Recently I was asked by a reporter from Metro Silicon Valley to assist in research for an article he was writing on the upcoming election in District 4, San Jose.  He wanted to find out more about the businesses of Hon Lien, candidate endorsed by the mayor and vice-mayor of San Jose as a good businesswoman.  This request was made as a fellow journalist (editor of VietAm Review) and retired history teacher.  The study was undertaken without pay. 

             I was given was the website of L & D Enterprise, a seafood and dried foods processing and import/export company in Ho Chi Minh City.   http://www.ld-enterprise.com/index.php .  It was found documented as starting business in 2002 with Hon Lien as the private owner, with $800,000 capital.  (see Saigon Daily News, an English language newspaper in HCMC, September 9, 2002). [1]  The foods it processes and exports are sold in Europe.  They have recently becoming a trading partner with a Dutch company that specializes in Asian food products. 

The other information I was given was the name of the Sunnyvale Seafood Corporation, a wholesale distributor of fresh and frozen seafoods and meats which is in San Jose at 1651 Pomona Ave, http://www.sunnyvaleseafood.com/ , for which Hon Lien claims to be the chief financial officer (CFO) at the same time that she says the family sold the business in 2004.  The business website which lists Hon Lien as CFO says it is a 20-year wholesaler of great reputation in Silicon Valley.  They have a fleet of 50 vans and earnings are estimated at $20-50 million annually in Reference USA as Sunnyvale Seafoods.   That’s where I found the website. 

             Although the reporter, Matt Stroud, included the information that I found at libraries and City Hall about Hon Lien’s businesses in the current issue of Metro  http://www.metroactive.com/metro/05.16.07/district-4-race-0720.html, it appears in different sections within the long article and it is hard to sort out the business hierarchy.   

            Therefore, in light of a recent statement by vice-mayor David Cortese that the City of San Jose should sever ties with Vietnam because of its human rights violations, and further should not trade with Vietnam, which was reported on ABC News on May 14,  http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=5305083 , I feel it is my duty to inform him that the candidate he actively supports in the District 4 election has a thriving business in Ho Chi Minh City.  Hon Lien’s campaign manager Victor Ajlouny—who is a paid political  consultant who has written campaign material for many San Jose candidates, including successful mayoral candidate Chuck Reed—told reporters that “communism is not an issue [in the Chu-Lien election]…”the Cold War is over. Leave it alone.” [2]   

            The issue among San Jose Vietnamese Americans is not the Cold War, it is the present violation of human rights in Vietnam and the acceptance of  Communist Vietnam as a trading partner by the United States (due to President George Bush) and removal as a country of particular concern (CPC), which occurred at the APEC Summit in April 2006.

This is the same month that Hon Lien declared bankruptcy of the Golden Phoenix Enterprise, Inc., market in Mountain View.  Using this process to eliminate debt is supposed to assist people who are truly bankrupt and cannot pay their bills.  To say that you can’t pay your bills in San Jose and at the same time be the founding owner of a thriving international food business in Vietnam is not considered “honesty in business.”  Lien told the Berryessa Sun that she did not know the amount owed to creditors or how many there were in the bankruptcy.  http://www.berryessasun.com/local/ci_5864887  This information is easily obtained from public records in the United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of California.  The amount owed to creditors is $1,083,262.55, but that she told the Sun that it was “nowhere near that amount [$1 million].”  Lien lists personal property value as $459,721.58. 

There are other rules in declaring bankruptcy which are annoying to Hon Lien.  She wants to ease the San Jose license process for business developers in Coyote Valley.  This is of vital interest to all who live in the Bay Area, not just residents of District Four.  San Jose’s development plan of Coyote Valley will be discussed on May 21, 2007.  http://www.sanjoseca.gov/planning/evergreen/       

What was also revealed in my trek to various libraries which connect with state corporation records is that Hon Lien is never listed as an officer of the Sunnyvale Seafood Corporation, registered on 5/31/1991 (C1689057).  This registration was in the name of Xia Lien, as president, and Ms. Tracy Ha as CFO and Human Resources.  She is not on the business license at San Jose City Hall.  Neither is Xia Lien or Tracy Ha.

             As stated in MetroNews, the Sunnyvale Seafood Corporation was apparently sold.  The buyer was S.S.C. Inc., president Hieu Tran.  He is the business owner on the license at the City of San Jose, which states that the business began in 2005; the license was issued in January 2007.  Hieu Tran and S.S.C. Inc. are the only owner listed on the license.  Hieu Tran is the only officer listed in the corporation registration of S.S.C. (C2698243), at 1651 Pomona Street, San Jose, 95110.  This incorporation was made in 1997 and includes Pacific Dynasty.    

            Vice-mayor David Cortese, are you willing to put action to your public condemnation of doing business with Vietnam?    Because the L & D Enterprise in Ho Chi Minh City is the only operating business of District 4 City Council “honest businesswoman” candidate Hon Lien. 

 
Sincerely,

Jean Libby, editor

VietAm Review

http://vietamreview.blogharbor.com