Just like EVA and JUAN PERON, the money just
keeps rolling in!
BILLARY and HILLARY CLINTON - SELLING OUT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND
GETTING RICH DOING IT!
Another
possible explanation is that the Clintons don't
Lincoln Bedroom to people who gave $5.4
million to the
Democratic National
Committee in 1995 and 1996 did no
lasting damage to Bill's approval ratings.
Neither did the
1996 fundraising scandal involving illegal foreign donations,
which the Los Angeles Times reported on just before the
president easily won a
second term.
Wall
Street analyst: 'Shut down Clinton Foundation'
Prominent D.C. attorney joins in call for
criminal investigation
Read more at
http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/wall-street-analyst-shut-down-clinton-foundation/#bWuUrwpRx4vyJyMk.99
NEW YORK – A prominent lawyer and a top
government watchdog in the nation’s capital are calling for the Bill, Hillary,
and Chelsea Clinton Foundation to be shut down as a Wall Street analyst
prepares to issue a second report documenting what he believes is systematic
financial fraud warranting a criminal investigation.
Ortel believes that once his findings have been
studied, state and local law enforcement authorities will initiate multiple
criminal investigations and charge the Clintons with “private inurement,” the crime
of enriching themselves through a nonprofit organization.
He explained that the burden of proof, under
state and federal laws, will be on the Clintons to demonstrate that their
foundation was not operated as a systematic fraud designed to enrich themselves
and their associates.
After examining Ortel’s first two reports, Tom
Fitton, president of
Washington-based Judicial Watch, told WND there is now
enough
evidence to warrant a grand jury investigation into the Clintons’
foundation and its various related charitable entities to examine
evidence of
extortion, bribery, money laundering, inurement and
the destruction of
documents.
“The question is no longer whether Hillary
Clinton can win the Democratic primaries for president,” Fitton told WND. “The
question now is whether Bill and Hillary Clinton can stay out of jail.”
Fitton said Judicial Watch is filing Freedom of
Information Act requests in its ongoing investigations of the Clinton
Foundations and Hillary Clinton’s withholding of emails through the use of a
private server while she was secretary of state.
Washington-based attorney Cleta Mitchell, an
expert in tax-exempt organizations who has represented tea-party and other
conservative groups in the IRS scandal, agreed with Fitton.
“I am today going to call on New York Attorney
General Eric T. Schneiderman to do his job and file proceedings to demand the
Clinton Foundation and its various subgroups immediately stop fundraising in
New York until [they] comply with New York law,” Mitchell told WND.
She noted Schneiderman has required that all
charitable foundations in the country doing business in New York state be
registered in New York and turn over their donor list.
“I am demanding the same standard must be
applied to the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, as well as to the
Clinton Global Initiative and Clinton Health Access Inc., as well as any other
operational units the Clintons have constituted to raise charitable
contributions in New York,” Mitchell said.
Ortel has reached the same conclusion.
“If the regulatory violations in filing
financial reports that I’ve documented had occurred to anyone else other than
the Clintons, the Clinton Foundation would have been closed years ago, with
state and federal criminal investigations begun immediately,” he said.
Ortel alleges criminal fraud
In his second report, Ortel concentrates on the
construction and architecture of Clinton Foundation financial statements and
required independent audits filed for its largest constituent element, the
Clinton Health Access Initiative, also known as CHAI.
Ortel distinguishes his analysis from
Schweizer’s analysis of foreign contributions to the Clinton Foundation, noting
Schweizer admits he does not have proof of a criminal quid pro quo.
Ortel points out that under New York state law,
a tax-exempt organization “of a size that the Clinton Foundation attained long
ago must file information returns that are wholly true and accurate, not false
and misleading.”
“The Clinton Foundation’s declarations to
authorities, and, therefore, to the public, are, therefore, fraudulent,” he
writes.
In New York state, he notes, where the Clinton
Foundation has operated for years, state law specifically exempts authorities
from burdensome requirements of documenting intent or harm in efforts to prove
charity defendants are guilty of criminal fraud.
