C. Joseph Giroir

C. Joseph Giroir Jr. was an Arkansas lawyer, a partner at the Rose Law Firm and a former law partner of Hillary Rodham Clinton, described by the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee in 1998 as "a partner in the Worthen Banking Corporation, attorney at the Rose Law Firm, and friend of the President and First Lady." His deposition to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee's special investigation of April 30, 1997, is the committee's main source for the Arkansas partnership between the Lippo Group of the Riady family and the Stephens family.¹

Worthen and Lippo

The House report, citing Giroir's deposition and that of James Riady, recorded that Mochtar Riady first met Jackson and Witt Stephens in 1976, while "looking into buying Bert Lance's share of the National Bank of Georgia." That purchase fell through, and in 1978 the Riadys and the Stephens brothers established Stephens Finance Ltd. in Hong Kong. James Riady interned at Stephens' investment bank in Little Rock, and by 1983 Lippo and Stephens had both invested in the Worthen Bank. According to Giroir's testimony, Lippo's strategy in Worthen "was to expand into the international arena"; it established "Edge Act" offices in New York and Los Angeles, authorized to conduct international transactions but not to take deposits. James Riady set up Worthen's international trade division, and John Huang, formerly executive vice president under James Riady at Stephens Finance, became Worthen's vice president for the Far East.¹ After what the committee called "a major defalcation by Bevil Bressler in 1986" at Worthen, the Stephens family bought the Riadys out of the bank, and the Riadys traded their interest in Worthen for the Stephens' interest in the Hong Kong Chinese Bank.¹

AIDC

In April 1993, shortly after the 1992 presidential election, Giroir incorporated the Arkansas International Development Corporation (AIDC) to develop projects and joint ventures for the Lippo Group. He testified that Lippo advanced him 50,000 dollars as its initial capital, that he was first paid "roughly a couple hundred thousands dollars [sic] a year in fees" and from 1995, through a second company of the same name formed with Lippo, "roughly $500,000" a year, in each case by a Lippo subsidiary; the committee put his salary at between 350,000 and 600,000 dollars with bonuses. In 1996 he contributed close to 200,000 dollars to the Democratic National Committee in connection with fundraisers organized by Huang.¹