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Clinton report lists refunds to 249 Hsu donors Much of the more than $800,000 that the campaign sent back ... came from California. WASHINGTON -- The full extent of accused swindler Norman Hsu's political network was revealed for the first time Monday in campaign finance reports filed by presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who refunded $804,850 in contributions from 249 Hsu associates. The donors came from 22 states and Washington, D.C., but Californians accounted for the largest amount refunded from the Hsu network, $308,000. New Yorkers contributed $286,000, and $55,000 came from donors in New Jersey and Connecticut....

A Laguna Beach investment firm filed a lawsuit against Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu on Friday, claiming he defrauded investors out of at least $23 million and required them to donate to Democratic candidates. According to the lawsuit filed by Briar Wood Investments, Hsu persuaded the company's operator to do business with him by taking him to star-studded Democratic Party events. There, the 56-year-old Hong Kong native was praised by New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown and others, the lawsuit said. As a condition of doing business with the fundraiser, Hsu directed investors to make contributions...

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) - Disgraced Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu (shoo) has been released from a hospital in Grand Junction and is in jail in Mesa County. Sheriff's officials say Hsu was booked on an outstanding warrant charge from California. An advisement hearing is scheduled for tomorrow (1:30 p.m.). Hsu has been wanted as a fugitive for missing his sentencing on a 1991 grand theft case to which he had pleaded no contest. He failed to show up for a bail hearing last week in California. He was placed under arrest last week at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction...

WASHINGTON - In returning $850,000 to donors associated with a disgraced fundraiser, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton sets a significant new standard for how campaigns should respond in the face of potential scandal. Clinton's decision also underscores the price — financial and political — that her campaign is paying for failing to spot trouble with the fundraiser, Norman Hsu, even after receiving a warning. The campaign announced it would now conduct background checks on its fundraisers, an extraordinary and potentially time consuming step. By returning the money, Clinton also puts pressure on presidential rivals and other politicians with rainmakers who have...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign said Monday it will return $850,000 in donations raised by Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu, who is under federal investigation for violating election laws. Clinton, D-N.Y., previously had planned only to give to charity $23,000 she received from Hsu for her presidential and senatorial campaigns and to her political action committee, HillPac. The FBI is investigating whether Hsu paid so-called straw donors to send campaign contributions to Clinton and other candidates, a law enforcement official said Monday. --

If Norman Hsu had been content to write $2,000 checks to Democratic politicians, he might still be living the good life in New York City instead of looking at as many as three years in a California state prison. But despite being on the lam from a 1992 San Mateo County conviction for grand theft, the 56-year-old businessman moved up the political ladder after writing a 2003 check for presidential hopeful John Kerry to become a major - and highly visible - player in the fast-growing world of campaign contribution bundling, becoming a go-to money guy for Democrats across the...

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) - Disgraced Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu was upgraded to good condition at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction today, three days after he had to be taken from an Amtrak train in the Western Colorado city with an unknown ailment. Hsu had been scheduled to appear in a San Francisco court last Wednesday on a 1991 felony theft conviction but disappeared until Thursday, when Amtrak officials called the Grand Junction fire department to report a passenger had become ill on the California Zephyr. He had previously been in fair condition. Hsu remained under guard at St....

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. Disgraced Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu was a wanted man again after he failed to show up for a court date Wednesday and a judge issued a new warrant for his arrest. Hsu, whose criminal past has roiled the campaigns of top presidential candidates, was scheduled to ask a judge to cut in half the $2 million bail he posted last week when he turned himself in after spending 15 years on the lam from a felony theft conviction. Instead, San Mateo Superior Court Judge Robert Foiles ordered Hsu's bail forfeited to the county and issued a new...

Article published Sep 4, 2007 Chinese donor sounds like '96 September 4, 2007 By Bill Gertz - Questionable donations to Democratic officials and presidential candidates from a Chinese-American businessman highlight past concerns over Chinese political influence-buying operations. Apparel executive Norman Hsu, who turned himself in last week to authorities in California to face fraud charges, donated more than $1 million to senior Democrats, including the presidential campaigns of Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois. Mr. Hsu, a native of Hong Kong, has not been linked to any foreign government, and the fraud charges are...

