Hillary refused to return tainted $$ from Willie Tan Family! (Marianas/Abramoff Scandal)

That all changed when I checked into Tan Family Donations in March of 2006. I was stunned to discover that a Democrat, Senator Hillary Clinton, had received $10,000 from the family in September and October of 2005. Take a look:

KIM LAM, PEK, Homemaker; 9/30/2005; $2,000
TAN, JOISE, N/A/Homemaker; 10/2/2005; $2,000
TAN, RAYMOND, Luen Thai/President; 9/30/2005; $2,000
TAN, SIU L, Tan Holdings Corp./Chairman; 9/30/2005; $2,000
TAN, WILLIE, Luen Thai/COO; 9/30/2005; $2,000

Jack was only a bag-man. He moved money around to help the Republican effort to establish one-Party rule in the United States. He took it from some nice people and some very bad people. The Tan Family would be in the latter group.

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The Tan Family controls a massive empire of businesses that stretch the globe. Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars move through their vast empire. They have a constant stream of business before the government of the United States and since 1999 when Abramoff and DeLay successfully shut down reform on the Marianas Islands, most of the Tan Family legislative goals have had almost nothing to do with sweatshops on the CNMI.

I know that supporters of HRC are quick to dismiss any questions about their candidate as just another "Right-wing" smear and defensively claim that any questioning of her by Democrats and/or progressives might be used by the VRWC to attack her and all Democrats. Still, their dedication to a culture of fear does not exempt HRC from scrutiny or excuse wrong-doing. I can not be quiet because some in my Party are afraid of the noise machine on the Right. Whether it is the GOP or HRC, taking money from the Tan Family is and always will be a problem

I’ve done enough follow-up digging to know that there is more to this story—especially the massive donations from the Tan Family to the GOP (but also the money to HRC). Many more shoes will drop and the drip, drip, drip nature of this has just begun.

I research scandals. As part of my own due diligence on the Democrats running, I have looked into their purported "scandals". The stuff on Edwards and Obama is carved out of smoke. So is most of the stuff the RW has thrown at HRC. This money from the Tan Family is different (IMHO). There could be a reasonable explanation, but I’ve done enough follow-up digging to know that the $10,000 is a problem.

Why?

Because of the way the Tan Family operates and the nature of the businesses they run.

So, let’s meet the Tan Family:

Tonight, far out in the Western Pacific, the ongoing abuse on a rogue US Territory continues. On the Mariana Islands, an active, brutal and harsh purge of long-time foreign contract workers is underway. The goal is to deport any workers who might be granted any rights and replace them with new workers, who will never be given rights. The local "powers-that-be" (or as I call them, the Pirates of Saipan) are pulling out all the stops to maintain their failed, corrupt and immoral economic system.

The target is watering down or defeating H.R. 3079 and S. 1634. These pieces of legislation are already weak-in-the-knees when it comes to ending the decades of abuse. Still, these Bills need to be passed. They will bring some log overdue justice.

And yet, over the weekend I heard that Democrats, YES, Democrats are working to remove provisions granting long-time CNMI workers rights and legal status. I’m told, and I hope it is wrong, that Congressman Abrercrombie (HI-01) will do the legislative dirty work.

With DeLay and Abramoff out of the way the Pirates of Saipan need pliable Democrats to continue the abuse and they are working hard to find them. To our shame, they may have found some.

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In 1992, the Tan Family received the largest fine in US Labor Department history, $9 million, for their sweatshops—and it came from the Bush I Administration. The Family’s sweatshops were fined another $1.3 million for other violations (Sweating it out in Saipan is a good overview of the company from the Hong Kong Standard).

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Since the early 1980s the Tan Family has been learning the global textile trade and how a modern supply chain works. For tens of thousands of Americans who used to work in textile mills, the story of the Tan Family is the story of how they lost their jobs and how Politicians and lobbyists in Washington ensure that their tax dollars helped fund the movement of their industry offshore.

The CNMI, Guam and the Philippines formed the base of the early Tan Family operations. In the 1980s they learned how to game the American system. Their factories and shipping operations on the Philippines and the CNMI were subsidized by US Tax payers. In the early years they had a growth model based on maximum exploitation of their workers. It is still part of their corporate DNA, but nowadays they have learn to hide it—just like Ralph Lauren and most of your name-brand American clothing companies.

Tonight, the Tan Family's holdings are far more than a few sweatshops on the shores of some far flung place that most Americans could not find on a map with step-by-step directions.

Today the Tan Family owns and runs a modern multi-national corporation doing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of business across dozens of market sectors, ranging from clothes to Tuna to Insurance to travel to shipping to hotels and many others. They still are a presence on the CNMI, but more and more the Family is looking East—to home—to China.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/23/185152/91/34/401675

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/30/22910/9939/955/364158

FROM ABC NEWS 1999:

BRIAN ROSS (VO) In fact, when Steve Galster of Global Survival Network went undercover posing as a garment executive, he heard all about Congressman DeLay from the Mr Big of Saipan garment manufacturers - this man, Willie Tan. Tan, who owns the factors where the workers became ill, claims he is close to DeLay and boasted of the assurances he said the congressman had given him that the proposed laws on Saipan would be killed.


WILLIE TAN Because Tom DeLay will never let it go.


STEVE GALSTER You're sure?


WILLIE TAN Sure. Do you know what Tom told me? He said, "Willie, if they elect me Majority Whip, I make the schedule of the Congress, and I'm not going to put it on the schedule." So Tom told me, "Forget it, Willie. No chance."

http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/saipan/2020expose.html