CongressionalBadBoys.com | home | Kim Jay Kim Republican, California  (1993-1998)   Yes, it was a little awkward.  Roaming the Halls of Congress was the Honorable Jay Kim.  Diligently doing his business, being avoided by other members of his own party, and wearing an electronic ankle bracelet under his suit pants, so that the Feds could track his movements.  His probation officer needed to know just where he was at all times.  Kim's problem:  he admitted to committing the largest campaign violation (in dollar amount) of any Member of Congress.  More than a third of his 1992 primary campaign, which he barely won by 889 votes, came from illegal contributions.  Kim admitted to knowingly accepting a $50,000 donation from a Taiwanese citizen and a $12,000 donation from a New York company that he desposited into his personal bank account.  He also admitted that his engineering firm improperly provided free office space and support worth $83,000 to his 1992 campaign.  His campaign committee also pleaded guilty to knowingly concealing more than $100,000 in other illegal contributions. While some of his colleagues sugar-coat his "mistakes," Kim's estranged wife June, who was cooperating with the Ethics Committee, had a different take on things:  "He is a congressman.  He should be clean.  He should be a role model.  In fact, he is the most crime-committing person I know."  Ouch!  [Click here for other observations by family and wives on other BadBoys]. (Mrs. Kim also pleaded guilty to accepting illegal campaign donations, and filed for a divorce). Kim in 1998 was allowed to go back and forth between his one-bedroom apartment in Arlington, Virginia, and the Capitol. He couldn't go back home to his California home in San Gabriel Valley--June lived there.  Kim was defeated in the 1998 general elections.  Source:  Juliet Eilperin, "Days in the Life of Jay Kim in the U.S. House of Correction," Washington Post, May 22, 1998, A23;  Marc Sanalow, "Congressman A Prisoner of the Beltway," San Francisco Chronicle, April 21, 1988, A1. Check out the House Ethics Committee Report on Jay Kim.