Mr. James Riady, a scion of the wealthy Indonesian clan that owns the huge Lippo group -- and, at one time, a tiny bank in Little Rock, capitalof Mr. Clinton's home state ofArkansas -- has apparently been giving a lot of money to the president's Democratic Party since 1991.
The deal had already established its roots when buyout shop Oaktree Capital Management purchased the bonds of Classic Cable, which owned small rural cable systems in places like Arkansas and was heading for bankruptcy.