Ortel’s second report, he says, documents the
Clinton Foundation “has repeatedly made declarations that are false while also
omitting to state relevant facts concerning the true nature of its endeavors.”
“These repeated falsehoods and omissions
constitute a long-standing pattern of deception that appears to constitute a
criminally fraudulent scheme,” he said.
In a table included in his second report, Ortel
documents that Clinton Foundation audit statements in the years 2005 through
2009 were filed with regulators after the Clinton Foundation filed the IRS Form
990 tax reporting statement with the IRS, even though federal law requires the
Form 990 to be derived from the audit statement.
image:
http://www.wnd.com/files/2015/05/audit-clinton-foundation.jpg
Ortel summarized his findings:
- For 2005, the IRS filing for
the Clinton Foundation was submitted 35 days past the final legally
mandated deadline, in violation of federal and state laws.
- For 2006, the IRS filing was
made just before the final legally mandated deadline; however, the
companion, required independent audit was evidently filed 56 days
following the IRS filing, which is in violation of federal and state laws.
- For 2007, the IRS filing was
again made just before the final legally mandated deadline; however, the
companion, required independent audit was filed 30 days following the IRS
filing, which is in violation of federal and state laws.
- For 2008, the IRS filing was
made just after the final legally mandated deadline; however, the
companion, required independent audit was filed 45 days following the IRS
filing, which is in violation of federal and state laws.
- For 2009, the IRS filing and
the companion audit were submitted by the final legally mandated deadline;
however, contends Ortel, these documents and all documents previously
mentioned concerning 2005 through 2009 are riddled with material,
uncorrected, false, misleading and incomplete statements and financial
disclosures.
Ortel explains in his report that “unlike
individual taxpayers who stand a small chance of being audited by the IRS after
they volunteer information concerning income and expense on relevant tax forms,
all public charities of the size the Clinton Foundation has been since its
original authorization as a tax-exempt organization must procure an independent
audit of their financial statements by a competent and empowered firm of
accounting professional who have access to all relevant supporting schedules.”
Ortel notes the independent audit must be
attached to the tax-exempt organization’s IRS filing as elements of the IRS
Form 990 and supporting schedules call for reconciliation of numerous financial
figures with information contained in the independent audit.
He finds that for calendar years 2005 through
2009, the Clinton Foundation “filed false and materially misleading
informational returns to governmental authorities.”
“In addition, the Clinton Foundation submitted
documents it held out to authorities and to the general public as being
independent certified audits of its financial statements – these documents
(repeatedly submitted after Forms 990 were filed) were neither ‘independent,’
nor ‘audits’ within accepted meanings contemplated under applicable laws.”
Despite an extensive search, Ortel was unable to
find on the Clinton Foundation website or on any state or federal government
website an independent audit of the Clinton Foundation since inception that
validates revenue or expense-line items.
Instead, Ortel notes the BKD accounting firm
reliance letters submitted with the Clinton Foundation financial statements for
the years 2005-2009 are characterized by BKD as “audit reviews.” This suggests
the accounting firm limited the audit to reviewing financial statements
produced by the Clinton Foundation without attempting to reconstruct or
validate the statements independently.
‘Minimal resources to accounting and legal’
Ortel further documents that in the years 2007
through 2013, the Clinton Foundation allocated what he considered minimal
financial resources to discharge financial reporting requirements, compared to
resources spent for travel and conference expenses for the Clintons and other
unspecified foundation staff or related persons.
Clinton Foundation expenses for legal and
accounting versus travel and conferences, 2007-2013:
Ortel argues the allocation of such minimal
resources to legal and accounting constituted fraud.
“The Clinton Foundation failed to exercise
proper care in operating a sprawling multinational organization prudently to
serve valid public interests,” he writes.
‘Misleading statements pleading innocence’
Since April 20, when Ortel issued his first
report on the Clinton Foundation, credible representatives of the foundation
quickly admitted that publicly available filings submitted in connection with
one or more fiscal years contain errors and promised that any material errors
found as part of a renewed self-examination would be corrected.
