--- alias: - James Tjahaja Riady category: Business & Finance created: 2026-09-21 location: Jakarta, Indonesia relations: - fn: 1 role: intern type: employed_by with: '[[Stephens Inc.]]' - fn: 3 reverse: true start: 2001-01-11 type: prosecuted with: '[[Department of Justice]]' summary: Indonesian banker, son of Lippo Group founder Mochtar Riady, who interned at Stephens Inc., ran Worthen Bank's international division in Little Rock, and in 2001 paid the largest campaign finance fine in American history. tags: - Person - JamesRiady - LippoGroup - WorthenBank - JacksonStephens - CampaignFinance - BillClinton updated: 2026-09-23 --- James Tjahaja Riady is an Indonesian banker and the son of [Mochtar Riady](/people/mochtar-riady/), founder of the [Lippo Group](/organizations/lippo-group/). His father met [Jackson Stephens](/people/jackson-stephens/) and [Witt Stephens](/people/witt-stephens/) in 1976 while looking for a stake in an American bank, and the two families formed [Stephens Finance Ltd.](/organizations/stephens-finance-ltd/) in [Hong Kong](/places/hong-kong/) in 1978. James Riady served an internship at [Stephens Inc.](/organizations/stephens-inc/) in [Little Rock](/places/little-rock-arkansas/).[^1] ### Little Rock The Stephens and Riady families both invested in the [Worthen Banking Corporation](/organizations/worthen-bank/) in 1983, and James Riady moved to Little Rock to run its international division, with [John Huang](/people/john-huang/) as his Far East manager from February 1985. That April the [New Jersey](/places/new-jersey/) securities dealer Bevill, Bresler and Schulman failed while holding 52 million dollars of [Arkansas](/places/arkansas/) state funds that Worthen had placed with it. About 1987 the Riadys traded their Worthen shares for the Stephens interest in the [Hong Kong Chinese Bank](/organizations/hong-kong-chinese-bank/). Riady was chief executive of [LippoBank](/organizations/lippobank/) in [Los Angeles](/places/los-angeles/) from 1986 to 1988. A memorandum in the family's files credited a five-minute car ride with Governor [Bill Clinton](/people/bill-clinton/) as the start of its political giving to him. Through the end of 1991 the Lippo Group was expected to take over the Hong Kong subsidiary of the [Bank of Credit and Commerce International](/organizations/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international/), paying depositors as much as forty cents on the dollar. The plan ended in February 1992 when investigators found 145 million dollars in unrecorded claims against the bank.[^1][^2] ### Hubbell On June 23, 1994, Riady had breakfast at the Hay-Adams Hotel with [Webster Hubbell](/people/webster-hubbell/), who had resigned from the [Department of Justice](/organizations/department-of-justice/) in April, met President Clinton at ten with Huang and [Mark Grobmyer](/people/mark-grobmyer/), and had lunch with Hubbell. On June 27 Hubbell wrote to a director of [Hong Kong China Limited](/organizations/hong-kong-china-limited/), a Lippo company, offering his services for 100,000 dollars a year, and the money was in his account by that day. "Both Riady and Hubbell refuse to describe what services, if any, Hubbell performed," a House committee reported. Lippo also paid for a trip to Jakarta and Bali for Hubbell and his wife. An associate of Riady told a reporter: "Mr. Hubbell was our very close friend, when he left, we felt we should help him out. We didn't like to see him without a source of income." Hubbell wrote in his memoir: "it wasn't hush money." The former managing partner of the [Rose Law Firm](/organizations/rose-law-firm/), [C. Joseph Giroir](/people/c-joseph-giroir/), incorporated the Arkansas International Development Corporation with Lippo capital in April 1993 and gave close to 200,000 dollars in 1996 in connection with fundraisers organized by Huang.[^1] ### Plea On January 11, 2001, Riady agreed to plead guilty in the federal court in Los Angeles to a felony charge of conspiring to defraud the [United States](/places/united-states/) by reimbursing campaign donors with foreign corporate funds, and to pay 8.61 million dollars, which the Justice Department called the largest fine in the history of campaign finance law. LippoBank pleaded guilty to 86 misdemeanor counts covering 1988 to 1994. Indonesia has no extradition treaty with the United States, and Riady surrendered voluntarily after about six sessions with prosecutors. He agreed to 400 hours of community service and to stay out of the country for two years. The benefits the charge said he sought included "Community Reinvestment Act exemptions for LippoBank," "a repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act," and "Most Favored Nation status for [China](/places/china/)."[^3] ### Leaving Worthen The [House Government Reform and Oversight Committee](/organizations/house-committee-on-oversight-and-government-reform/), drawing on the depositions of Arthur Vernon Weaver and C. Joseph Giroir, gave the reason for the family's departure from Worthen: "The Riadys were bought out of Worthen by the Stephens family after the bank experienced a major defalcation by Bevil Bressler in 1986. After the defalcation, regulators investigated the quality of Worthen's assets and determined there were problems. Allegations were made against Worthen's loan practices and asset quality. Eventually, the Riadys traded their interest in the Worthen Bank for the Stephens' interest in the Hong Kong Chinese Bank, and also traded their interests in other joint ventures." Riady and Huang then "focused their attention on a bank they previously had purchased in San Francisco, California. Soon thereafter they established the Bank of Trade in Los Angeles, which later became LippoBank."[^4] Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation records show that the Bank of Trade, chartered in [San Francisco](/places/san-francisco/) in 1961, moved its main office to Los Angeles on October 31, 1989 and took the name Lippo Bank on January 18, 1990.[^5] [^1]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, 1998, vol. 2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm ; Hubbell, Webster. *Friends in High Places*. William Morrow, 1997. [^2]: Truell, Peter, and Larry Gurwin. *False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, the World's Most Corrupt Financial Empire*. Houghton Mifflin, 1992. [^3]: Department of Justice, "James Riady Pleads Guilty, Will Pay Largest Fine in Campaign Finance History for Violating Federal Election Law," press release 01-17, January 11, 2001. [^4]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, 1998, vol. 2, footnotes 14-15. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm [^5]: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, BankFind Suite, institution history for certificate 18453 (Lippo Bank), queried September 23, 2026. https://api.fdic.gov/banks/history?filters=CERT:18453&limit=50