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Clinton's

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indicted

LITTLE ROCK (Arkansas): Two ex-business partners of President Bill Clinton and Arkansas' governor were indicted on Thursday on fraud and conspiracy charges in the latest twist in the Whitewater affair plaguing the White House.

Neither the president nor his wife Hillary Clinton were cited for any wrongdoing in the indictments handed down by a grand jury investigating various matters stemming from the president's business dealings while governor of this southern state.

But the indictments of James McDougal, his ex-wife Susan McDougal and Governor Jim Guy Tucker came as a relative jolt in the Whitewater probe after a round of congressional hearing that produced few concrete disclosure.

The three were named in a 21-count indictment that included wire, mail and bank fraud, and conspiracy charges. Tycker had already been indicted by the same grand jury on charges of lying to a lending company to get a 300,000 dollar loan.

Most of the counts made public Thursday carry a prison term of as many as five years and a maximum fine of 250,000 dollars.

Tucker denied the latest charges and said he had no intention of resigning. "They are false. I have violated no law," he said at a news conference.

The McDougals were partners of the Clintons in Whitewater, a failed land development deal in northern Arkansas.

Tucker succeeded Clinton as governor of Arkansas shortly after the presidential election in 1992.

The new charges stem from allegedly improper dealings involving the Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, which James McDougal owned, and the federally backed Capital Management Service lending company.

Capital Management Services already has been at the center of a swirl of allegations.

Its head, former judge David Hale, has claimed that Clinton pressured him to make a 300,000 dollar loan on Susan McDougal, an allegation that the president dismissed as "bull."

And Tucker, along with his lawyer and a partner in a cable television venture, was indicted here in June on charges of lying on an application for a 300,000 dollar loan from Capital Management Services.

That indictment also alleged a conspiracy to avoid taxes by hiding the value the cable venture sold for millions of dollars.

The White House has denid any link between the charges, and Clinton and praised Tucker as "outstanding public servant."

In addition to fraud and conspiracy, the counts handed down on Thursday against the McDougals and Tucker include fraudulent participation, making a false statement to a financial institution and misapplying funds.

Clinton and his wife have been dogged by questions about Whitewater and other business dealings for most of his presidency. He has been interrogated three times by investagators but no evidence has emerged that he did anything wrong.

Among the questions under scrutiny is whether money was funneled to Clinton's past gubernatorial campaigns from McDougal's bank.

The Republican-dominated Senate and House of Representatives have held separate hearings on Whitewater which produced no startling revelations.

The Republicans clearly have been keen to keep the Whitewater issue alive as Clinton faces a reelection bid next year.-AFP