CONCORD, N.H. - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday directly challenged her top rivals' claims that she is too conventional to bring needed change to Washington, declaring "you bring change by working in the system." Clinton argued that political transformation can come only by working within established rules and seeking common ground when necessary. Her years as part of the Washington establishment as first lady and as a New York senator have convinced her that real change can come only by seeking consensus, she told a rally on the lawn of the New Hampshire state capitol. "I've learned you bring...

Hilary caught taking money from a swindler? Mon dieu! The Los Angeles Times has the story of Hillary’s fund-raising “fugitive in plain sight:” For the last 15 years, California authorities have been trying to figure out what happened to a businessman named Norman Hsu, who pleaded no contest to grand theft, agreed to serve up to three years in prison and then seemed to vanish. “He is a fugitive,” Ronald Smetana, who handled the case for the state attorney general, said in an interview. “Do you know where he is?” Hsu, it seems, has been hiding in plain sight, at...

DALY CITY, Calif. -- One of the biggest sources of political donations to Hillary Rodham Clinton is a tiny, lime-green bungalow that lies under the flight path from San Francisco International Airport. Six members of the Paw family, each listing the house at 41 Shelbourne Ave. as their residence, have donated a combined $45,000 to the Democratic senator from New York since 2005, for her presidential campaign, her Senate re-election last year and her political action committee. In all, the six Paws have donated a total of $200,000 to Democratic candidates since 2005, election records show. That total ranks the...

Analysis: the first jolt to the Clinton campaign Question marks over a major donor to Hillary Clinton's campaign are the first challenge to her smooth progress so far by Tim Reid The revelation that one of Hillary Clinton's major donors is wanted for fraud is the first time her hitherto relentlessly disciplined campaign has been thrown on the defensive. So far, it is no more than a temporary embarrassment for Mrs Clinton. There is no suggestion she had any personal knowledge of Norman Hsu's tainted background. But Mrs Clinton, more than any other candidate — because of the scandal-plagued White...

Wanted on Bay Area grand theft warrant, Dem donor gave $53,000 to causes in state -- San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, District Attorney Kamala Harris, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took money from fugitive fundraiser Norman Hsu, the deep-pocketed Democrat who handed out more than $250,000 to Sen. Hillary Clinton and other party candidates and causes in the past few years. According to state and local records, Hsu has given more than $53,000 to various political efforts in the state since 2004, including $27,600 to the state Democratic Party, $5,000 to 2006 gubernatorial hopeful Steve Westly...

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — A top Democratic fundraiser wanted as a fugitive in California turned himself in Friday to face a grand theft charge. A judge in San Mateo County Superior Court ordered Norman Hsu handcuffed and held on $2 million bond. A bail hearing was scheduled for Sept. 5, at which the judge will consider reducing his bail to $1 million. Hsu appeared in court here Friday following reports that he had skipped his sentencing on a 1991 grand theft charge. In the ensuing years, he became a top donor to numerous Democratic candidates, including presidential contenders Hillary Rodham...

California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer followed presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton's lead on Wednesday and announced they would get rid of donations from a fundraiser who is wanted for sentencing on a 1991 grand theft charge. Two California Democratic House members, Mike Honda of San Jose and Doris Matsui of Sacramento, also said they were dumping campaign cash from Norman Hsu. The moves came after two days of scrutiny on Norman Hsu, who had donated $23,000 to Clinton. The New York senator plans to give the money to charity. Hsu gave $1,000 to Feinstein and $2,000 to...

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to media and other inquiries, Jim Brosnahan, attorney for Norman Hsu and a partner at the law firm of Morrison & Foerster issued the following statement: "The 15 year old legal matter that Norman Hsu has is moving toward resolution. We arranged for him to appear in court and put up monies for bail, which can also be used for restitution to any persons who might still be unpaid. We have had productive preliminary conversations with the Attorney General's office concerning resolution of this old matter. "