James Tjahaja Riady (; born 1957 in
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
) (also known as Lie Zen
) is an Indonesian businessman and the deputy
chairman
The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...
of the
Lippo Group
Lippo Group is an Indonesian multinational conglomerate company. The company operates internationally providing property development and management services. It was founded by Mochtar Riady. Lippo has a collective presence across Asia and Nor ...
, a major Indonesian
conglomerate. One of the most prominent
Chinese Indonesian
Chinese Indonesians ( id, Orang Tionghoa Indonesia) and colloquially Chindo or just Tionghoa are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries.
Chinese people and their Indonesian descendants have ...
businessmen, he is the son of
Mochtar Riady
Mochtar Riady, (; born 12 May 1929) also known as Lie Mon Tie, is an Indonesian financial magnate and the founder and chairman emeritus of Lippo Group. He was born in Malang to a Chinese Indonesian family. At five months old, his parents took h ...
, who founded Lippo Group. Lippo ceded its control of
Lippo Bank to
Khazanah of
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
in 2005. Since his conversion to
evangelical Christianity
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...
, James is now focusing on the study of
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
.
Early life
Riady studied at the
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...
in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
Business activities
Riady's entry into the American business community began in 1977, when he was persuaded by
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...
banking moguls W. R. Witt and
Jackson T. Stephens Jackson Thomas Stephens (August 9, 1923 – July 23, 2005) was an oilman and investment banker. He was the CEO of Little Rock, Arkansas-based Stephens Inc., a privately owned financial services company.
Background
Stephens was born on a farm ...
, and founders of
Stephens Inc., one of America's largest investment banks outside of
Wall Street
Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...
, to become partners in the Stephens's
Worthen Banking Corporation, after the younger Riady was sent by his father,
Mochtar Riady
Mochtar Riady, (; born 12 May 1929) also known as Lie Mon Tie, is an Indonesian financial magnate and the founder and chairman emeritus of Lippo Group. He was born in Malang to a Chinese Indonesian family. At five months old, his parents took h ...
, to set up a banking presence in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Mochtar Riady was also interested in helping
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
's former budget director,
Bert Lance
Thomas Bertram "Bert" Lance (June 3, 1931 – August 15, 2013) was an American businessman who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Jimmy Carter in 1977. He is known mainly for resigning from the Carter admini ...
, sell stock he held in the
National Bank of Georgia
The National Bank of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს ეროვნული ბანკი, ''Sakartvelos Erovnuli Bank’i'') is the central bank of Georgia. Its status is defined by the Constitution of Georgia. According t ...
, though the deal never materialized. Through their dealings with
Stephens Inc. the Riadys made the acquaintance of the then-
Arkansas governor
The governor of Arkansas is the head of government of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The governor is the head of the executive branch of the Arkansas government and is charged with enforcing state laws. They have the power to either approve or v ...
,
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
. In the early 1980s James and his father signed a licensing agreement with Zenith Electronics to produce color television sets in Indonesia and built a large production plant near Jakarta. Later, in 1985, Worthen was indicted of having administered several million dollars' worth of illegal, preferential loans to companies owned by the Riadys. The loans had allegedly been channeled through Lippo Finance and Investment, the Riadys'
Little Rock
( The "Little Rock")
, government_type = Council-manager
, leader_title = Mayor
, leader_name = Frank Scott Jr.
, leader_party = D
, leader_title2 = Council
, leader_name2 ...
-based company established in 1983, as well as the Stephenses and
Liem Swie Liong, another
Chinese-Indonesian
Chinese Indonesians ( id, Orang Tionghoa Indonesia) and colloquially Chindo or just Tionghoa are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries.
Chinese people and their Indonesian descendants have l ...
businessman, sometimes described as having been Mochtar's mentor.
After Worthen, James Riady bought the Bank of Trade in
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, the oldest
Chinese-American
Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from m ...
bank. Not long afterwards, the U.S. federal government issued cease-and-desist orders for "hazardous lending" and for violations against the
money-laundering
Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...
statutes.
Riady then promptly sold the bank.
