Hsu Cast Wide Net For Clinton Donors

As a fundraising bundler for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, Norman Hsu collected donations from others. Some of the donors whose checks were credited under Hsu's name said they had never met him. (By Paul Sakuma -- Associated Press)

For example, Hsu received fundraising credit with the Clinton campaign for $19,200 in contributions from executives at Source Financing Investors, a New York City investment fund run by 1960s Woodstock concert organizer Joel Rosenman, on March 28. The next day, Rosenman's 96-year-old father, Bernard, sent $4,600 to Clinton from his Boynton Beach, Fla., retirement home, for which Hsu also claimed credit.

The investment group put $40 million into 37 separate investment proposals by Hsu to import clothing from China, according to Seth L. Rosenberg, a New York lawyer for the group. But Rosenberg said he believes that the money may be gone. The New York City district attorney has launched an investigation of the allegations.

Rosenberg said he has asked politicians to hold on to any checks they collected from Hsu. "We want to be sure that any candidates who received money from Mr. Hsu act responsibly with those contributions so they may be returned to the victims of Mr. Hsu if indeed they are the source of those funds," he said.

Three members of the Paw family in Daly City, Calif., both donated to Clinton and invested in Hsu's apparel business, a circumstance first reported last month by the Wall Street Journal. The Paws operated a gift shop in a hotel where they befriended Hsu in the 1990s.

Frank Ubhouse, the Paws' attorney, said Friday that although the family initially made some money, its members are concerned about the fate of their remaining investments with Hsu. "Given what is now known, I think there's got to be a lot of concern. The big question is, when the music stops, will everyone have a chair?"

In Irvine, Calif., businessman Jack Cassidy alerted the FBI and Clinton's campaign this summer to his concerns that Hsu was soliciting people he knew for investments in what appeared to be an illegal Ponzi scheme, in which early investors are rewarded with funds obtained from subsequent investors. The FBI recently interviewed Cassidy and collected documents as part of an initial inquiry.

Cassidy said he was concerned that Hsu had invoked his role as a Clinton fundraiser to gain the confidence of people he was meeting. "If you are opening a hamburger stand, you want to put a set of golden arches outside," Cassidy said, referring to the McDonald's symbol. "Hsu was using Hillary Clinton as his golden arches."

Another California resident, Chi Kou Fan, alleged that he was bilked years ago in the investment that resulted in Hsu's 1991 conviction on grand theft. He recalled that "Norman would make friends with one guy, and then move around to meet all this guy's friends, and soon they would all be his investors."

Fan, a retired San Francisco area real estate developer who lost $240,000 in the Hsu investment, was one of 16 investors in a deal to sell latex gloves imported from China to an Illinois company, Service Master, according to court records. In early 1989, as the deal took shape, Hsu promised investors a 5 or 6 percent return on their money. But after a year, investors had still not seen their money. When state investigators called Service Master's accountants, they found no record of any deal for latex gloves.

Research editor Alice Crites, staff researcher Madonna Lebling and washingtonpost.com database editor Derek Willis contributed to this article.