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Another Arkansan under scrutiny is Mark Middleton, who left his post as a White House aide last year to run a company in Washington with extensive Asian dealings. While Middleton has denied representing himself as a current White House operative, one account of his activity has suggested otherwise. First reported in Yazhou Zhoukan, a Chinese-language newsweekly based in Hong Kong, and confirmed by a Taiwanese political consultant present at the incident, Middleton met in August with Liu Tai-ying, one of the closest advisers to the President of Taiwan, and was in the midst of describing his fund-raising mission for the Clinton campaign when Liu interrupted to say, "We are willing to lend support." "How much?" asked Middleton. The reply: "$15 million"--an amount that reportedly surprised Middleton. Middleton denies he solicited money as described in the reports. Liu has denied making the offer. Indeed, even if it was made, officials of Taiwan's ruling party may have quashed it soon afterward.
But it is Huang whose methods have brought the most scrutiny to the Democrats, most notably for an illegal $250,000 contribution from a South Korean firm and $425,000 in donations from an Indonesian couple of dubious American residency. Last week the Democrats, sensing public impatience, began changing the tone of their defense from evasive to contrite. B.J. Thornberry, executive director of the D.N.C., was designated to step forward and concede that the party was taking in so much money so fast, and was so understaffed at both the national and local levels, that party leaders had to abandon precautions set up years ago for screening out improper donors. "Virtually any fund-raising compliance is very heavily reliant on the due diligence of the fund raiser," Thornberry told the New York Times. She said there was "no way in the world" to investigate the sources of 25,000 to 30,000 checks.
Huang's expertise, his connections and his efficiency contributed mightily to the Democrats' embarrassment of riches. Born in China's Fujian province at the end of World War II, he grew up in Taiwan, eventually moving to the U.S. in 1969 to study for an M.B.A. at the University of Connecticut. After working as a loan officer at small banks in the Washington area, he moved to Kentucky and Tennessee and, more important, into the sphere of influence of the financial empire of Jackson Stephens, a sometime supporter of Bill Clinton's. In 1984, Stephens and Indonesia's Lippo Group, which is run by Indonesian billionaire Mochtar Riady and his son James, joined forces through Arkansas' Worthen Bank. At the point, Huang had the perfect resume--knowledge of Asia, experience with Southern banking, familiarity with local politics. And he possessed an important ethnic attribute. Like Huang, the Riady family is Chinese and, more significant, from Fujian. Huang was suddenly in the center of converging financial interests and political ambitions.