‘U.S. Democrat converted campaign funds’

Press, 7 December 1976, Page 8

‘U.S. Democrat converted campaign funds’

NZPA Washington A member of the American House of Representatives, Mr Charles Wilson (Democrat, California), has admitted converting thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to his personal use, the “Washington Post” reports.

The Justice Department, which is investigating South Korean efforts to buy influence on Capitol Hill, is known to be gathering information on Mr Wilson, although he is not now a primary target of the inquiry, the newspaper says.

It describes Mr Wilson as one of the leading supporters in Congress of the South Korean Government led by Mr Park Chung Hee, and the newspaper notes his extensive personal travel to South Korea, including a 1975 trip during which he. married his KoreanAmerican wife.

The story says that Mr Wilson acknowledged during an interview that he had withdrawn $14,700 from his campaign funds during the last two years; he said he used only perhaps half of it for his personal use. Such diversions of campaign funds are not illegal under Federal, or California law, Washington officials say, but they are prohibited by the House of Representatives’ standards of conduct. The “Washington Post” quotes Mr Wilson as saying that he saw nothing improper in his personal use of

the money, or what the newspaper says were “other unexplained Transfers of his campaign funds.”

The “New York Times” reports that a former New Jersey Congressman, Mr Cornelius Gallagher, is being investigated on suspicion of having passed along South Korean bribes to fellowmembers of the House of Representatives or to senators.

The Justice Department has subpoenaed both the testimony and records of the former Democratic politician as part of its investigation of alleged South Korean “influence” — peddling and bribery, the newspaper says, citing Government and legal sources.

The department is expected to issue another subpoena shortly for the South Korean businessman, Park Tong Sun, who is now in London and who, while living in Washington, is alleged to have co-operated with the South Korean C.LA. in distributing the bribe money intended to persuade American Congressmen to vote for military aki to the Seoul regime.