London's Sunday Times - multiple sources confirm FBI investigating Clinton Foundation
Monday, 08 August 2016
This article was published in The Sunday Times yesterday London time.
I'm working on a fairly long form piece on the Clintons and a very senior Australian politician - I'd hope to be able to publish that later on today.
Australian political leaders should drop their infatuation with the Clinton celebrity and bring on the due diligence that's required to unpick the dodgy deals we have been making with the fraudster Clintons for years. If our people won't do it for themselves, you can rest assured criminal and taxation investigators in the US will do it for them.
US election: Clinton Foundation in FBI investigation
Hillary Clinton addresses the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in Washington.
The FBI is investigating the Clinton Foundation over its ties with Russian oligarchs, Silicon Valley tycoons and foreign governments, says an author who has raised questions about a litany of deals involving the Democratic presidential nominee’s family charity.
Peter Schweizer, author of the best-selling expose Clinton Cash, suggested he was co-operating with a criminal inquiry into the foundation’s business dealings.
“I can’t go into detail, but I can tell you on personal experience that I know the FBI is investigating the Clinton Foundation,” he told Fox News.
The possibility of criminal charges being brought against Hillary Clinton has dogged her bid for the White House. With the former first lady’s widening lead in the polls over her rival Donald Trump, many Republicans acknowledge that a scandal involving the Clintons is now their best chance of success on election day.
An FBI investigation into whether Mrs Clinton breached national security laws by conducting government business from an insecure private computer in her house was dropped last month.
Now the dealings of the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, initially set up to build a library in Arkansas to commemorate the presidency of Bill Clinton, have become the focus of a separate inquiry.
The FBI would not comment but legal sources supported Schweizer’s claim that it is examining foundation dealings as well as apparent coincidences uncovered in Clinton Cash.
The inquiry is being conducted by the FBI’s public corruption unit, a team of elite investigators different from those who examined the email scandal, legal experts said.
Schweizer’s central allegation is that large donors to the foundation received favours or beneficial treatment from the US government while Mrs Clinton was secretary of state. US companies such as Boeing gave large sums to the Clinton Foundation around the time the State Department lobbied on their behalf for contracts with foreign governments or state-controlled companies.
Another claim is that a Canadian called Frank Giustra, a Clinton Foundation donor and board member, was given special dispensation by the State Department to buy a US uranium mine that ended up under Russian control.
The author’s latest claim relates to a Russian technology incubator supported by the State Department and financed by technology firms that also gave money to the Clinton Foundation.
US intelligence agencies later concluded that the project, led by Russian Viktor Vekselberg, a confidant of President Vladimir Putin, was used to access American military technology.
“The evidence in this case is clearer and easier for the public or a jury to understand than it was in the email case,” said Andrew Napolitano, a retired New Jersey superior court judge. I say that based simply on evidence that has been brought into the public domain by Peter Schweizer and others.”
Separately, pressure is mounting on America’s Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate potential accounting irregularities at the foundation.
A letter signed by 64 members of congress was sent last month to the FBI, IRS and FTC describing the foundation as “lawless”.
US charities are subject to strict regulation because of widespread instances of fraud. Charitable donations can be offset against a personal tax bill, creating a huge incentive to set up fake charities.
Many American charities are shut down each year for irregularities as simple as failing to tick the right boxes on their tax returns. National charities that raise money across the country have to abide by separate laws imposed by each of the 50 states, some of which are extremely strict.
An extensive investigation of the Clinton operation’s tax filings by Charles Ortel, an investment analyst, suggests the foundation was not constituted properly when it was first set up. It was permitted to raise money solely for the Clinton presidential library.
The Sunday Times