Amar Singh's $5 Mln Donation to Clintons: Book Says he Funnelled Money to Bag Indo-US Nuclear Deal
- April 29, 2015 14:55 IST
Former Samajwadi Party (SP),general secretary Amar Singh, at a news conference in New Delhi July 3, 2008.Reuters
Former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh has dismissed reports in the US media that said he had made a generous $5million donation to the Clinton Foundation in 2008.
Citing from the book 'Clinton Cash', authored by Peter Schweizer, The New York Post on Tuesday questioned who was the source behind a $5 million donation, which was supposedly equivalent to Singh's net worth at that time.
Bill Clinton's donor list disclosure had shown that Amar Singh donated an amount between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation in 2008. This highlighted a conflict of interest on the part of the Clintons as Singh was lobbying for an Indo-US nuclear deal at that time, The New York Times had reported.
'Singh met and posed for photographs with Bill Clinton, afterwards telling Indian reporters that Clinton had assured him that Democrats would not block the deal,' the NYT had said in its December 2008 report.
The US Congress approved a civil nuclear cooperation deal with India a few days later, with the purpose of transferring nuclear technology despite India not being a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Hillary Clinton, then a Senator, had voted in favour of the nuclear deal.
Singh has once again denied having made the donation, using similar words as he did in 2008.
Given that the donation was exactly equal to Singh's networth at that time, Schweizer speculates on the real source of the money.
In the book, the complete title of which is "Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich", the author has reportedly looked at Singh's possible role as a conduit for Indian politicians and lobbies to win the nuclear deal.
"If true, that meant Singh had given between 20 and 100 percent of his entire net worth to the Clinton Foundation!" Schweitzer said, according to The New York Post.
With Hillary Clinton entering the race for the US Presidential elections in 2016, the US media has been closely looking at her past political and financial decisions.
