Latest Clinton cash intrigue involves a Czech model and a 'distasteful' $500,000 donation
Latest Clinton cash intrigue
involves a Czech model and a 'distasteful' $500,000 donation
By Business Insider | 30 May, 2015,
04.12PM IST
By Colin Campbell
A Friday report in The New York Times highlights another intriguing Clinton Foundation activity.
According to the report, former President Bill Clinton turned down repeated offers to speak at Czech model Petra Nemcova's annual charity event until she directly offered the Clinton family's foundation $500,000 of the proceeds for appearing
A Friday report in The New York Times highlights another intriguing Clinton Foundation activity.
According to the report, former President Bill Clinton turned down repeated offers to speak at Czech model Petra Nemcova's annual charity event until she directly offered the Clinton family's foundation $500,000 of the proceeds for appearing
When she did, Clinton attended
Nemcova's 2014 gala in Manhattan.
Doug White, director of Columbia University's fundraising management program, told The Times that the arrangement was strange because Clinton's foundation is so much bigger. The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation has reportedly raised $2 billion.
Doug White, director of Columbia University's fundraising management program, told The Times that the arrangement was strange because Clinton's foundation is so much bigger. The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation has reportedly raised $2 billion.
"This is primarily a small but
telling example of the way the Clintons operate," White said. "The
model has responsibility; she paid a high price for a feel-good moment with
Bill Clinton. But he was riding the back of this small charity for what? A
half-million bucks? I find it - what would be the word? - distasteful."
Sue Veres Royal, the former
executive director of Nemcova's charity, Happy Hearts Fund, further told the
paper that the payment offer to the Clinton Foundation was a "quid pro
quo." Happy Hearts is a charity that helps rebuild schools after natural
disasters, and was created after Nemcova survived the 2004 tsunami that
devastated Indonesia and parts of Thailand.
"The Clinton Foundation had rejected the Happy Hearts Fund invitation more than once, until there was a thinly veiled solicitation and then the offer of an honorarium," she said. Veres Royal was also quoted saying, "Petra called me and said we have to include an honorarium for him - that they don't look at these things unless money is offered, and it has to be $500,000."
"The Clinton Foundation had rejected the Happy Hearts Fund invitation more than once, until there was a thinly veiled solicitation and then the offer of an honorarium," she said. Veres Royal was also quoted saying, "Petra called me and said we have to include an honorarium for him - that they don't look at these things unless money is offered, and it has to be $500,000."
The Times story, written by
investigative reporter Deborah Sontag, described the charity-to-charity payment
model as "extremely rare" for a fundraising event.
"When charities select an
honoree for their fund-raising events, they generally expect that the award
recipient will help them raise money by attracting new donors. But the Happy
Hearts Fund raised less money at the gala featuring Mr. Clinton than it did at
its previous one," Sontag wrote. "Further, it is extremely rare for
honorees, or their foundations, to be paid from a gala's proceeds, charity
experts said - as it is for the proceeds to be diverted to a different cause”
For its part, a Happy Hearts
foundation spokeswoman told The Times that they payed the Clinton Foundation
because the two organizations "have a shared goal of providing meaningful
help to Haiti."
The Clinton Foundation is facing
increased scrutiny as Clinton's wife, former Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton, is mounting her own campaign for president in 2016. Conservative
critics in particular have sought to link the foundation's contributions to alleged
favors doled out by Clinton's State Department. The Clintons have fiercely
denied and such exchange took place.
Other controversies have hit the
foundation's record-keeping operation and massive contributions from oppressive
foreign governments.
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