SAN FRANCISCO - A Chinese-American businessman who raised thousands of dollars for Democratic Party presidential hopefuls was jailed for three years Friday over a 1992 fraud case, justice officials said.
A judge at San Mateo County Court near San Francisco rejected last minute pleas by defense lawyers for Hong Kong-born fundraiser Norman Hsu's 16-year-old conviction for running a ponzi scheme to be set aside, court officials said.
Hsu, 56, who is reported to have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign before it was later returned by the New York senator, pleaded no contest to the case in February 1992 and agreed to serve three years behind bars and pay a 10,000-dollar fine.
However he subsequently failed to surrender to custody and fled to Hong Kong before returning to the United States in the late 1990s.
Hsu resurfaced in August last year as it emerged that he was being investigated for irregularities over his fundraising activities for the Democratic Party.
However he fled California justice officials once again before being re-arrested in Colorado in early September.
Later in September federal prosecutors in New York charged Hsu with fraud and violating federal campaign finance laws.
Hsu is alleged to have operated two companies through which he recruited victims by guaranteeing high rates of return on short-term investments, paying them with money handed over by newer investors in the scheme, prosecutors said.
rcw/ksh
01/04/2008 22:20 GMT