By Karen Gullo/AP
Thai businesswoman Pauline Kanchanalak pleaded guilty last June to making illegal contributions of more than $690,000 to Democrats in return for access to former President Bill Clinton and other officials.
Last week, she was charged with campaign finance violations, and was sentenced on April 20 to three years’ probation and six months’ house arrest, as well as ordered to pay a $3,000 fine, the Justice Department said.
She admitted using accounts of her sister-in-law and mother-in-law to give more than $457,000 to the Democratic National Committee and five state Democratic committees in connection with a June 18, 1996, visit to the White House for coffee.
In addition to probation and electronically monitored home confinement, Kanchanalak also must perform 200 hours of community service under the sentence handed down last Friday before Judge Paul Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
In determining Kanchanalak’s sentence, Friedman took into account that she organized the conspiracy and obstructed justice in the course of the investigation, the Justice Department said.
Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of six months to a year in prison.
Kanchanalak and her sister-in-law, Duangnet Kronenberg, agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department’s campaign finance task force. They are among 26 people charged by the task force since it was set up four years ago under Attorney General Janet Reno.
Kronenberg pleaded guilty last year to one count of making an illegal corporate political contribution to the DNC. She was put on probation for 18 months and ordered to pay a $1,500 fine, the Justice Department said. |
