Norman Hsu

Hsu Heads to Prison

Paul Kiel | January 4, 2008, 4:28PM

Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better for Norman Hsu, the bizarre Hillraiser and fraudster.

He's been sent off to prison for 3 years to serve time for the fraud he was convicted of way back in 1992. And he still has to go to trial for the Ponzi scheme he was charged with by federal prosecutors in New York.

Norman Hsu

Clinton Fundraiser Hsu Indicted

Paul Kiel | December 4, 2007, 2:34PM

From Bloomberg:

Former Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu, charged in September with cheating investors in a $60 million ``Ponzi'' scheme, was formally indicted by a federal grand jury on similar allegations, U.S. prosecutors said....

Hsu, 56, faces as much as 20 years in prison on the most serious counts. He is being held on separate charges stemming from a 1991 prosecution in which he entered a no-contest plea to charges he stole $1 million from 20 investors in a scheme to buy and resell nonexistent latex gloves.

ABC has a copy of the indictment, which is very similar to the charges filed in September. Once again, prosecutors charge that Hsu made "direct and implied threats" to those who invested with him in order to coerce them into contributing to his favored candidates, particularly Hillary Clinton.

Norman Hsu

Complaint: Hsu Bilked Investors, Made Illegal Contributions

Paul Kiel | September 20, 2007, 2:23PM

The U.S. attorney for Manhattan filed a 16-page criminal complaint against Norman Hsu today. You can read it here.

Hsu is charged with defrauding investors of more than $60 million. The scam, as described by prosecutors, was actually pretty simple. Hsu would lure investors in by delivering on small-time deals, gaining their trust. But when it came time for the big deals, he never actually invested the money as promised -- instead, he just used newer investors' money to repay older investors, and so on and so on. The classic Ponzi scheme.

Interestingly, the prosecutors say that Hsu's considerable fundraising skills (for Hillary Clinton and other Dems) were part of the fraud:

During the same time period, NORMAN HSU, the defendant, in an effort to raise his public profile and thereby convince more victims to invest in his fraudulent scheme, pressured victims into individually contributing tens of thousands of dollars to various candidates... he supported. HSU made implied threats to the victims leading them to believe that their failure to make the required political contributions would adversely affect the victims’ ongoing investment relationship with HSU.

The complaint also alleges that Hsu reimbursed two people for $20,000 in political contributions, a crime.

The charges, two counts of fraud and one of violating campaign finance laws, amount to a maximum 45-year sentence if served consecutively. Hsu also faces a maximum fine of $120 million.

Norman Hsu

WSJ: New Charges Imminent against Hsu

Paul Kiel | September 20, 2007, 10:39AM

Things are going to get a lot worse for Norman Hsu before they get better. From The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.):

Federal officials are expected to bring a criminal case against Norman Hsu today, charging the Democratic super-donor with operating a $60 million pyramid scheme and violating campaign-finance laws.

The case, to be announced this afternoon by the U.S. attorney's office in the Southern District of New York, encompasses complaints by investors who gave tens of millions of dollars to Mr. Hsu, who said he was putting the money into a lucrative apparel operation. It also is expected to charge Mr. Hsu with crimes relating to his legendary fund-raising.

Update: The AP reports the prosecutors will announce an indictment at 1 PM.

Later Update: Oops. The AP now says that it won't be an indictment, but a criminal complaint.

Norman Hsu

The Strange Case of Norman Hsu

Paul Kiel | September 13, 2007, 2:58PM

The going suspicion in Washington has always been that politicians are not prone to ask too many questions of contributors as long as the checks keep coming. But never has a contributor's hidden past blown up in a campaign's face quite like it has for the Clinton campaign in the case of Norman Hsu.

The story began just two weeks ago when The Wall Street Journal noticed that one of Hillary Clinton's biggest donors was a family that lived in a single story home near the San Francisco airport. The father, William Paw, was a mail carrier; his wife was a homemaker. And yet the couple and their children had given $45,000 to Clinton since 2005. The contributions closely, and suspiciously, matched the timing of those by a New York businessman named Norman Hsu. It's illegal to reimburse individuals for making campaign contributions.

The next day, The Los Angeles Times made the story a scandal when it reported that Hsu had been convicted in California state court of stealing $1 million from investors in the early 90s. He'd failed to show at a sentencing hearing and been on the lam ever since.

After that story, he made his way back to California, but then promptly disappeared again after posting $2 million for bail. After sending out a "To Whom It May Concern" suicide note via FedEx to acquaintances and charitable organizations to whom he'd donated (like, ironically enough, The Innocence Project), he hopped on an Amtrak train to Chicago. On the train, he locked locked himself in a compartment. A passenger discovered him the following morning shirtless, wedged against the door in the fetal position. Pills were scattered over the floor. He was arrested after being transferred to a hospital in Colorado.

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