Torrance Man’s Sentencing in Campaign Finance Case Delayed

The sentencing of Torrance businessman Johnny Chien Chuen Chung for illegally donating nearly $30,000 to Democrats, including the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign, was postponed Monday because of attorney objections to a letter asking that he receive a stiff sentence. The sender: The Democratic National Committee.

Chung, who gave $400,000 to Democratic causes and candidates and visited the Clinton White House nearly 50 times, pleaded guilty in March. He was to be sentenced for bank fraud, tax evasion and election law violations.

He had been cooperating with a Justice Department probe of presidential-campaign fund-raising and had specifically discussed his dealings with DNC officials, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

The sources said government prosecutors agreed to recommend a reduced sentence in exchange for Chung’s cooperation.

But the Democratic National Committee bit the hand that once fed it by sending a letter to probation officials saying that it considered itself Chung’s victim.

While Chung could technically face 37 years in prison, the normal range of sentence for such crimes for a defendant with no prior criminal record is one to two years. Prosecutors had previously disclosed that they would be willing to ask for a further reduction.

As Chung was to receive his sentence Monday, his attorney Brian A. Sun moved that the DNC letter be stricken from the court record. Sun said he and prosecutors agreed that the letter, which sources said accuses Chung of damaging the American political system and making the DNC one of his victims, was not relevant to Chung’s sentencing.

Sun said the letter alleges offenses for which Chung has not been charged.

U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real instructed Sun and prosecutors to submit their objections in writing and return on Nov. 16 for sentencing.

The letter from Judah Best, a Washington lawyer retained by the DNC, was filed under seal and was not released Monday afternoon. However, sources familiar with the investigation said Chung’s determined efforts to violate campaign donation rules wounded the party.

According to the sources, Best’s letter claims that Chung deceived the DNC about the illegality of the donations and embarrassed the party.

The DNC lawyer’s letter was particularly critical of Chung’s role as a cooperating witness in the federal task force investigating campaign violations. Best wrote that Chung suggested that the DNC knew his contributions were illegal in an effort to make himself more valuable to prosecutors.

Best flatly denied that the DNC knew any contributions were improper and, instead, insisted that Chung took advantage of the DNC and caused its officials to file false campaign finance records.

Last week, Chung was a witness in Washington, D.C., before a grand jury investigating alleged campaign finance abuses. Chung has provided extensive information to investigators, the sources said.

Chung has pleaded guilty to two felony charges, one of not paying taxes on money from foreign investors, and another of making false statements in a loan application. His two illegal donations, in which he reimbursed others for contributions, are misdemeanors.

The DNC has asserted the money Chung received came from foreign businessmen and was given to campaigns using shadow donors to evade the ban on political contribution by foreigners. Chung, however, claimed that his guilty plea on the tax evasion charge contradicts DNC assertions that he was a conduit for illegal foreign donations.

Chung claimed that the money he got from foreign sources was legitimate business income, not earmarked for campaign contributions. Had he been merely a conduit for foreign contributors, he would have had no tax liability, according to his defense team.