“We have said that after a voluntary external
review is completed, we will likely re-file forms for some years,” she said.
“While some have suggested that this indicates a failure to accurately report
our total revenue, that is not the case. Our total revenue was accurately
reported on each year’s form – our error was that government grants were
mistakenly combined with other donations. Those same grants have always been
properly listed and broken out and available for anyone to see on our audited
financial statements, posted on our website.”
Pally continued: “So yes, we made mistakes, as
many organizations of our size do, but we are acting quickly to remedy them,
and have taken steps to ensure they don’t happen in the future. We are
committed to operating the Foundation responsibly and effectively to continue
the life-changing work that this philanthropy is doing every day. I encourage you
to read more about that good work at www.clintonfoundation.org.”
Ortel accused Pally of trying to mislead the
public by suggesting the Clinton Foundation irregularities, errors and
omissions in filing financial reports were minor, technical mistakes of no
material nature.
“Ms. Pally’s comments are themselves materially
misleading for many reasons,” Ortel continues to argue, “including that the
Clinton Foundation has neither procured nor published independent audits of any
financial statements that were prepared by fully informed and professional
accounting firms, and done so on a rigorously considered and consolidated basis
in the approximately 15 years since the foundation was created.”
Ortel says Pally should know from her previous
work with New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s charitable endeavors, which are much
larger than the Clinton Foundation, that prominent public charities “devote
appropriate resources, both financial and otherwise, to explain fully how they
are actually meeting their authorized tax-exempt purposes, how they protect and
serve the interests of their donors, and how they take great pains to comply,
on a timely and thorough basis with informational report requirements in
relevant legal jurisdictions.”
Ortel further points out that even more
recently, Bill Clinton compounded errors in the evolving Clinton Foundation
narrative when he stated there was nothing “sinister” in the management or
operation of the foundation.
Ortel insists otherwise.
“Actually, there is something sinister when
donors with modest means make contributions to a suspect enterprise which they
could have sent to one or more properly organized and validly operating
tax-exempt organizations,” he writes.
“Moreover, repeatedly making demonstrably false,
materially misleading, and incomplete informational filings concerning the
activities of tax-exempt organizations to relevant governmental authorities and
to the general public is illegal,” he stresses, “particularly when these are
made by someone such as Bill Clinton who is a lawyer, serves as a director and
officer, and certainly is in position to exercise significant influence over
the Clinton Foundation and over its constituent entities.”
‘Criminal inurement’
In his second report, Otel contends that “given
its alleged and continuing offenses,” the “malefactors operating the Clinton
Foundation be removed and disciplined, in the process of shutting down the
Foundation altogether.”
“So far, the Clinton’s and their supporters have
been able to deflect pubic criticism by pointing out that Schweizer’s
allegations amount to charging the Clintons with using their foundation to
commit bribery, a criminal offense with a very high threshold of proof in a
criminal court,” Ortel says.
“My charges involve financial mismanagement and
gross irregularities, inaccuracies and other errors in financial reporting,
alleging the Clintons were guilty of inurement.”
He says inurement is an offense “so antithetical
to the purpose of government allowing tax-favored status to charitable offenses
that state and federal law requires closing a foundation found to have
committed material errors in financial reporting, with the burden of proof
shifting to the foundation to prove financial reporting was done correctly and
not done in error as a means of perpetrating a criminal fraud.”
The IRS defines
“inurement” in strict terms: “A section 501(c)(3) organization must
not be organized or operated for the benefit of private interests, such as the
creator or the creator’s family, shareholders of the organization, other
designated individuals, or persons controlled directly or indirectly by such
private interests. No part of the net earnings of a section 501(c)(3)
organization may inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.
A private shareholder or individual is a person having a personal and private
interest in the activities of the organization.”
Inconsistent, incomplete and confusing
A search of relevant government databases showed
considerable inconsistency and confusion regarding whether or not the Clinton
Foundation (listed also as the William J. Clinton Foundation and the Bill,
Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation), the Clinton Global Initiative and the
Clinton Health Access Initiative are separately structured corporations
registered with the relevant departments of state.