James Riady moved to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
and established Lippo Bank with the help of
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
ese banker
John Huang
John Huang (, born 1945) is a major figure in the 1996 United States campaign finance controversy. He worked for Lippo Bank in California and Worthen Bank in Arkansas, and as deputy assistant secretary for international economic affairs in U.S. ...
. Again the bank lost a lot of money, made a number of bad loans, and violated laws of money laundering. James Riady established ties with Johnny Rayati in 2018 to enter the cannabis business in
Washington state
Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...
.
Together with
Jim Guy Tucker
James Guy Tucker Jr. (born June 13, 1943) is an American politician and attorney from Arkansas. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 43rd governor of Arkansas, the 15th lieutenant governor, state attorney general, and U.S. repres ...
he established a company called AcrossAsia Multimedia Ltd. Tucker, another former Arkansas governor, had been forced to vacate the governor's mansion in 1996 due to alleged fraud in the
Whitewater scandal
The Whitewater controversy, Whitewater scandal, Whitewatergate, or simply Whitewater, was an American political controversy during the 1990s. It began with an investigation into the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their ass ...
. The two had met through Little Rock's Second Presbyterian Church. With AcrossAsia Multimedia they wanted to build the largest cable TV infrastructure in Indonesia using a company called
Kabelvision. The venture was unsuccessful.
The Riady family recently acquired the tallest skyscraper in the western US,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
' US Bank Tower, for $367.5M through OUE, a
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
-listed entity that it controls.
Controversies
Clinton finance scandal
Corruption controversies have marked Riady's business career. In the
1996 presidential campaign, James Riady was a major
campaign contributor to the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
. In 1998, the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
conducted an investigation of
the finance scandal of the 1996 U.S. presidential campaign. James Riady was indicted and pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations by himself and his corporation. He was ordered to pay an 8.6 million U.S. dollar fine for contributing foreign funds to the Democratic Party, the largest fine ever levied in a campaign finance case.
["The Democratic Fund-Raising Flap: Cast of Characters"]
''CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
.com'', July 1, 1997["Clinton Donor Pleads Guilty"]
''CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
News.com'', March 20, 2001[James Riady Pleads Guilty]
Department of Justice, press release, Jan. 11, 2001[ Woodward, Bob]
"Findings Link Clinton Allies to Chinese Intelligence"
''Washington Post'', Feb. 10, 1998
KPPU bribery scandal
In 2008, Riady's close business associate Billy Sindoro, an executive of Riady's Jakarta-based
First Media, was filmed handing bribes to officials of Indonesia's anti-monopoly agency, the KPPU. Riady and First Media were then in a business dispute with a Malaysian company and the KPPU was deliberating that dispute. Sindoro was later found guilty of corruption. In December 2008, the Riady-owned ''
Jakarta Globe
The ''Jakarta Globe'' is a daily online English-language newspaper in Indonesia, launched in November 2008.
The paper initially came out as a print newspaper with an average of 48 pages a day, and published Monday to Saturday. It had three sect ...
'' published a sympathetic portrait of Sindoro in prison where he lamented he would not be able to spend Christmas with his family.
Obama Visa Waiver
In January 2010, the ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' revealed how the 'disgraced' Riady had received a visa waiver by the
Obama Administration
Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...
to re-enter the US, despite having been banned by the Bush administration. Riady's old friend, US Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States senat ...
claimed she had no knowledge of the visa waiver. A State Department official, embarrassed by the Post's revelation, said "the reality of his past remains a significant obstacle for future travel to the United States." Riady received a waiver from a rule that forbids entry to foreigners guilty of "a crime involving moral turpitude," a term that government lawyers generally interpret to include fraud.
James Riady lives with his family in
Lippo Village
Lippo Karawaci or Lippo Village is a multiracial community in Tangerang, 23 km west of Jakarta, Indonesia. The township is within the Jakarta metropolitan area. Previously a swamp area, it opened in 1993 and is today a benchmark for Indonesia' ...
,
Karawaci, surrounded by security aides. He has been berated by the media because of his involvement in the campaign financing scandal. , an Indonesian human rights activist, once stated that Riady's "major achievement was to export corruption to the U.S."
