulting firm (think Kaplan/Princeton Review in the US) that bridges the information gap between East and West to enable our clients to make more intelligent decisions when it comes to choosing a school or career path. Past clients have attended HBS, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Chicago, Columbia, INSEAD, LBS, etc and work in investment banking, management consulting and various corporate roles within Fortune 500 firms in N. America, Europe and Asia. We currently have offices in Taipei and Shanghai and are looking to expand to Tokyo.

Co-Founder, CEO
Skysoft (KKman, KKbox)
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

July 1999 — November 2000 (1 year 5 months)

Raised $1.3 million in venture capital money. Led a company of 35 people. Created the most successful software in Taiwan’s history.

Co-founder
Sinanet (now Sina.com)
(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; SINA; Internet industry)

September 1994 — October 1995 (1 year 2 months)

Co-founded Sinanet, predecesor to Sina.com during senior year at Stanford University. Sina.com is now the largest Chinese language portal in the world.

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Mark Hsu’s Education
Stanford University
BS, Biology, Minor Economics, 1992 — 1996

—Co-founded Sinanet 1994; saw the beginning of the Web/Internet revolution, pre-Google, pre-eBay and when Yahoo was still hosted at Stanford. Would love to trade old stories with you = )
—Asia observer since the late 80’s. Lived through the “Japan will swallow the US” paranoia. Saw the rise of the 5 “East Asian Tigers” and also survived the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997-98.

Activities and Societies: Entrepreneurship, Asian studies
University of California, Berkeley
N/A, Forgot to attend classes, 1991 — 1992

Activities and Societies: Steve’s BBQ, late night at Sun Hong Kong,

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Additional Information
Mark Hsu’s Websites:
My Company

[CDB]

Re posts #31,#34,#52

Hu (Jintao) is "Number One"

[Uncle Miltie]

MARK HSU’S (Flip&Flops) INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD.

http://markhsu.diytrade.com/

An apparel connection for the possible nephew.

[Uncle Miltie]

Norman Hsu and Ta-Lin Hsu helped Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA) raise money at Ta-Lin’s house.

Congresscritter Honda is on the Appropriations Committee. Can you say “SHOW ME THE MONEY!”

See below from : http://mikehonda.org/invitations/062307_sj_bday.doc

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Please join

Teamsters Joint Council 7 PAC * Lucia Cha & Dr. Jerry Hiura * Sandy Chau Arun Ganguly * Norman Hsu * Tae Yun Kim * Scott Tse * CC Yin

Comcast PAC * Deloitte & Touche PAC (Anna Mok) * Ari Arjavalingam * Anita Chan Hon. Hedy Chang * Florence Fang * Dennis de la Fong * Mark Fischer Colbrie * Michelle Hu *Ro Khanna * Hon. Liz Kniss * Richard Liu * Rick Lu * Randy Okamura * Dr. Samuel So

Congressman Mike Honda (CA-15)

DNC Vice-Chair
Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus
Appropriations Committee

(6th Anniversary of his 60th Birthday) Fundraiser

Saturday, June 23, 2007
12:00pm – 3:00pm
Home of Ta-lin and Joyce Hsu
97 Isabella Ave.
Atherton, CA 94027

Requested Contributions:
Platinum - $5,000 PAC/$2,300 Individual
Diamond - $2,500 PAC/$1,000 Individual
Gold- $500 PAC/$150 Individual

Please make checks payable to:
Mike Honda for Congress
625 Third Street, NE Suite #2
Washington, DC 20002

To join the Host Committee or to RSVP, please contact
Madalene Mielke at 202.547.6656 or madalene@arumgroup.com

Contributions to Mike Honda for Congress are not tax deductible for federal income tax purposes.

[Uncle Miltie]

Possible Nephew Mark Hsu is getting married at possible brother Ta-Lin Hsu’s residence later this month:

Wedding

Date & Time: September 29, 2007 - 12:30pm

Location: Hsu Family Residence
97 Isabella Avenue
Atherton, CA 94027

http://www.gabrielaandmark.com/events.asp

[Uncle Miltie]

More Democrat fundraising at the Ta-Lin Hsu residence:

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Fundraiser for Ira Ruskin
Ira Ruskin is running a great campaign for Assembly in the 21st Assembly District. His opponent is a billionaire Republican who is spending unprecedented amounts of money to distort Ira’s record and buy the seat, and has been a major financial supporter of the Bush/Cheney campaign.

Congressman Mike Honda, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, and Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren cordially invite you to a Campaign Fundraiser for Ira Ruskin. $100 guest; $250 friend, $500 advocate, $1000 sponsor, $3200 gold circle member. At the home of Mark Hsu, 97 Isabella Avenue, Atherton, 94027. Saturday, October 9, 2004, 2:00-4:00 pm.

Please RSVP to ruskinevents@yahoo.com or 650-213-8358.

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http://sccdcc.mn.sabren.com/archives/minutes/cat_bulletins.html