The Clinton Foundation website lists no address
for the Clinton Foundation, CGI or CHAI, indicating only that the Clinton
Presidential Center is located “along the Arkansas River in Little Rock,”
consisting of a museum, a library and archives.
The Bill, Hillary, and
Chelsea Clinton Foundation 2013 IRS Form 990, the most recent such form posted on the
Clinton Foundation website, lists the address as 610 President
Clinton Avenue, 2nd Floor, Little Rock, Arkansas, with the name of the
principal officer, Eric Braverman, listed at 1271 6th Avenue in New York City. The IRS Exempt
Organizations Select Check shows the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton
Foundation listed as a tax-exempt foundation but has no listing for
either the Clinton Global Initiative or the Clinton Health Access Initiative
Inc.
Separately filed IRS 990s are not available for
either the Clinton Global Initiative or the Clinton Health Access Initiative
Inc.
For 2013, there is no separate address, IRS Form
990 or separate financial report filed on the Clinton Foundation website for
either CGI or CHAI, both of which are reported along with the foundation in the
same IRS Form 990 and consolidated in financial statements for the Dec. 31,
2013, report that Price Waterhouse Coopers LLP prepared for the Bill, Hillary
& Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
New York
The New York Department of State corporation
database list the “current entity status” for CGI Global International Inc. as
“Inactive – Dissolution by Proclamation/ Annulment of Authority (June 25,
2003).”
Arkansas
A search of the
Arkansas Secretary of State Corporations website for the Clinton Health Access
Initiative Inc. found an Arkansas corporation under that name with a
board of directors different than the board of directors listed in the Arkansas
database for the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. The Arkansas
Secretary of State Corporations website listed the Clinton Health Access
Initiative Inc. as a having its principal address at 383 Dorchester Avenue,
Suite 400, in Boston, Massachusetts, with John R. Tisdale, Bill Clinton’s
lawyer, listed as the local registered agent at 200 West Capitol, Suite 2300,
Little Rock, Arkansas.
WND previously
reported Ortel’s concern the agreement to extend former Clinton
Foundation CEO Braverman’s employment contract in December 2014, combined with
his subsequent and sudden departure just days later in January, is suspicious.
On March 1,
investigative reporter Kenneth P. Vogel, writing in
Politico magazine, found that in December 2015 the board of the
Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Foundation had approved a salary of more than
$395,000 plus bonuses to hire the Yale-educated Braverman, while voting to
extend his board term through 2017.
Vogel noted that Braverman, who had worked with
Chelsea Clinton at McKinsey & Company consultancy had been recruited “with
the former first daughter’s support to help impose McKinsey-like management
rigor to a foundation that had grown to a $2 billion charitable powerhouse.”
Braverman’s sudden departure shook the New York
financial world.
Ortel, a frequent guest on Bloomberg television
and a contributor to the Washington Times and others, began his Wall Street
career in 1980 with Dillon, Read, & Co., followed by the Bridgeford Group
and Chart Group.
His international investment analysis frequently
centers on complex legal and financial structures. He is currently managing
director of Newport Value Partners LLC, which provides independent investment
research to professional investors. He is a graduate of the Horace Mann School,
Yale College and the Harvard Business School.
In an article published
Aug. 4, 2009, demonstrating the financial analysis for which Ortel is perhaps
best known on Wall Street, Forbes magazine
noted he first broadcast his concerns about General Electric’s
earnings quality in 2008, when the stock was trading above $30 a share. A year
later, GE’s market value had plunge by about $200 billion, to $13 a share.
Read more at
http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/wall-street-analyst-shut-down-clinton-foundation/#bWuUrwpRx4vyJyMk.99
THE UNLEASHING OF WALL STREET’S BIGGEST
BANSTERS and the ASSAULT ON the AMERICAN
MIDDLE-CLASS STARTED WITH BILL CLINTON.
