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Money For Nothing

Star witness in Torricelli investigation says he got nothing for gifts

By Associated Press

The key witness for federal investigators looking at the campaign and personal finances of New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli said he did give him lavish gifts — but got no political favors in return for them.

“He promised many things, but none happened,” businessman David Chang told The Star-Ledger of Newark in its Aug. 9 edition. “It was all lip service. Small people like me are the victims.”

The interview outside Chang’s Creskill home represented his first detailed public comment about the investigation that has lasted four years. It’s unusual for a federal witness to speak with the media during an investigation.

Chang’s allegations are well known, though. They have appeared in FBI documents and in newspaper stories attributed to anonymous sources.

Chang, 57, said he believes Torricelli had a plot to have him killed.

Chang pleaded guilty to making $53,700 in illegal donations to Torricelli’s 1996 Senate campaign. In an effort to get leniency, he agreed last year to cooperate with prosecutors in the probe of Torricelli.

He has told prosecutors that Torricelli accepted thousands of dollars in cash and expensive gifts in return for providing official intervention in Chang’s business deals in North and South Korea. He also said Torricelli knew about the illegal donations.

Investigators have searched Torricelli’s home and seized his bank records, among other efforts to corroborate Chang’s allegations.

Torricelli has denied any wrongdoing.

Torricelli’s attorney told the newspaper that Chang’s statements demonstrate that he’s unstable.

“David Chang’s comments appear delusional,” lawyer Ted Wells told the newspaper. “He is embellishing his prior statements to now include multiple Rolex watches and plots to kill him. These statements should be evaluated by psychiatrists, not lawyers.”

Torricelli’s lawyers have attacked Chang’s credibility — and even prosecutors have struggled with it.

Prosecutors also have said in court papers that he used at least two passports, three birth dates, three Social Security numbers, and was married to two women at the same time.

Chang said he gave Torricelli gifts such as Italian suits and Rolex watches by way of seeking help in getting the $71 million Chang was owed for corn and wheat shipments to North Korea. Chang said Torricelli merely wrote a letter to the North Korean ambassador to the United Nations.

Chang also sought Torricelli’s help in winning South Korean approval to buy an insolvent insurance company.

The businessman said he never considered the politician a friend, but rather a “supporter” with whom his relationship became so close that they spoke by telephone about three times a day for about a year.

Chang said dealing with Torricelli and American politics has devastated him, turning him from a Rolls-Royce owner to a nearly penniless man who borrows from friends just to live.

“I’ve lost my entire dream. My entire life,” Chang said. “I feel like I am in jail. I’m not allowed to talk to anybody.”