Disgraced Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu intended to appear for a scheduled California court hearing but may have mistakenly boarded the wrong train because he was "sick and confused," his spokesman said.

The explanation was the first given for Hsu’s disappearance Sept. 5 as he was due in a Redwood City, Calif., courtroom over a 1991 grand theft conviction. He was arrested in Grand Junction the next day after he apparently fell ill on an eastbound Amtrak train and was hospitalized.

Hsu was expected to waive extradition at a hearing Wednesday in Grand Junction. After that, California officials would have 10 days to pick him up, said Mesa County sheriff’s spokeswoman Heather Benjamin.

At the California hearing, Hsu had been expected to turn over his passport and ask a judge to cut in half the $2 million bail he posted last month when he turned himself in after spending 15 years on the lam from the theft conviction.

Hsu meant to attend that hearing, but may have accidentally boarded the Amtrak train headed out of state rather than a Bay Area Rapid Transit train, his spokesman Jason Booth said late Tuesday.

"That’s what appears to be how it happened," Booth said. "He was disoriented at the time. … We believe he suffered a psychological, mental, or physical breakdown. How that was caused I don’t know. I’m not a doctor."

"Based on my communications with him … he had all intentions of being in court and now he wants to go in and deal with this," Booth added.

California Attorney General’s Office spokesman Gareth Lacy declined to comment on Booth’s statement.

Hsu boarded the Amtrak train about an hour and a half after arriving in California by charter plane. He was found in Grand Junction with a ticket for Denver.

Tapes of Grand Junction police radio traffic indicate that an officer recognized Hsu’s name from television news reports.

Hsu pleaded no contest in 1992 to a felony charge stemming from what San Mateo County prosecutors said was a $1 million Ponzi scheme. He was expected to serve up to three years in prison, but fled the state before he was sentenced and seemingly disappeared.

Hsu emerged years later as a top political fundraiser and became a leading money "bundler" for Clinton, earning the title of HillRaiser for his efforts. Her campaign is returning $850,000 in contributions linked to Hsu.

Hsu remained jailed on $5 million bail, housed in administrative segregation because of his high profile status, Benjamin said.

Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger had requested that Hsu’s bail be set at $50 million, telling a judge last week that Hsu was "probably involved" in a scheme involving $33 million and about 50 investors in Orange County, Calif. The prosecutor gave no details.

Hautzinger also cited an investigation in New York into whether Hsu was involved in the alleged misappropriation of millions of dollars from an investment fund.

Source: Mercury News