You think Hillary’s any different? Obama’s
crony banksters
don’t!!!
THE UNLEASHING OF WALL STREET’S BIGGEST
MONSTERS and the ASSAULT ON the AMERICAN
MIDDLE-CLASS STARTED WITH BILL CLINTON.
You think Hillary’s any different? Obama’s
crony banksters don’t!!!
HILLARY CLINTON: A
dedicated disciple of OBAMANOMICS – Why else
would his banksters invest so much
in her???
“That her candidacy is announced without calling for
any particular policies underscores the fact that the election is not about the
American people deciding the course of policy, but rather the vetting of
candidates to serve the interest of the financial oligarchy.”
“There is, of course, no acknowledgment that Clinton was part
of an administration that oversaw and continues to oversee the greatest
transfer of wealth from the bottom to “those at the top” in US history.”
Just like EVA and JUAN PERON, the money just
keeps rolling in!
BILLARY and HILLARY CLINTON - SELLING OUT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND
GETTING RICH DOING IT!
HILLARY CLINTON: GLOBAL LOOTER LIKE A THIRD-WORLD DICTATOR IN
THE MAKING!
“Schweizer: Clinton Donors, Relatives Got Rich Off Haiti
Contracts, US Taxpayers”
“Clinton Cash” author
Peter Schweizer reported on the US taxpayer money and contracts in Haiti
profited Clinton Foundation donors and Clinton relatives.”
Clinton Foundation Put On Watch List Of
Suspicious
‘Charities’
“This
decision wasn’t made because of the Clinton Foundation’s remarkably lucrative
sideline as a uranium superstore for Russian strongmen, but because its
finances are opaque and dishonest, and because such a tiny amount of the money
it rakes in actually goes to charitable endeavors. “The Clinton family’s
mega-charity took in more than $140 million in grants and pledges in 2013 but
spent just $9 million on direct aid,” notes the New York Post. “The
group spent the bulk of its windfall on administration, travel, and salaries
and bonuses, WITH THE FATTEST PAYOUTS GOING TO FAMILY FRIENDS.”
JUDICIAL WATCH:
STATE DEPT. DOCS REVEAL CONCERN ABOUT BILL CLINTON’S
ACTIVITIES WITH SAUDI DICTATORS
Hillary Clinton bellies with the 9-11 invading Saudi
dictatorship like Obama. She’s collected her bribes for pushing the Bush-Saudi
wars against Iraq and Obama smells the dirty Saudis loot coming for his
presidential libaray!
HOW TO BUY HILLARY
CLINTON: From selling overnights at the White House, she’s become a global
influence peddler.
“Hillary Clinton takes a course of action that
benefits
those donors, in many cases, I think,
outlined in the book, she is reversing
course on
policy prescriptions.”
“Schweizer said he had found “a pattern of behavior…the
proof is, you look at a series of actions in which money flows to the Clintons,
either through speaking fees or Clinton Foundation donors.”
HILLARY
RED CHINA
“I smell bribes!” the
first words Hillary spoke in Chinese!
The stunning revelation is just one of many in the
new book, Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and
Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich.
IMF PREDICTS THAT OBAMANOMICS and the GLOBAL LOOTING BY
OBAMA’S CRIMINAL CRONY BANKSTERS WILL SOON DESTROY THE AMERICAN ECONOMY.
The International Monetary Fund
warned Wednesday that the world economy would remain locked in a pattern of
slow growth, high unemployment and high debt for a prolonged period. The
forecast, contained in the organization’s updated World Economic Outlook (WEO),
marks a shift from previous economic projections in acknowledging that there is
little prospect of a return to the growth levels that prevailed prior to the
2008 Wall Street crash.
The document’s grim analysis
amounts to a tacit acknowledgement that the crisis ushered in nearly seven
years ago by the financial meltdown is of a historical and fundamental
character, and that the underlying problems in the global capitalist system
have not been resolved.
