Hsu charged with fraud – and more Hillary campaign money questions

The Wall Street Journal reports on the charges that are being filed against disgraced Democrat cash man Norman Hsu:

Federal prosecutors unsealed a criminal complaint Thursday charging Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu with breaking campaign finance laws and creating a “massive” Ponzi scheme.

The complaint says Mr. Hsu — who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Sen. Hillary Clinton and others — violated campaign finance laws by making contributions to candidates in other people’s names and perpetrated a Ponzi scheme to defraud victims across the U.S. of over $60 million.

Robert Emmers, a spokesman for Mr. Hsu, declined to comment on the charges. Mr. Hsu’s lawyer in San Francisco, Jim Brosnahan, didn’t immediately return phone messages.

The case, announced this afternoon by the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York, encompasses complaints by investors who gave tens of millions of dollars to Mr. Hsu, who said he was putting the money into a lucrative apparel operation. It also is expected to charge Mr. Hsu with crimes relating to his legendary fund-raising.

In the meantime, the Hillary campaign is facing more campaign fundraising questions:

BRISTOW, Va. — When Hillary Rodham Clinton held an intimate fund-raising event at her Washington home in late March, Pamela Layton donated $4,600, the maximum allowed by law, to Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign.

But the 37-year-old Ms. Layton says she and her husband were reimbursed by her husband’s boss for the donations. “It wasn’t personal money. It was all corporate money,” Mrs. Layton said outside her home here. “I don’t even like Hillary. I’m a Republican.”

The boss is William Danielczyk, founder of a Washington-area private-equity firm and a major fund-raising “bundler” for Mrs. Clinton. Mrs. Layton’s gift was one of more than a dozen donations that night from people with Republican ties or no history of political giving. Mr. Danielczyk and his family, employees and friends donated a total of $120,000 to Mrs. Clinton in the days around the fund-raiser.

In an interview, Mr. Danielczyk said he “did not and would not” reimburse employees or others for their political donations. Such reimbursement would be illegal. Mr. Danielczyk said he was a co-host for the event at Mrs. Clinton’s home. “Everybody was asked to contribute,” he said, “some said yes and some said no.” He added, “No arm was twisted.”

Uh huh.

In related news, Suitably Flip has an interesting post today that raises questions on whether or not Hillary has done as she has promised and returned some $850,000 in campaign cash tied directly to Hsu.

The questions keep piling up for Clinton and co., but a side question to all this is: Will any other news outlets outside of the LAT and the WSJ start digging into the records of this and other questionable Clinton “bundlers” to find out what they’re hiding – and possibly what the candidate herself is hiding? The news about Hsu is nowhere to be found on the front page of the NYT, as of the writing of this post. Oh wait, it’s on their blog, but there is no major story on the front page about this at all.

Prior:

• Clinton campaign dismissed alarm bells raised by California businessman about Hsu
• “Hillraiser” and fugitive from justice Norman Hsu captured in Colorado (MORE: HSU NOT REGISTERED TO VOTE?)
• Hsu, Hsu, where are you?
• More Hillary campaign contribution questions
• Something smells with “top” Clinton campaign donors