Clinton Used Giustra's Plane, Opened Doors for Mineral Deals

[catgirl]

Source: Bloomberg.com

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- On June 21, 2005, Bill Clinton flew to Mexico City aboard a private jet that belonged to a Canadian investment banker he was meeting for the first time.



The introduction paid off for both men. Clinton was borrowing the jetliner to begin a four-day speaking tour of Latin America that would pay him $800,000. Frank Giustra of Vancouver was forming a friendship that would make him part of the former president's inner circle and gain him introductions to presidents of Kazakhstan and Colombia, where he bought mineral rights.

Giustra, 50, has since put his plane at Clinton's disposal at least a dozen times to raise money for charity, his wife's presidential campaign or himself, according to U.S. flight records and spokesmen for Clinton and Giustra. The Canadian businessman has become one of the largest donors to the Clinton Foundation, pledging half his future minerals earnings in a way that ties the foundation's success to his own.

``If former President Clinton is making decisions about where to put the charitable efforts of the Clinton Foundation based even partly on where he's likely to benefit personally, or see his friends benefit, then that clearly is a classic conflict of interest,'' says Aaron Dorfman, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy in Washington.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080219/pl_bloomberg/akd3k5dmu3sy;_ylt=ApiDSGwnUYidFJmmMARCWbas0NUE

---

Looks like some campaign financing (and other) laws may have been broken here. Conflict of interest
is putting it mildly.

[Tellurian]

1. Baloney! They should fire Dorfman for propagting LIES!

[catgirl]

3. I have seen this in other articles as well

this is good reporting.

[Tellurian]

7. It's Baloney,,, that idiot Dornan is voicing his personal opinion..

not an opinion based in fact. I can't see any conflict of interest at all..If anything it was an extremely clever business deal on President Clinton's part ensuring his Presidential Library has funding in perpetuity!

[ShortnFiery]

2. Hum, Charitable efforts also benefit The Clintons? Isn't that what Poppy would call a 2fer?

Perhaps Bill Clinton has been spending far too much "charitable" time collaborating with Bush Senior? :thumbsdown:

THIS IS HUGE!!! :wow: Someone definitely needs to make sure this is on C-SPAN and all over Chimpy's "Internets" today. :evilgrin:

[Tellurian]

8. It's been through the wringer several times.. and is old news..

I meant to ask you S&F.. has your state had their Primary yet? Mine is coming up March 4th..

[catgirl]

10. Oh, so old news should be ignored?

The plane was also used to raise funds for Hillary's presidential campaign.

[Tellurian]

13. Whatever was done is NOT illegal in any way shape or form..

you're barking up the wrong tree..

[creeksneakers2]

4. I don't see anything wrong here

Bill is using his contacts to raise money for charity and earn some for himself. It doesn't say if Hillary's campaign paid for the use of the plane. If they should have I assume they did.

[Malva Zebrina]

5. The Clintons should release their tax records

Then all that Bill or Hillary do or say re their money will be on record for all to see, and that means the voters.

By hiding those records, and also the records of the donors to the construction of the Clinton library, suspicions are raised. Therefore, anything involving Bill's charity, or their bank account, which supposedly loaned her campaign five million dollars although really no one knows, is going to be looked at with skepticism. It should be and they have set up that lack of trust by their secrecy.

Then there are those White House records that are also all locked up away from the eyes of the voters. She claims co-presidency, she claims great experience, but anyone with any degree of intelligence, can surmise she can say anything she wants about it all because it's all kept secret from prying eyes.

[mod mom]

20. ABSOLUTELY. The failure to do so is very telling. She said she will release them IF

she is the nominee. Why not before? you have to wonder.

[Tellurian]

21. She will release them after the election no matter who wins.. SO..

[mod mom]

22. SO she must be hiding something-she wants to wait until the Dem voters no longer have a chance

to select another nominee.

[Tellurian]

23. If you have a source to back up your statement..

I'd love seeing it.. Otherwise, it's no more than (gasp) subjective "gossip"..

[mod mom]

25. According to ABC, "Since 1984, only one major presidential candidate - Bill Clinton in 1992 -- has

Why Won't Hillary Clinton Release Her Tax Returns?
Posted February 13, 2008 | 01:15 PM (EST)

Hillary Clinton claims she's battle-tested, but she won't let the public test her tax returns. While Barack Obama has released his into the clutches of the forensic accounting crowd, she's steadfastly refused to make hers available. The only financial disclosure she's made is the obligatory filing that is similar to what members of Congress have to produce, but which has far less detail than the actual tax returns would provide.


In fact, the disclosure documents are essentially a shield, revealing only "income sources and investment holdings in broad financial categories" notes ABC News. They disclose "...only a fraction of the information available on tax returns."