THE ASSAULT on the
AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS by the DEMOCRAT PARTY:
“By large margins, even in opinion
polls conducted by the corporate-controlled media, the American people support
sharp increases in taxes on the wealthy to fund social programs and provide
jobs for the unemployed; they oppose cuts in Social Security and Medicare and
view education, health care and other public services as basic rights; they
oppose government spying on the telephone and Internet usage of ordinary
Americans, as well as other police-state measures; and they oppose overseas
military interventions in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The Democratic and Republican presidential candidates stand on the other
side of the barricades on all these issues.”
HILLARY CLINTON: A
dedicated disciple of OBAMANOMICS – Why else would his banksters invest so much
in her???
“That her candidacy is announced without calling for
any particular policies underscores the fact that the election is not about the
American people deciding the course of policy, but rather the vetting of
candidates to serve the interest of the financial oligarchy.”
“There is, of course, no acknowledgment that Clinton was part
of an administration that oversaw and continues to oversee the greatest
transfer of wealth from the bottom to “those at the top” in US history.”
HILLARY CLINTON: GLOBAL LOOTER LIKE A THIRD-WORLD DICTATOR IN
THE MAKING!
“Schweizer: Clinton Donors, Relatives Got Rich Off Haiti
Contracts, US Taxpayers”
“Clinton Cash” author
Peter Schweizer reported on the US taxpayer money and contracts in Haiti
profited Clinton Foundation donors and Clinton relatives.”
Clinton Foundation Put On Watch List Of
Suspicious
‘Charities’
“This
decision wasn’t made because of the Clinton Foundation’s remarkably lucrative
sideline as a uranium superstore for Russian strongmen, but because its
finances are opaque and dishonest, and because such a tiny amount of the money
it rakes in actually goes to charitable endeavors. “The Clinton family’s
mega-charity took in more than $140 million in grants and pledges in 2013 but
spent just $9 million on direct aid,” notes the New York Post. “The
group spent the bulk of its windfall on administration, travel, and salaries
and bonuses, WITH THE FATTEST PAYOUTS GOING TO FAMILY FRIENDS.”
JUDICIAL WATCH:
STATE DEPT. DOCS REVEAL CONCERN ABOUT BILL CLINTON’S
ACTIVITIES WITH SAUDI DICTATORS
Hillary Clinton bellies with the 9-11 invading Saudi
dictatorship like Obama. She’s collected her bribes for pushing the Bush-Saudi
wars against Iraq and Obama smells the dirty Saudis loot coming for his
presidential libaray!
HOW TO BUY HILLARY
CLINTON: From selling overnights at the White House, she’s become a global
influence peddler.
“Hillary Clinton takes a course of action that benefits
those donors, in many cases, I think, outlined in the book, she is reversing
course on policy prescriptions.”
“Schweizer said he had found “a pattern of behavior…the
proof is, you look at a series of actions in which money flows to the Clintons,
either through speaking fees or Clinton Foundation donors.”
HILLARY
RED CHINA
“I smell bribes!” the
first words Hillary spoke in Chinese!
The stunning revelation is just one of many in the
new book, Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and
Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich.
THE ASSAULT on the
AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS by the DEMOCRAT
PARTY:
“By large margins, even in opinion
polls conducted by the corporate-controlled media, the American people support
sharp increases in taxes on the wealthy to fund social programs and provide
jobs for the unemployed; they oppose cuts in Social Security and Medicare and
view education, health care and other public services as basic rights; they
oppose government spying on the telephone and Internet usage of ordinary
Americans, as well as other police-state measures; and they oppose overseas
military interventions in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The Democratic and Republican presidential candidates stand on the other
side of the barricades on all these issues.”
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2015/04/oba
HILLARY CLINTON: A
dedicated disciple of OBAMANOMICS – Why else would his banksters invest so much
in her???
“That her candidacy is announced without calling for
any particular policies underscores the fact that the election is not about the
American people deciding the course of policy, but rather the vetting of
candidates to serve the interest of the financial oligarchy.”
