House Ethics Panel Says Kim Violated Code of Conduct

The House Ethics Committee has agreed that Rep. Jay C. Kim violated congressional rules of conduct by taking illegal corporate and foreign contributions, but has decided to take no disciplinary action because the Diamond Bar Republican is leaving office in January.

In a 173-page report released via the Internet on Friday, the committee said its investigators had uncovered some improprieties outside the scope of the FBI’s three-year probe of Kim’s fund-raising activities.

Through his lawyer, Kim denied violating any congressional rules, though he acknowledged having broken federal campaign laws.

The committee said Kim received a $30,000 gift from an official of Hanbo Steel and General Construction, a South Korean company, in 1994. Kim was accused of failing to report that gift, as well as travel expenses and golf equipment paid for by Hanbo, on his annual financial disclosure statement to the House.

In addition, the report said, Kim lied to the committee about the Hanbo official and tried to influence the company executive to color his testimony.

Kim was also accused of receiving two cashier’s checks totaling $30,000 from Hanbo in 1997 and 1998 to reimburse the U.S. Treasury for excess outside income he earned from his 1994 autobiography, “I’m a Conservative.”

The committee also cited Kim’s receipt of illegal corporate and foreign donations, to which he pleaded guilty last year in federal court in Los Angeles.

He was sentenced to two months of house arrest and a year of supervised probation for three misdemeanor violations of federal election law.

In June, Kim was defeated in the GOP primary in his 41st Congressional District, a seat he had held since 1992.

Kim suffered another setback Thursday when a Los Angeles federal judge denied his request for an early end to supervised probation so he could return to his native South Korea to host a television talk show. His probation expires in five months.