The Clinton money machine may be grinding to a halt as donations dwindle

The Clinton money machine may be grinding to a halt as donations dwindle

Clinton Foundation officials were able to attract only five new donors between July 1 and September 30 — the controversial charity’s third quarter — The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group has learned.

Foundation officials delayed release of the quarterly report of its latest donors on its website until the after the Nov. 8 presidential election, which former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost to Republican rival Donald Trump.

The low number of new donors may indicate potential contributors were frightened away by repeated news reports that the Clinton charity is under FBI investigation regarding multiple allegations of “pay-to-play” influence-peddling schemes involving both Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, as well as their key political aides.

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“A lot of questions have been raised, and I think donors are understandably cautious about getting involved with this deeply troubled charity,” Charles Ortel, a Wall Street analyst and philanthropy expert, told TheDCNF.

Cleta Mitchell, a Washington, D.C., attorney who specializes in nonprofit foundations, told TheDCNF:

Since the Clinton Foundation was all built on influence peddling with, by and for the Clintons, in order to enrich them, the question is: who will the Clintons now be able to influence? What will the influence seekers now get for their money?

Mitchell said the foundation should shut its doors because it is a “sham charitable organization.” The foundation has been at the center of virtually continuous controversies about its funding and programs since its 1997 founding, thanks in great part to its accepting contributions from foreign governments,  politically powerful billionaires, and troubled banks.

Among the foundation’s newest institutional donors is Banc of California, which is embroiled in a scandal that unfolded in the summer about the same time it gave between $1 to $5 million to the Clinton charity. The foundation only reports ranges for donor amounts.

The Los Angeles Times reported Nov. 16 that the bank — a favorite of West Coast liberals — has been “been rocked by allegations that it is connected to a convicted con artist.” The bank notified the SEC the same day that its third quarter report was delayed “to allow for completion of a review into certain purported improper relationships and related party transactions.”

Another new foreign donor was British financier Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, who gave between $1 to $5 million through his U.K.-based Eranda Rothschild Foundation. It has $6.3 million in assets.

Rothschild, an heir to the Rothschild fortune, married Lynn Forester, whose previous husband was Andrew Stein, former Democratic Manhattan Borough President. The Clintons invited the newly married couple to sleep as their guests in the White House

Lynn Rothschild hosted a $100,000-per-couple fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated 2016 campaign at the couple’s posh Martha’s Vineyard home. Thirty couples reportedly attended.

Another new third quarter foreign donor was billionaire Frank Rainieri, who is one of the 10 richest people in the Dominican Republic. Since 2000, the Clinton’s have called Rainieri’s Punta Cana DR resort, “one of their favorite resorts.”

Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton spent Easter at a Rainieri resort. It is unknown if the Clintons pay for their vacations at Rainieri’s resorts.

Rainieri was invited in December 2014 to participate in the Clinton Foundation’s “Future of the Americas” conference in Miami. He contributed between $250,000 and $500,000 to the foundation.

Foreign governments began either sharply reducing contributions to the Clinton Foundation or launching investigations of them in 2016. The Daily Caller reported Sunday that the Norwegian government’s planned contribution to the Clinton Foundation in 2017 will be cut nearly 90%.

Two weeks ago, two Dutch parliament members used the Parliament’s “Chamber Questions” period to force the government to explain the Netherlands’ $3 million contribution to an entity called the “Clinton Development Initiative” that was supposed to help Malawi farmers use “climate-smart agriculture.”

Although the project was launched in 2013, there are no independent Malawian media reports about the initiative or its progress. The Clinton Foundation website has promoted the initiative as a success story.

The Embassy of Malawi was unable to put TheDCNF in touch with anybody familiar with the initiative.

Two wealthy Americans made third quarter contributions to the foundation. Michael Sacks, CEO of Chicago-based financial investment firm Grosvenor Capital Partners, gave between $1 to $5 million through his private family foundation.

Sacks is one of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s “go-to” advisors. “Rahm gives Michael assignments,” according to Obama chief campaign strategist David Axelrod. Grosvenor is one of the country’s largest investment firms, second only to financial giant Blackrock.

“Grosvenor is probably the most important company in this city that nobody’s ever heard of,” said William Atwood in a glowing Sacks profile in Chicago Magazine. Attwood is executive director of the Illinois state pension fund that gives investment money to Grosvenor.

The foundation’s final new third quarter donor was Bobby Sager, who owns a $10 billion financial services company and gave between $100,000 to $250,000 to the foundation. He runs an eccentric family fund called the Sager Family Traveling Foundation & Roadshow.

An example of his off-beat projects is “Science for Monks,” which his website says “represents for the first time in the approximately 1,500-year history of Tibetan Buddhism that Western science is being taught in the monasteries.”

Despite the paucity of new donors, the foundation saw the return of multiple previously controversial donors, notably including Vinod Gupta, who gave between $1 to $5 million. Gupta was booted out by the SEC as his firm’s CEO as a result of $9 million in unauthorized corporate spending on luxury goods, yachts and vacations, including $3.3 million in contracts to Bill Clinton and $900,000 in free private jet use.

Also returning was GEMS Education, the Middle East-based company that operates schools across the region, which contributed between $1 to $5 million in the third quarter. GEMS previously paid Bill Clinton $5.6 million as its “honorary chairman.”

The new donors gave from $100,000 to $5 million.

The Clinton Foundation did not respond to TheDCNF’s request for comment.

This report, by Richard Pollock, was cross-posted by arrangement with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

LU Staff

LU Staff

Promoting and defending liberty, as defined by the nation’s founders, requires both facts and philosophical thought, transcending all elements of our culture, from partisan politics to social issues, the workings of government, and entertainment and off-duty interests. Liberty Unyielding is committed to bringing together voices that will fuel the flame of liberty, with a dialogue that is lively and informative.

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