One former classmate who invested in the apartment syndicate said he had considered Hsu "an orphan who needed to be taken care of." The classmate, like others who participated in Hsu's ventures, refused to discuss it on the record for fear that the association with Hsu might damage his reputation.
A few years later, the investors learned that all their money was gone. Some thought Hsu -- who in fact may not have been an orphan at all -- had abused their trust.
A similar scheme involving a nonexistent contract to sell latex gloves left another set of investors empty-handed, leading to fraud charges against Hsu in 1991. He pleaded no contest to felony grand theft and to accept up to three years in prison. But instead of appearing for a 1992 sentencing hearing, Hsu disappeared, apparently returning to his native Hong Kong.
Sometime later in the 1990s, he returned to the United States and went back to hatching investment deals. In 2003, he also began delivering thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to Democrats.
After The Times identified the man who had become one of the Democratic Party's most valued fundraisers as a fugitive, Hsu turned himself in and was released on $2 million bail. Then he disappeared again.
He was arrested Sept. 6 in Grand Junction, Colo., after he became ill on an eastbound train and was taken to a hospital.
A letter Hsu sent by FedEx the day he disappeared suggested he may have planned to commit suicide.
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'Great while it lasted'
Long before he surrendered last month in San Mateo County on the original grand theft charge, Hsu had greatly expanded his operation. The scale of his ventures was suggested by a telephone call that Pete Hautzinger, the district attorney for Mesa County, Colo., received about a week ago at his office in Grand Junction.
According to Hautzinger, the caller identified himself as an Orange County resident with a story to tell about Hsu. The caller claimed to be a victim of a scheme that involved at least $33 million and a pool of as many as 50 investors.
Orange County apparently was just one of Hsu's focal points. By 2003, records and interviews show, he was drawing investors into new ventures from coast to coast.
A New York investment fund has told authorities that it put $40 million into a Hsu venture on the promise of a 40% return.
