GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.—The Mesa County sheriff released former Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu on Thursday to officials from California, where he faces a 15-year-old felony theft conviction.
Hsu was arrested in Grand Junction two weeks ago after failing to show up for a court appearance in California.
On Wednesday, he appeared in a Colorado state court in handcuffs and ankle shackles and agreed to return to California without a legal fight.
Heather Benjamin, Mesa County sheriff’s spokeswoman, said Hsu was released from county custody by 11 a.m. Thursday. She declined to say whether Hsu had left Grand Junction, citing security concerns.
Officials in San Mateo County, Calif., where Hsu will be taken, did not immediately return a call.
After his 1992 conviction in California, Hsu failed to show up for his sentencing. He resurfaced years later as a major fundraiser for Democrats—gathering hundreds of thousands of dollars for presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton—until the California conviction came to light again.
He surrendered to California authorities and was released on bail but then skipped a court hearing scheduled in Sept. 5 in San Mateo County.
Hsu boarded an Amtrak train in the San Francisco area with a ticket for Denver, but he apparently fell ill in western Colorado and had to be hospitalized in Grand Junction. He had mailed a suicide note to a New York group.
On Thursday, federal prosecutors in New York unsealed a criminal complaint charging Hsu with breaking campaign finance laws and creating a “massive” Ponzi scheme.
