Dem Fund Raiser Convicted

A federal jury Thursday convicted former fund-raiser Maria Hsia of arranging more than $100,000 in illegal contributions to Democrats during the 1996 campaign in a case that examined her long-time ties to Vice President Al Gore.

The jury deliberated less than two days before finding Hsia, who started raising money for Gore more than a decade ago, guilty of five felony counts. Each charge carries a five-year maximum prison term.

Hsia, an immigration consultant from Los Angeles, showed no emotion as U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman read the verdict.

At P.S. 163 in New York City, CBS News Producer Jeff Goldman asked Gore if it's a just verdict.

"The jury has rendered its verdict and it's a hard day for her," the presidential hopeful said. "She's been a friend and political supporter but since this is a matter still in the courts I won't comment further about it."

Was she guilty of excesses? Goldman pursued, but the vice just repeated, "the jury has rendered its verdict."

Prosecutors alleged that Hsia tapped a Buddhist temple and some of her well-to-do business clients for money to reimburse straw donors who were listed as the contributors on federal election reports. Prosecutors said a total of $109,000 in reimbursed donations went to Clinton-Gore '96, the Democratic Party and the campaign of Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.

Among the evidence introduced at the trial was video footage of the vice president attending a now-infamous donor event at a Buddhist temple in California.

The judge ordered that the courtroom tape -- likely attack fodder on the campaign trial -- be kept out of the public domain until the trial's end.

Hsia was charged with five felony counts of causing false statements to be filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Testimony in the three-week trial revolved around the April 29, 1996, fund-raiser at the Buddhist temple. Prosecutors said Hsia helped arrange $65,000 in illegal reimbursements to donors, using temple funds.

When controversy erupted after the event about illegal reimbursements to some of the contributors, the vice president said he hadn't known he was attending a fund-raiser, that he thought it was community outreach.

After documents turned up referring to the event in advance as a fund-raiser, Gore modified his characterization, saying he had thought it was a finance-related event.

At the trial, former Democratic Party fund-raiser John Huang, the central figure in the campaign fund-raising scandal, testified that Hsia handed him an envelope containing $100,000 the day after Gore attended the temple event. Most of the donations in the envelope were reimbursed by the temple.

Hsia's lawyers pointed out there was no evidence that Hsia was aware of the reimbursements from the Gore fund-raiser, but prosecutors introduced canceled checks suggesting that on three instances from 1993 to 1996 Hsia used temple funds o reimburse her own political donations. Hsia did not testify at the trial, but her lawyers said the money was for public relations work Hsia had done for the temple.

Hsia's lawyers said she thought the temple was gathering checks from its followers, many of them wealthy and eligible to contribute.

Through Huang's testimony, prosecutors showed only $30,000 to $40,000 had been raised from the Gore temple event and that Hsia came up with the envelope containing an additional $100,000 less than 24 hours later.

"Hsia had to have known what the temple was doing," prosecutor John McEnany said.

Prosecutors also introduced copies of the reimbursed checks that were found in Hsia's office.

Hsia's lawyers portrayed her as a community activist trying to involve Asian-Americans in the U.S. political process. Prosecutors depicted Hsia as a schemer trying to promote her immigration business through her political fund raising.

Huang testified that Hsia recommended that she be seated next to Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner at a Democratic Party fund-raiser at the Hay-Adams Hotel attended by President Clinton on Feb. 19, 1996.

Prosecutors introduced a photograph of Hsia standing next to Meissner at the event.

Huang said Hsia handed him $25,000 in checks that were reimbursed by the temple. Huang said he was unaware of the reimbursements. A Buddhist nun testified that Hsia had picked up some of the checks from the temple.

Two of Hsia's immigration clients testified that at Hsia's direction, they bankrolled thousands of dollars in reimbursed donations for a fund-raiser that Mr. Clinton attended at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

Hsia "wanted me to exchange some checks," testified one witness, a businesswoman recently arrived from China. The businesswoman was a foreign national and ineligible to contribute money to a U.S. election.

Prosecutors presented evidence that the alleged reimbursement scheme extended to contributions for Kennedy's congressional campaign. Witnesses testified that Hsia got five blank checks from the Buddhist temple and reimbursed five donors, including herself, in connection with a temple fund-raiser that Kennedy attended.

©2000 CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report