Truth is, she's following in the footsteps of her joint-filing spouse. According to ABC, "Since 1984, only one major presidential candidate -- Bill Clinton in 1992 -- has refused to release the tax forms he sent to the Internal Revenue Service."

If you asked 100 people who was the only post-Watergate candidate to defy the convention of allowing voters the transparency of mucking around in their tax return, how many do you think would say it's Bubba, who might have had a messy private life, but who had been a dedicated public servant -- laboring as a multi-term, underpaid governor of a poor state while he could have been making big bucks in the private sector

-snip

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-hanft/why-wont-hillary-clinton_b_86471.html

[mod mom]

26. WaPo: Ethics in Govt Act Requires members of Congress to disclose....Clinton failed to report.

Clintons' Charity Not Listed On Senate Disclosure Forms
By John Solomon and Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, February 27, 2007; Page A01


Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former president Bill Clinton have operated a family charity since 2001, but she failed to list it on annual Senate financial disclosure reports on five occasions.

The Ethics in Government Act requires members of Congress to disclose positions they hold with any outside entity, including nonprofit foundations. Hillary Clinton has served her family foundation as treasurer and secretary since it was established in December 2001, but none of her ethics reports since then have disclosed that fact.

The foundation has enabled the Clintons to write off more than $5 million from their taxable personal income since 2001, while dispensing $1.25 million in charitable contributions over that period.

Clinton's spokesman said her failure to report the existence of the family foundation and the senator's position as an officer was an oversight. Her office immediately amended her Senate ethics reports to add that information late yesterday after receiving inquiries from The Washington Post.

-snip

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/26/AR2007022601542.html

[Earth_First]

6. But Obama broke his WORD! n/t

[Dogmudgeon]

9. That's quite a stretch

Clinton was raising money for his charity. He got a shitload of cash out of Giustra as well as some Kazakh businessmen.

But raising several billions of dollars for poverty, AIDS, and disaster relief doesn't go with the prevailing hipster campfire scare story that Bill Clinton is the personification of evil. So no effort will be spared to smear Bill Clinton.

--p!

[catgirl]

11. Tell that to Katrina victims.

have you been to New Orleans recently? It looks the same. The question here, is how
much of this fund raising was on the up and up?

[mod mom]

19. HE ENDORSED THE KAZAK TYRANT TO HEAD AN INTERNAT'L ELECTIONS ORGANIZ:

you might want to read this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/us/politics/31donor.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1203436446-6HXSEdFRzMvqLWAllTR1sg

[MethuenProgressive]

12. Bill's not running.

Odd the DUbamas haven't figured that out yet.

[Tellurian]

14. The Obamacans are grasping at straws..

Obama is finished. He just doesn't realize it yet!

[catgirl]

15. Read the article please, then comment

it also relates to Clinton's current campaign.

Bill Clinton: Hillary's message, "We're back".

[peacebird]

16. "Clinton introduced Giustra, who was closing in on a $425mil" mining deal to Kazakhstans leader

"Three months after Clinton and Giustra met, they traveled around the world together on a trip that included a stop in Kazakhstan where Clinton introduced Giustra, who was closing in on a $425 million mining investment there, to the Central Asian country's leader. Giustra made millions on that deal."

Somehow that doesn't pass the smell test..... What quid pro quo did Bill get in return, besides the free use of a private jet? hmmm? Time to release the tax returns.

[mod mom]

18. "Mr. Clinton’s charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr. G

see NYT link in post # 17!

[mod mom]

17. This deal lead Clinton to endorse Kazak's TYRANT President to head Election Monitoring Organiz:

After Mining Deal, Financier Donated to Clinton

By JO BECKER and DON VAN NATTA Jr.
Published: January 31, 2008


Late on Sept. 6, 2005, a private plane carrying the Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra touched down in Almaty, a ruggedly picturesque city in southeast Kazakhstan. Several hundred miles to the west a fortune awaited: highly coveted deposits of uranium that could fuel nuclear reactors around the world. And Mr. Giustra was in hot pursuit of an exclusive deal to tap them.

Unlike more established competitors, Mr. Giustra was a newcomer to uranium mining in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. But what his fledgling company lacked in experience, it made up for in connections. Accompanying Mr. Giustra on his luxuriously appointed MD-87 jet that day was a former president of the United States, Bill Clinton.

-snip

snip

"Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, whose 19-year stranglehold on the country has all but quashed political dissent."

"Mr. Nazarbayev walked away from the table with a propaganda coup, after Mr. Clinton expressed enthusiastic support for the Kazakh leader’s bid to head an international organization that monitors elections and supports democracy."

-snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/us/politics/31donor.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1203436446-6HXSEdFRzMvqLWAllTR1sg

[Gman]

24. BFD