School Tied to Bill Clinton School Will Return Gift From Hsu

School Tied to Bill Clinton
Will Return Gift From Hsu
By MARY JACOBY
September 15, 2007

Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu gave $75,000 last year to the University of Arkansas's Clinton School of Public Service, as the financier extended his largesse beyond Sen. Hillary Clinton's political campaigns to charities associated with her husband.

Mr. Hsu, a top fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign, had pledged a total of $100,000 to the Clinton School, after hearing about it last year at the annual Clinton Global Initiative, a star-studded conference in New York run by the William J. Clinton Foundation. Mr. Hsu was a "member" of the initiative, a status that requires a $15,000 annual donation. Late Friday, a school official said the funds would be returned.

Mr. Hsu paid two installments toward his pledge to the Clinton School before fleeing a hearing on 15-year-old fraud charges in California earlier this month. Mr. Hsu later was arrested in Colorado after falling sick on a train. Skip Rutherford, dean of the Clinton School and a long-time friend and adviser to the Clintons, said the donation from Mr. Hsu "came out of the blue" last year.

While Mrs. Clinton and other politicians have pledged to return or donate to charity donations associated with Mr. Hsu, Mr. Rutherford initially said the graduate program -- aimed at students seeking a career in international aid, politics, law, or philanthropy -- would keep its donation. After questions from The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Rutherford said "it's just not worth it" to keep the money and that he would return it to Mr. Hsu. "We believed it had been given in good faith," Mr. Rutherford said.

The Little Rock school is part of the nonprofit University of Arkansas public higher-education system. Over the past three years, Mr. Hsu has emerged as a leading donor to Democratic politicians and to American charities, such as the Innocence Project, which helps prisoners overturn unfair convictions through DNA testing. Mr. Rutherford said the Clinton School received the Hsu donation after a relative of Mr. Hsu volunteered at last year's Clinton Global Initiative conference. The conference brings together celebrities, CEOs, nonprofit executives, world leaders and politicians to encourage philanthropy in the developing world. Guests at least year's conference included Barbra Streisand and Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan.

The Hsu relative apparently had worked alongside some students from the Clinton School, who had traveled from Arkansas to New York to help staff the event, according to Mr. Rutherford. Later, the relative praised the Clinton School, and Mr. Hsu collared Bruce Lindsey, president of the Clinton Foundation and a former top adviser to Mr. Clinton in the White House, to offer the donation.

Mr. Hsu said he wanted to help defray expenses of students who traveled in future years from Arkansas to New York for the conference, Mr. Rutherford said.

Mr. Lindsey, an Arkansan who splits his time between Little Rock and New York, passed Mr. Hsu's card to Mr. Rutherford. The Clinton School dean said he followed up with a letter asking for the donation. Mr. Rutherford said he never saw or spoke with Mr. Hsu directly. Mr. Lindsey didn't respond to requests for comment. Mr. Hsu committed to $100,000 over several years. On Oct. 25, 2006, he wrote a check for $50,000 on his personal account, made out to the University of Arkansas Foundation and earmarked for the Clinton School. He wrote another check in May for $25,000.