Evangelical activities
Since converting to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
in 1990, Riady has been an avid evangelical. He has established foundations, charities and Christian-inspired schools to spread the message in
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
-majority Indonesia. Inevitably, his zeal has clashed with conservative Islamic elements in the country.
Art collection
James is a collector of
painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...
s and is known to have spent millions of dollars on a single work of
art
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
. Part of his collection is displayed at the
UPH Painting Museum on the 3rd floor of
Matahari Towers in
Lippo Karawaci
Lippo Karawaci or Lippo Village is a multiracial community in Tangerang, 23 km west of Jakarta, Indonesia. The township is within the Jakarta metropolitan area. Previously a swamp area, it opened in 1993 and is today a benchmark for Indonesia' ...
. It has more than 700 paintings by prominent national and international painters including
Raden Saleh
Raden Saleh Sjarif Boestaman ( ar, ; ', jv, ꦫꦢꦺꦤ꧀ꦱꦭꦺꦃꦯ꦳ꦫꦶꦥ꦳꧀ꦨꦸꦱ꧀ꦠꦩꦤ꧀; EYD: ''Raden Saleh Syarif Bustaman''; 1811 – 23 April 1880) was a pioneering Indonesian Romantic painter of Arab- Javan ...
,
Affandi
Affandi (18 May 1907 – 23 May 1990) was an Indonesian artist. Born in Cirebon, West Java, as the son of R. Koesoema, who was a surveyor at a local sugar factory, Affandi finished his upper secondary school in Jakarta. He gave up his studies to ...
,
A. Sudjono
A is the first letter of the Latin and English alphabet.
A may also refer to:
Science and technology Quantities and units
* ''a'', a measure for the attraction between particles in the Van der Waals equation
* ''A'' value, a measure of ...
,
Barli,
Wakidi,
A.D. Pirous
The terms (AD) and before Christ (BC) are used to label or number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The term is Medieval Latin and means 'in the year of the Lord', but is often presented using "our Lord" instead of "the Lord", ...
,
Widayat, Zaini,
Srihadi Soedarsono,
Agus Djaya,
Trubus,
Mochtar Apin
Mochtar Apin (23.Des.1923–01.Jan.1994) was an accomplished Indonesian painter and tenured lecturer.
He was co-founder of the Arena of Independent Artists movement (Gelanggang Seniman Muda ) in Jakarta in 1946, and a member of the Bandung In ...
,
Sudjana Kerton,
Ivan Sagito,
But Mochtar,
Hendra Gunawan,
Dede Eri Supria,
Nasiah Djamin,
Walter Spies
Walter Spies (15 September 1895 – 19 January 1942) was a Russian-born German primitivist painter, composer, musicologist, and curator. In 1923 he moved to Java, Indonesia. He lived in Yogyakarta and then in Ubud, Bali starting from 1927, whe ...
,
R. Bommet,
Willem Dooijewaard
Willem () is a Dutch and West FrisianRienk de Haan, ''Fryske Foarnammen'', Leeuwarden, 2002 (Friese Pers Boekerij), , p. 158. masculine given name. The name is Germanic, and can be seen as the Dutch equivalent of the name William in English, Gui ...
and
J.D. Van Herwerden. Some of his collection has also been displayed in exhibitions at upscale malls and residential compounds.
Family
James Riady lives in Karawaci with his family. He is married to Aileen Hambali, and they have four children altogether: Caroline Riady Djojonegoro,
John Riady, Stephanie Riady, and Henry Riady. His father is
Mochtar Riady
Mochtar Riady, (; born 12 May 1929) also known as Lie Mon Tie, is an Indonesian financial magnate and the founder and chairman emeritus of Lippo Group. He was born in Malang to a Chinese Indonesian family. At five months old, his parents took h ...
, a prominent Indonesian businessman.
[personal relationship]
Notes
Bibliography
*
External links
US Department of Justice statement
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riady, James
1957 births
Converts to Christianity
Indonesian businesspeople
Indonesian billionaires
Indonesian Christians
Indonesian Protestants
Indonesian evangelicals
Indonesian philanthropists
Indonesian socialites
People from Jakarta
Indonesian people of Chinese descent
Indonesian Hokkien people
Living people