He’s been in a California jail cell for months, but the problems of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s former fund-raiser Norman Hsu still continue to multiply.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against Hsu yesterday, charging that he used his connections to Bill and Hillary Clinton to con people into investing in a $60-million pyramid scheme.
According to the complaint, Hsu presented himself as an international businessman with high-level contacts with overseas businesses, particularly in Chinese apparel and technology.
He told investors that his firm, Next Components, would pool their funds to finance bridge loans which would generate investor returns of 14 to 24 percent every 70 to 130 days. Instead, he used their money to pay “sales agents, make political campaign contributions, and support Hsu’s luxurious lifestyle,” the complaint says.
The suit seeks to force Hsu to repay money he took from investors - though it is unclear where he might get it at this point.
Hsu had been one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest fund-raisers, collecting an estimated $850,000 in her behalf. After it was revealed that he was a fugitive in a 1991 California fraud case, Clinton vowed to return all the money he had collected. She also promised more thorough background checks on major donors.
Since 2003, Hsu had raised money for a number of politicians, most Democrats, among them, former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo,.
Hsu is currently serving a three-year sentence in connection with the 1991 charge connected to an earlier scheme that defrauded investors. He also faces criminal charges in New York in connection with the alleged pyramid scheme.
Click here to sign up for the Muckety Newsletter
0 Comments
There are no comments yet, be the first by filling in the form below.
Leave a Comment