Or how the Clintons use and abuse their pay-to-play foundation for their own profit...
Hacked memo offers an angry glimpse inside ‘Bill Clinton Inc.’
A remarkable 12-page document revealed by WikiLeaks bristles with a longtime Clinton aide’s resentment of his boss.
By JOSH GERSTEIN 10/26/16 09:15 PM EDT
As a longtime Bill Clinton adviser came under fire several years ago for alleged conflicts of interest involving a private consulting firm and the Clinton Foundation, he mounted an audacious defense: Bill Clinton's doing it, too.
The unusual and brash rejoinder from veteran Clinton aide and Teneo Consulting co-founder Doug Band is scattered across the thousands of hacked emails published by WikiLeaks, but a memo released Wednesday provides the most-detailed look to date at the intertwined worlds of nonprofit, for-profit, official and political activities involving Clinton and many of his top aides.
The memo at one point refers bluntly to the money-making part of Clinton’s life as "Bill Clinton Inc." and notes that in at least one case a company -- global education firm Laureate International Universities -- began paying Clinton personally after first being a donor to the Clinton Foundation.
The 12-page document, prepared in November 2011 by Band with input from Clinton adviser John Podesta, came as Chelsea Clinton was pressing for changes to the foundation's governance and complaining that Band, Teneo co-founder Declan Kelly and others were profiting from their ties to her father and the foundation.
In the memo, addressed to outside lawyers conducting a review of the foundation’s governance, Band insists that the relationship actually benefited the foundation financially, by bringing in new donors.
"Cognizant of the Foundation's significant fundraising needs as well as my role as the primary fundraiser for the Foundation for the past 11 years, as a partner in Teneo, Mr. Kelley [sic] and I have asked and encouraged our clients to contribute to the Foundation," Band wrote. "Through our efforts, we have brought new donors to the Foundation and garnered increased giving from existing donors."
The most eye-catching examples in the memo are of companies that paid Bill Clinton directly at the same time they were donors to the foundation.
Band details donations from Laureate and another international education firm, GEMS Education, discussing them in the context of Clinton's business relationships.
"Laureate is a Foundation relationship that evolved into a personal advisory services business relationship for President Clinton. … Laureate pays President Clinton $3.5 million annually to provide advice and serve as their Honorary Chairman," Band wrote. "Gems approached President Clinton in 2009 to seek his personal services as an advisor to the company....[Clinton aide Justin Cooper] and I convinced them to initiate a relationship to the Foundation, which they did; that relationship has grown into a business relationship for President Clinton and a donor relationship for CGI."
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/hacked-memo-offers-an-angry-glimpse-inside-bill-clinton-inc-230364