“There is, of course, no acknowledgment that Clinton was part
of an administration that oversaw and continues to oversee the greatest
transfer of wealth from the bottom to “those at the top” in US history.”
LIKE EVA AND JUAN PERON, THE MONEY JUST KEEPS
ROLLING IN!
Clinton Foundation reveals up to $26 million in
additional payments
Clinton Foundation reveals up to $26
million in additional payments
The Clinton Foundation reported Thursday
that it has received as much as $26.4 million in previously undisclosed
payments from major corporations, universities, foreign sources and other
groups. THE OTHER “GROUPS” ARE THE MUSLIM DICTATORS WHOSE BORDERS HILLARY HAS
VOWED TO PROTECT AS WELL AS OBAMA!
The disclosure came as the foundation faced questions over
whether it fully complied with a 2008 ethics agreement to reveal its donors and
whether any of its funding sources present conflicts of interest for Hillary
Rodham Clinton as she begins her presidential campaign.
The
money was paid as fees for speeches by Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.
Foundation officials said the funds were tallied internally as “revenue” rather
than donations, which is why they had not been included in the public listings
of its contributors published as part of the 2008 agreement.
According
to the new information, the Clintons have delivered 97 speeches to benefit the
charity since 2002. Colleges and universities sponsored more than two dozen of
these speeches, along with U.S. and overseas corporations and at least one
foreign government, Thailand.
The
payments were disclosed late Thursday on the organization’s Web site, with
speech payments listed in ranges rather than specific amounts. In total, the
payments ranged between $12 million and $26.4 million.
The
paid appearances included speeches by former president Bill Clinton to the Nigerian
ThisDay newspaper group for at least $500,000 and to the
The
money was paid as fees for speeches by Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.
Foundation officials said the funds were tallied internally as “revenue” rather
than donations, which is why they had not been included in the public listings
of its contributors published as part of the 2008 agreement.
According
to the new information, the Clintons have delivered 97 speeches to benefit the
charity since 2002. Colleges and universities sponsored more than two dozen of
these speeches, along with U.S. and overseas corporations and at least one
foreign government, Thailand.
The
payments were disclosed late Thursday on the organization’s Web site, with
speech payments listed in ranges rather than specific amounts. In total, the
payments ranged between $12 million and $26.4 million.
The
paid appearances included speeches by former president Bill Clinton to the Nigerian
ThisDay newspaper group for at least $500,000 and to the
The
money was paid as fees for speeches by Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.
Foundation officials said the funds were tallied internally as “revenue” rather
than donations, which is why they had not been included in the public listings
of its contributors published as part of the 2008 agreement.
According
to the new information, the Clintons have delivered 97 speeches to benefit the
charity since 2002. Colleges and universities sponsored more than two dozen of
these speeches, along with U.S. and overseas corporations and at least one
foreign government, Thailand.
The
payments were disclosed late Thursday on the organization’s Web site, with
speech payments listed in ranges rather than specific amounts. In total, the
payments ranged between $12 million and $26.4 million.
The
paid appearances included speeches by former president Bill Clinton to the Nigerian
ThisDay newspaper group for at least $500,000 and to the
The foundation, which has raised
$2 billion since Bill Clinton left the White House, has emerged as a
political headache for Hillary Clinton amid recent controversies over
donations. The foundation, along with the Clintons’ paid speaking careers, have
provided additional avenues for foreign governments and other interests to gain
entrée to one of America’s most prominent political families. Some Republicans
have charged that Hillary Clinton, during her tenure as secretary of state, was
in a position to reward foundation donors.
Thursday’s
disclosure is one of a number of instances in recent weeks in which the
foundation has acknowledged that it received funding from sources not disclosed
on its Web site.
The
ethics agreement was reached between the foundation and the Obama
administration to provide additional transparency and avoid potential conflicts
of interest with Hillary Clinton’s appointment as secretary of state.
The
agreement placed restrictions on foreign government donations, for instance,
but the foundation revealed in February that it had violated the limits at one
point by taking $500,000 from Algeria.
