New York prosecutors on December 4 unveiled a 15-count criminal indictment against a Chinese-American businessman whose huge donations caused a major embarrassment to the Democratic Party in August.
Norman Hsu, 56, a naturalized US citizen originally from Hong Kong, believed to be one of the top donors to Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, was indicted on charges of violating federal campaign finance laws and perpetrating a 60-million-dollar fraud. He operated two companies through which he guaranteed speculators high rates of return on short-term investments, but paid them with money handed over by newer investors in the scheme, prosecutors said. Hsu was arrested on September 6 in Colorado and are currently detained in California. He was expected to be extradited to New York.
If convicted on the charges, Hsu faces up to 45 years in jail. (Source: AFP, Dec 5, 2007).