vault backup: 2026-09-21 18:07:25

10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John Huang.md

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ tags:
   - CampaignFinance
   - DemocraticNationalCommittee
   - CIA
-summary: "Lippo Group banker who worked under James Riady at Worthen Bank in Little Rock, received CIA briefings at the Commerce Department in 1994 and 1995, raised money for the Democratic National Committee, and pleaded guilty in 1999."
+summary: "Lippo Group banker who worked under James Riady at Worthen Bank, received 37 CIA briefings at the Commerce Department while keeping a secret office at Stephens Inc., and pleaded guilty in 1999."
 location: "Los Angeles, California"
 created: 2026-09-21
 updated: 2026-09-21
@@ -29,7 +29,11 @@ A Senate committee found that in 1992 and 1993 Huang sent money of foreign origi
 
 On June 23, 1994, Riady, Huang, and the Little Rock lawyer [[Mark Grobmyer]] met President Clinton at ten in the morning. Riady had breakfast before the meeting and lunch after it with [[Webster Hubbell]], who had resigned as associate attorney general in April, and 100,000 dollars from the Lippo company [[Hong Kong China Limited]] reached Hubbell's account by June 27. A House committee wrote: "The hiring occurred around the same time as John Huang finally was approved for a position at the Department of Commerce." Riady and Huang refused to cooperate with the committee, and Hubbell invoked the [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]].[^2]
 
-The Senate committee found that Huang was given a top secret clearance without a full background investigation abroad. The department's acting security director testified that "there was a rock that was not turned over." Huang's briefer from the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], [[John Dickerson (CIA)|John Dickerson]], said in a deposition that he gave him more than thirty briefings, about one every ten days, on the economies and politics of Asia, and estimated that Huang saw between 370 and 550 raw intelligence reports. The committee's chairman, Senator [[Fred Thompson]], put the number of classified briefings on China at 37. Huang made more than 400 telephone calls to Lippo offices while at the department, 261 of them from his own desk, and 21 to [[Mark Middleton]], a former [[White House]] aide then working for Lippo. He used a spare office at the Washington branch of [[Stephens Inc.]], headed by [[Vernon Weaver]]. His superior, [[Jeffrey Garten]], had kept him away from China policy. Thompson told Garten that Huang "visited the [[Embassy of China, Washington, D.C.|Chinese Embassy]] at least six times and received a number of calls from Chinese Embassy officials." The [[Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office]] issued Huang a further top secret clearance as a consultant in December 1995, and it was not revoked until December 1996.[^1]
+The department's security office gave Huang an interim top secret clearance on January 27, 1994, on "a records check alone and no interviews or other investigation of his background," while he was still vice chairman of LippoBank, and six months before his first day at the department on July 18. The final clearance followed in October. His briefer, [[John Dickerson (CIA)|John Dickerson]] of the Office of Intelligence Liaison, "was in fact an employee of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]," working there "posing as a Department of Energy official." "Between October 1994, when they began, and November 1995, when they ended, Huang received a total of 37 one-on-one briefings," at ten to fifteen pieces of intelligence each. In August 1994 alone records show 31 calls between Huang and the office of a Lippo subsidiary whose president gave the Democratic National Committee 15,000 dollars that month.[^1]
+
+"Much more striking," the committee wrote, "was the Committee's discovery that while at Commerce, Huang maintained access to a separate office across the street at [[Stephens Inc.|Stephens, Inc.]] Huang used this office regularly, including its phone and facsimile facilities, and he frequently received packages at the office. No one at Commerce, not his secretary, not his supervisors, not his coworkers, nobody, knew that he had such an office." The office was on the sixth floor of the [[Willard Building]] at 1455 Pennsylvania Avenue and was headed by [[Vernon Weaver]], later ambassador to the [[European Union]], whose secretary had instructions to call Huang when faxes or packages came for him. He arrived, witnesses said, with an envelope, a folder, or a small briefcase. The committee concluded that this, with his contacts with Lippo, "raises the threshold question of whether Huang passed along classified information to those who should not have received it. The Committee is unable to answer the question to its satisfaction." The [[Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office]] gave him a further top secret clearance as a consultant on December 14, 1995, after he had gone to the Democratic National Committee. The Commerce clearance was withdrawn on January 25, 1996.[^1]
+
+Lippo's principal partner in China, the committee reported, was [[China Resources]], "a company wholly-owned and operated by the PRC government," of which "intelligence officials have confirmed in the press that the Chinese intelligence establishment is heavily involved in the operation." In 1991 Huang was sent to [[Beijing]] to negotiate a joint bid with China Resources for the Hong Kong branch of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]. On October 7, 1993, he wrote to the office of Vice President [[Al Gore]] with thanks for receiving the chairman of China Resources, Shen Jueren, at the [[White House]].[^1]
 
 ### Plea
 
@@ -37,6 +41,6 @@ On August 12, 1999, Huang pleaded guilty in the federal court in [[Los Angeles]]
 
 ### Footnotes
 
-[^1]: Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, *Investigation of Illegal or Improper Activities in Connection with 1996 Federal Election Campaigns,* S. Rept. 105-167, 1998, sections "John Huang's Years at Lippo" and "John Huang."
+[^1]: Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, *Investigation of Illegal or Improper Activities in Connection with 1996 Federal Election Campaigns,* S. Rept. 105-167, 1998, chapters 13, "John Huang's Years at Lippo," and 14, "John Huang at Commerce." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1998_rpt/sgo-sir/1-14.htm
 [^2]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, 1998, vol. 2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm
 [^3]: Department of Justice, "James Riady Pleads Guilty, Will Pay Largest Fine in Campaign Finance History for Violating Federal Election Law," press release 01-17, January 11, 2001.