vault backup: 2026-09-23 00:22:47

10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Mochtar Riady.md

@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+---
+category: "Business & Finance"
+aliases:
+  - "Li Mo Tie"
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Indonesia
+  - LippoGroup
+  - Arkansas
+  - ClintonFundraising
+summary: "Indonesian founder of the Lippo Group, partner of the Stephens family of Little Rock from 1976, whom a 1998 Senate report said, with his son James, had a long-term relationship with a Chinese intelligence agency."
+location: "Jakarta, Indonesia"
+relations:
+  - type: head_of
+    with: "[[Lippo Group]]"
+    role: "founder and patriarch"
+    fn: 1
+  - type: partner_of
+    with: "[[Jackson Stephens]]"
+    start: 1976
+    role: "Stephens Finance Ltd. (1978); Worthen Bank"
+    fn: 1
+  - type: relative_of
+    with: "[[James Riady]]"
+    role: "father"
+    fn: 1
+  - type: subject_of
+    with: "[[Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs]]"
+    start: 1998
+    fn: 4
+created: 2026-09-22
+updated: 2026-09-23
+---
+
+Mochtar Riady is an Indonesian of Chinese descent who built the [[Lippo Group]]; according to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, citing *Forbes,* he found it necessary to "Indonesianize" his name, which had been Li Mo Tie. He first met [[Jackson Stephens]] and [[Witt Stephens]] of [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] in 1976, when he was looking into buying [[Bert Lance]]'s share of the [[National Bank of Georgia]]; that purchase fell through, and in 1978 the two families formed Stephens Finance Ltd. in [[Hong Kong]].[^1] The Riady and Stephens families later controlled [[Worthen Bank]] in Little Rock together.[^1][^2]
+
+### Clinton
+
+The Riadys gave more than 450,000 dollars to the [[Democratic National Committee]] and state Democratic parties in the 1992 election cycle.[^3] Shortly after [[Bill Clinton]] took office, Mochtar Riady wrote to him advocating, among other things, most-favored-nation trade status for China, and thanked him "for the personal time he spent with the Riady family on Inauguration day 1993." He and [[John Huang]] asked Commerce Secretary [[Ron Brown]] to meet Shen Jueren, chairman of China Resources.[^1] In June 1994 [[Hong Kong China Limited]], a Lippo company, engaged the former associate attorney general [[Webster Hubbell]] as a consultant "for a fee of $100,000.00 per year," and in September 1994, after meetings in a Hong Kong office building bearing the Lippo name, Hubbell traveled to Jakarta, where he "met Mochtar Riady, head of the Riady family business, and the [[United States]] Ambassador to Indonesia." James Riady introduced Hubbell there as a close friend of the president and told him to get Clinton to play golf in Bali during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.[^3]
+
+In 1998 the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, in its report on the 1996 campaign-finance investigation, stated: "James and Mochtar Riady have had a long-term relationship with a Chinese intelligence agency." It also noted that they had known Clinton since the mid-1980s, when they held a controlling interest in Worthen Bank.[^4] His son [[James Riady]] pleaded guilty in January 2001 to violating federal election law.[^5]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, vol. 2, 1998. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm
+[^2]: Rankin, Robert A. "Cash Scandal May Haunt President." Knight-Ridder, *The Spokesman-Review,* October 30, 1996.
+[^3]: Office of the Independent Counsel. *Final Report of the Independent Counsel In Re: Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Association,* vol. 3, part C, on Webster Hubbell. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-3-2.pdf
+[^4]: Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. *Investigation of Illegal or Improper Activities in Connection with 1996 Federal Election Campaigns,* S. Rept. 105-167, 1998, "The China Connection." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1998_rpt/sgo-sir/2-18.htm
+[^5]: U.S. 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.