1.   Among the beneficiaries of the illegal donations were several politicians from the New York region, where Prudential is based.

2.   Among the biggest beneficiaries of these illegal donations were several politicians from the New York region.

3.   A campaign that discovers and returns illegal donations on its own is usually not fined.

4.   But Democrats argued that it amounted to an illegal foreign donation.

5.   But last week tables turned and Republicans had to defend themselves against assertions that their party had accepted an illegal donation of foreign money.

6.   But the FBI turned up no evidence that the campaigns knew or encouraged Fireman to orchestrate illegal donations.

7.   Democrats, conceding that the illegal straw donations had been made, said they were all too common in politics and not evidence of some global plot.

8.   Earlier this week, several Democrats in Congress said the FBI warned them in June that the Chinese government might try to funnel illegal donations to their campaigns.

9.   Federal investigators are trying to determine whether Huang helped funnel illegal foreign donations to the Democratic Party and members of Congress.

10.   Fran Reiter, the campaign manager, said it had grown increasingly vigilant in searching for illegal donations.