A reminder was sent to countries in September and by the end of 2006 a preliminary description of contributions was returned to each participant, in order to check and to complete answers.
Some prominent Republican donors and fund-raisers have demanded that their contributions be returned, which the campaign has refused to do.
In some cases, the contributions were returned as cash payments through what the government called "an underground money transfer network" involving businesses in and around Los Angeles's jewelry district, the government said.
One lobbyist independently confirmed in an interview that his contribution had been returned after the campaign realized his occupation.
The candidates' representatives, as well as Mr. Rubenstein, said the contributions would be returned if the Campaign Finance Board deemed them improper.
"It's good that the illegal campaign contributions are being returned, but it's not sufficient," said CREW executive director Melanie Sloan.
As he prepared to dissolve the Paramount Center for the Arts, he said, he was returning contributions received after the closing.
Mr. Alamoudi, whose $1,000 contributions are to be returned by the Clinton and Bush campaigns, was out of the country and could not be reached for comment, Mr. Mossa-Basha said.
Ms. Lofgren, who sits on a House ethics committee, said in a statement that she was returning all campaign contributions from the PMA group, which amount to about $7,000 over the past 10 years.
But I was surprised, and troubled, by the high number of women in Ghana who reported using a sou-sou – another informal savings arrangement, where someone comes to her home to collect her savings and charges her a day's contribution when the money is returned at the end of the month — and also reported saving in a bank.