Thursday’s
release regarding speaking fees follows earlier disclosures showing how the
lecture circuit has also made the Clintons personally wealthy.
Last
week, Hillary Clinton disclosed that she and her husband made around
$25 million since January 2014 from speeches; Bill Clinton also was paid
more than $104 million from 2001 through 2012 by delivering speeches.
The
Clintons reported that income on federally required personal financial
disclosure forms filed by Hillary Clinton as a senator, secretary of state and
now a declared presidential candidate.
But the
new disclosure indicates that the former president has also spent considerable
time speaking on the foundation’s behalf — 73 times since 2002.
Hillary
Clinton has delivered 15 such speeches, including one address to Goldman Sachs
and another to JPMorgan Chase. Chelsea Clinton, who has
taken
on an increasingly active role at the foundation, has collected fees for the
charity from nine organizations.
The
foundation did not provide dates for the speaking engagements.
Vincent
Salamone, a spokesman for the Office of Government Ethics, said this week that
speeches delivered by public officials or their spouses acting as an “agent” of
a charitable group in which the payment is made directly to the organization
need not be disclosed in financial filings of public officials.
Brian
Fallon, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said that analysis explains why
the Clintons did not disclose the speeches while Hillary Clinton was a senator
and then secretary of state.
While
the Clinton Foundation has annually disclosed its donors since 2008, the
foundation said Thursday that organizations that paid for Clinton speeches have
not before been included in those lists because they were paying for a service
and not making a tax-deductible donation.
Craig
Minassian, a spokesman for the foundation, said the new release came as part of
the foundation’s continuing commitment to transparency. Nonprofit groups are
not required by law to release any information about their funders.
“In
addition to the more than 300,000 donors who are all listed on our web site,
posting these speeches is just another example of how our disclosure policies
go above and beyond what’s required of charities,” he said in a statement.
“Like other global charities, the
Clinton Foundation receives support from
“Like
other global charities, the Clinton Foundation receives support from
individuals and organizations across all sectors of society, backgrounds and
ideologies because they know our programs are improving the lives of millions
of people around the world,” he also said.
A
foundation official indicated the speech dollars have been disclosed as revenue
in annual tax filings to the IRS. The official indicated that the foundation
will now update the public speech list four times a year, much as it has said
it will do with other donors now that Clinton’s campaign has launched.
The
Clintons have indicated that they donate significant personal funds to the
foundation each year. The foundation official said that the couple have not
considered speech revenue to be part of their personal charitable giving, and
Fallon said they have never taken a deduction on their taxes for the fees.
There
was one entity clearly associated with a foreign government that provided
speaking fees, of $250,000 to $500,000 for a speech by Bill Clinton: The energy
ministry in Thailand.
The
U.S. Islamic World Forum also provided $250,000 to $500,000 to the foundation
for a speech by Bill Clinton, according to the new disclosure. The event was
organized in part by the Brookings Institution with support from
the government of Qatar.
In
addition, the list is studded with overseas corporations and foundations.
They
included the South Korean energy and chemicals conglomerate Hanwha, which paid
$500,000 to $1,000,000 for a speech by Bill Clinton.
China
Real Estate Development Corp. paid the foundation between $250,000 and $500,000
for a speech by the former president. The Qatar First Investment Bank, now
known as the Qatar First Bank, paid fees in a similar range. The bank is
described by Persian Gulf financial press as specializing in high-net-worth
clients.
The Telmex Foundation, founded by
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, provided between $250,000 and $500,000 for a
speech by Hillary Clinton.
The
new data shows that a number of public education institutions paid the
foundation for speeches by Bill, Hillary or Chelsea Clinton.
Those speeches drew backlash on some campuses, as
universities paid hundreds of thousands to the Clinton
charity at
a time of rising tuitions and slashed university budgets.
After the academic sponsors, financial services and
health-industry-related firms heavily populated the list of domestic sponsors.
Rosalind Helderman is a political
enterprise and investigations reporter for the Washington Post.
Tom Hamburger covers the
intersection of money and politics for The Washington Post.