Feds bust Democrat fund-raiser Norman Hsu in Colorado

Bail-jumping Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu was busted in Colorado last night after two days on the lam from a California court hearing, authorities said.

FBI agents took Hsu into custody at St.Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, according to FBI spokesman Joseph Schadler.

"San Francisco FBI located him," Schadler said, and Colorado G-men and local cops made the collar.

St. Mary's spokesman Pete Smarr told the Daily News, "Norman Hsu was traveling on an Amtrak train when he became ill. Amtrak personnel called an ambulance when the train stopped in Grand Junction and had him transferred to St. Mary's Hospital. He is currently in the hospital under federal custody. He is in fair condition."

A spokesman for Hsu seemed suprised by news of the arrest last night. "I haven't been in contact with him for a couple of days," said spokesman Jason Booth. "I'm happy he's been found."

Hsu had been scheduled to appear in a San Francisco court Wednesday to turn over his passport and ask a judge to halve the $2 million bail he posted last week. That's when he had finally turned himself in after spending 15 years ducking sentencing on a felony theft conviction. But Hsu failed to show up at the bail reduction hearing and a judge issued an arrest warrant for him.

California attorney general spokesman Gareth Lacy said Hsu's lawyers had told prosecutors Hsu arrived by charter jet at the Oakland airport about 5:30 a.m. Wednesday local time and then vanished.

California authorities then sought the assistance of the FBI.

The 56-year-old businessman from Hong Kong had lived in a swank SoHo condominium until he was outed last week as a fugitive. He was a top political fund-raiser, giving $260,000 to a long list of Democrats, including Sen. Hillary Clinton, Gov. Spitzer and state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. None of them knew he was a wanted man, they said.

Victims swindled by Hsu seethed yesterday at his misdeeds.

"He's a dirty liar. They never should have let him out of jail. I knew he would run," said a Fremont, Calif., man who lost $240,000 investing with Hsu in 1989 and 1990. "He really hurt me," said the retired man, who asked not to be identified. The fact that Hsu hoodwinked authorities and so many savvy politicians didn't surprise his California fraud victims.

Senator Pleads Guilty After Arrest at Airport

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 — Senator Larry E. Craig, Republican of Idaho, pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct charge earlier this month after his arrest in June by an undercover police officer in a men’s bathroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

A second charge of interference with privacy against the 62-year-old senator was dismissed. Mr. Craig was fined more than $500 at the Aug. 8 proceedings and was placed on unsupervised probation for one year. His 10-day jail sentence was suspended, according to a copy of a court document in the case.

According to a police report obtained by Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper that disclosed the episode and guilty plea today, a plainclothes police officer investigating complaints of sexual activity in the bathroom arrested the senator on June 11 after what the officer described as sexual advances made by Mr. Craig from an adjoining stall.

Roll Call reported that the officer said Mr. Craig tapped his foot as a signal to engage in lewd conduct, brushed his foot against the investigator’s and waved his hand under the stall divider several times before the officer showed him his badge. After his arrest, the senator denied any sexual intent and in a statement issued this afternoon he attributed the matter to a misunderstanding.

“At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions,” Mr. Craig said in a statement. “I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct.

“I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously.”

Mr. Craig, whose seat is up for election next year, is the second Republican senator in recent weeks to find his personal behavior under scrutiny. Senator David Vitter of Louisiana was implicated in a separate case in the Washington area when his phone number turned up in the records of an escort service. He made a public apology for what he described as “a very serious sin in my past,” but he has not been charged with any crime.