When Southern California businessman Ray Jinnah surfaced after more than a year as a fugitive to face charges of arranging illegal campaign contributions, he appeared weak and lost, collapsing during a brief federal court hearing last month.
His transformation was stunning to those who knew him in 2000, when Jinnah brashly, if briefly, marketed himself as a political player with clout to arrange access to the Democratic Party's elite.
That summer, when the Democratic National Convention unfolded in Los Angeles, Jinnah hobnobbed with the Clintons and other VIPs while acting as a broker for at least two companies trying to curry favor with the party, interviews and records obtained by the Los Angeles Times show.
His aid came at a price. In exchange for helping an Orange County software startup become one of 16 convention technology partners, Jinnah demanded a large block of stock for himself and another to be split among four Democratic fundraisers, the company's founder said.
Jinnah also tried to acquire a piece of another company, a Kentucky-based alternative-energy venture, promising his connections could help pave the way to federal contracts. "He said, 'I can do this for you,' " said Henry Creque IV, chief executive of now-defunct Pure Energy. "He knew people."
Jinnah's current legal troubles arise from his fundraising activities in 2004, when prosecutors say he violated federal law by reimbursing employees and associates for nearly $60,000 in donations made in their names to New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's political action committee, HillPac, and California Sen. Barbara Boxer's reelection campaign.
Authorities allege he fled the country after being indicted in May 2006, taking refuge in his native Pakistan. Jinnah's attorneys said he left to care for his ailing mother and stayed because of his own poor health. Jinnah, a legal U.S. resident, surrendered voluntarily to the FBI on May 29 and is awaiting trial.
As Jinnah's case moves forward, more details are emerging about how he came onto the political scene, the extent of his relationships with prominent Democrats and what he hoped to gain by positioning himself as a man of influence within the party.
Jinnah's attorney declined to comment for this story.
Fundraisers and business associates have depicted the August 2000 Democratic convention as Jinnah's coming-out party.
