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EFLtrainer
Joined: 04 May 2005
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 Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2006 8:18 pm Post subject: Doolittle Under Investigation - Hanhwa Group (Korea) |
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But he isn't the only one...
Doolittle, et. al, Hanhwa and Malaysia
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Foreign Lobbies Took the Guise Of Nonprofits
By James V. Grimaldi and Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, November 3, 2006; Page A01
Early last year, two little-known nonprofit groups paid for Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.) and his 12-year-old daughter to travel to South Korea and Malaysia. Their last stop was the Berjaya Beach & Spa Resort on the Malaysian island of Langkawi, where they bunked at an oceanfront chalet staffed with a personal butler, got massages and rode water scooters on Burau Bay.
Doolittle's junket, which cost $29,400, was among the most expensive privately sponsored trips by members of Congress in recent years. The two groups that split the bills were not ordinary nonprofits. They were fronts for vigorous lobbying campaigns bankrolled by foreign entities and were operated by a Washington lobbying firm, Alexander Strategy Group, according to public records and people who worked with the firm.
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Conflicting Documents
The Korea-U.S. Exchange Council was one of two nonprofit groups that treated members of Congress and staffers to trips to U.S. and overseas resorts from 2001 to 2005. The group, while portraying itself as a traditional nonprofit, was funded entirely by a South Korean conglomerate and was operated by a Washington lobbying firm, Alexander Strategy Group. The council and its lobbyists reported conflicting information about its activities.
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Think Tank's Ideas Shifted As Malaysia Ties Grew
For years, the Heritage Foundation sharply criticized the autocratic rule of former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, denouncing his anti-Semitism, his jailing of political opponents and his "anti-free market currency controls."
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For five years beginning in 2001, the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council and the U.S.-Malaysia Exchange Association treated 12 members of Congress and 31 Capitol Hill staffers and their relatives to nearly $500,000 in trips that included stops at U.S. and overseas resorts, records show.
Records show that the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council was funded by the Hanwha Group, a South Korean conglomerate. The stated goal was to enhance the influence of Hanwha's chairman, Seung Youn Kim, a controversial figure once jailed for violating Korean financial law in his purchase of Sylvester Stallone's Hollywood mansion. Lobbyists for the U.S.-Malaysia Exchange Association filed reports stating that their funds came from a Malaysian energy firm and that the work was "on behalf of the government of Malaysia."
Federal law prohibits members of Congress from knowingly accepting overseas travel from foreign governments except as part of a cultural interchange program approved by the State Department. The travel in this case was not part of such a program, government officials said. House rules ban members from taking trips paid for by lobbyists or foreign agents. Nonprofits and their officers are prohibited under federal tax law from using a charitable organization for private commercial gain.
Once a major lobbying firm, Alexander Strategy Group closed down early this year. Its owner, Edwin A. Buckham, former chief of staff to now-departed House majority leader Tom DeLay, is under investigation in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, according to lawyers and witnesses with knowledge of the probe. Authorities are also reviewing Buckham's use in the 1990s of another nonprofit, the U.S. Family Network, the sources said.
The Korean and Malaysian nonprofits were created in 2001. Their combined budgets of more than $2.5 million, as well as their checkbooks and operations, were controlled by Alexander Strategy, according to people affiliated with the firm at the time. Records show that Alexander Strategy took in $620,000 in fees for its work on the Malaysia account. A Hanwha subsidiary in the United States, Universal Bearings Inc., paid the lobbyists $940,000 for the Korea work.
The nonprofit groups, on the strength of Buckham's GOP connections, sponsored trips for Republican House members DeLay; Doolittle; Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Ander Crenshaw and Tom Feeney of Florida; John Carter of Texas; Scott Garrett of New Jersey; and Roger Wicker of Mississippi.
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Some of the lawmakers on the trips were in positions to help other Alexander Strategy clients. Doolittle, who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, told The Washington Post this year that from 2002 to 2005 he sponsored $37 million in spending-bill earmarks that went to a firm controlled by a key Alexander Strategy client. The client, Brent R. Wilkes, is a target of the federal investigation stemming from the bribery case and guilty plea of former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.). Doolittle's wife, Julie Doolittle, was hired by Alexander Strategy to help keep the books for the Korean nonprofit.
Helping Chairman Kim
During its five years of existence, the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council described itself in its tax returns as an educational group that spent nothing on lobbying.
But its filings with the Justice Department contradicted those returns. The council registered with Justice as a foreign agent, saying that it was financed by Hanwha Group and that Kim chaired its board of directors. It filed a plan detailing Alexander Strategy's lobbying campaign for Kim, which promised him extensive contacts with Washington lawmakers and policymakers.
