Huang took fifth on Chinese money

Human Events, Jan 29, 2001 by Jeffrey, Terence P

In return for Riady's providing evidence and testimony, including as to the source of illegal contributions, the government will agree not to "file additional charges against you or your wife relating to any campaign finance matters examined during the course of the United States investigation."

This narrowly targeted language immunizes Riady only from additional prosecution for violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act or a conspiracy to violate that act. It does not immunize him from prosecution for potential espionage or national security violations. "Ihe is nothing that is going to prohibit the government from investigating and charging Riady with violations of espionage statutes if sufficient evidence is developed to charge him," Assistant U.S. Attorney O'Brien said in an interview.

O'Brien, who formulated the plea agreements with both Huang and Riady, is a career federal prosecutor of ten years service, who also happens to be a Republican. He answers to Campaign Financing Task Force Chief Robert Conrad, who earned publicity last summer when it was revealed he had requested that Janet Reno name an outside counsel to investigate Vice President Gore for possibly committing perjury in a deposition in which Conrad had probed Gore's association with, among others, Huang and Riady.

A noncynical interpretation of what has happened in the campaign finance investigation is that it has followed the standard pattern of conspiracy investigations: A little fish is caught in hopes that he will provide the bait to catch a bigger fish. Even when they labored under the burden of having Janet Reno as their boss, the professional investigators on the campaign task force hooked Huang, who provided them with the evidence to hook Riady, who now may provide the evidence to hook someone else.

And there aren't too many fish bigger than Riady.

A sentencing hearing is now set for Riady in mid-March.