of honor at a Sioeng-organized luncheon the day after a Sioeng family company gave the $50,000 think-tank donation, solicited by a Gingrich adviser. Attorney General Janet Reno and the directors of the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency (NSA) told members of the Senate committee they had credible intelligence information indicating Sioeng acted on behalf of China. A spokesman for Sioeng denied the allegations. Sioeng left the country shortly thereafter, and no charges were filed. Bernard Schwartz Bernard L. Schwartz CEO of Loral Space & Communications, a satellite communications company, donated over $600,000 to the Democratic Party. Schwartz said he did not expect, need, or receive any special treatment from the Clinton administration as a result of his donations. In 1998 Loral was under investigation for illegally transferring satellite technology to China. In February 1998 during the time Loral was under investigation, Loral requested Clinton to sign a waiver which would allow Loral to ship satellite technology to China. Clinton's justice department advised against signing the waiver because they believed that a jury wouldn't convict Loral if they received a waiver from Clinton. Clinton did eventually sign the waiver. The U.S space technology received by China may have furthered Beijing's military development of nuclear missiles. In 2002 Loral would later be fined $14 million for its involvement in illegally transferring classified secrets to China. Investigations Department of Justice investigation The Justice Department opened a task force in late 1996 to begin investigating allegations of campaign fundraising abuses by the Clinton/Gore re-election campaign. It expanded its internal investigation to include activities related to President Bill Clinton's legal defense fund in December 1996. President Clinton announced in February 1997 that he thought there should be a "vigorous" and "thorough" investigation into reports that the People's Republic of China tried to direct financial contributions from overseas sources to the Democratic National Committee. The president stopped short of calling for an independent prosecutor, saying that was the decision of the Justice Department. "[O]bviously it would be a very serious matter for the United States if any country were to attempt to funnel funds to one of our parties for any reason whatever," President Clinton said. By July 1997, the administration determined that no evidence of any such thing had yet been proven. "We have received the relevant [FBI] briefings," White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said. "We believe there's no basis for any change