The plan stated that the purpose was "to define Chairman Kim of the Hanwha Group as the leading Korean business statesman in U.S.-Korea relations" and to strengthen "Hanwha's global position." A 2002 audit of the nonprofit by the accounting firm Gelman, Rosenberg and Freedman said "approximately 99.9 percent" of its revenue came from one organization.
While the Korea council was filing as a foreign agent with the Justice Department, its lobbyists were declaring in their filings to Congress that the nonprofit had no significant foreign ownership.
"What they were telling the Department of Justice and what they were telling the IRS suggests you can't trust either set of documents," said Marcus Owens, a Washington tax lawyer and former Internal Revenue Service nonprofit chief who reviewed hundreds of the group's records compiled by The Post. "The reality is the organization was designed to provide a conduit for influence."
Alexander Strategy and Harbour lobbyists directed a steady stream of U.S. lawmakers and staffers of both parties to Seoul, where Kim squired them to meetings with top government officials. Kim traveled several times to Washington, where, according to the reports to the Justice Department, he met with prominent politicians and lawmakers.[/b]
Former president Clinton traveled to Beijing and Seoul at the invitation of the Korea council in November 2003.
The fact that the Korea council was a registered foreign agent was revealed in a March 2005 Post article. Some Congress members and aides who went on the trips said they had not known about the registration.
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Former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger, the best-known member of the Korea council's board, resigned, telling aides he had not known it was a lobbying operation.
A Scant Paper Trail
Like the Korea council, the U.S.-Malaysia Exchange Association sponsored trips by members of Congress and staffers. Some began with a meeting with Kim in Korea and finished with beach time in Langkawi courtesy of the Malaysia association.
The lawmakers and aides said they believed their travel was a legitimate function of a nonprofit group. In fact, the group's work was carried out on behalf of the Malaysian government and was funded by Malaysian business interests, both of which sought to improve the Islamic nation's image with U.S. politicians, according to public records and people familiar with the operation of the lobbying firms.
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The congressional trips were organized by and billed to Alexander Strategy, according to people familiar with the operation of the lobbying firm. Alexander Strategy received $620,000 in fees that originated with Malaysian business interests and was routed through a Hong Kong firm called Belle Haven Consultants, according to documents filed by Alexander Strategy with the Justice Department. Belle Haven also paid the Harbour Group $240,000, records show.
Wallop, who was hired to lobby for Belle Haven, said in an interview this summer that the Hong Kong firm got its money from P.K. Baru Energy in Malaysia.
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In their last two years of filings, Belle Haven's U.S. lobbyists reported that the Hong Kong firm was doing its work on behalf of the Malaysian government.
In 2002, the lobbyists took large delegations to Malaysia and Langkawi, including staffers to Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), Rep. Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.). Meeks himself and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.), both on the House Financial Services Committee, went on one of the trips and met with officials of Malaysia's Islamic banks; the lawmakers' expenses were paid by a Malaysian think tank. |
Last edited by EFLtrainer on Sun Nov 05, 2006 4:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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cbclark4
Joined: 20 Aug 2006
Location: Masan
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| Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:18 am Post subject: |
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Does the previous post violate the 300 word limit.
cbc |
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dogbert
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: Killbox 90210
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| Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 3:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Doolittle has always been on the shady side. |
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EFLtrainer
Joined: 04 May 2005
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| Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 4:17 pm Post subject: |
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| cbclark4 wrote: |
Does the previous post violate the 300 word limit.
cbc |
Too much reality for you? I'll be happy to edit if it breaks some arcane rule. Give it's a bi-partisan cluster *beep*, not sure why you're whining except that it was I who posted it. |
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cbclark4
Joined: 20 Aug 2006
Location: Masan
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| Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:11 pm Post subject: |
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Hey, I'm all for stamping out corruption no matter which side of the divide it falls on. Problem is our American Revolution was Hijacked long ago.
Can all corruption be stamped out in a democracy?
I don't think so.
The Neo Cons are not doing anyone any favors.
Yes, I am conservative to a degree, but I do not agree wit hall conservatives.
It's just I felt you could have linked the article instead of pasting it.
The first paragraph and a couple of juicy tidbits would suffice.
I got a cramp in my wheel finger scrolling through that.
cbc |
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EFLtrainer
Joined: 04 May 2005
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| Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 5:59 am Post subject: |
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It was either a two or four page article, so I did, indeed, pare it down. And I did link. You know what the doctor says when you say, "It hurts when I do this."
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