Showing posts sorted by relevance for query clinton. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query clinton. Sort by date Show all posts

Monday, August 22, 2016

Clinton Circle: Sophisticated Influence Peddling


It used to be people left public service for private enrichment.  Under the Clinton circle that no longer needed to happen.  Take Huma Abedin.  Vanity Fair reported:

One of Clinton’s most trusted aides is Huma Abedin, vice-chairwoman of the current campaign, who began her work with the Clintons in 1996 as an intern. Abedin is as secretive as Clinton herself, if not more so, and she is the primary gatekeeper. She often forwards press coverage and other messages, highlighting once again the mediating membrane that exists between Hillary and ordinary reality. Abedin is one of the State Department employees who had a clintonemail.com e-mail account, and in 2012, after she stepped down as deputy chief of staff, she was granted “special government employee” status, which allowed her to continue at the State Department while working as a consultant for the Clinton Foundation and Teneo (a firm co-founded by Douglas Band, a former Clinton aide).
Politico noted how Abedin navigated her state department role:

When Crown Prince Salman of Bahrain wanted face time with Hillary Clinton in the first months of her time at the State Department, top aide Huma Abedin worked as a go-between for the Clinton Foundation and the secretary of state to facilitate the appointment, working official channels while coordinating with top Clinton Foundation executive Doug Band.
Judicial Watch added:

Included among the Abedin-Band emails is an exchange revealing that when Crown Prince Salman of Bahrain requested a meeting with Secretary of State Clinton, he was forced to go through the Clinton Foundation for an appointment. Abedin advised Band that when she went through “normal channels” at State, Clinton declined to meet. After Band intervened, however, the meeting was set up within forty-eight hours.
That's the same Doug Band who blurred the lines between the Clinton Foundation and Teneo, the consulting firm he founded.  NYT reported in 2013

None have drawn more scrutiny in Clinton circles than Teneo, a firm co-founded in 2009 by Mr. Band, described by some as a kind of surrogate son to Mr. Clinton. Aspiring to merge corporate consulting, public relations and merchant banking in a single business, Mr. Band poached executives from Wall Street, recruited other Clinton aides to join as employees or advisers and set up shop in a Midtown office formerly belonging to one of the country’s top hedge funds.

By 2011, the firm had added a third partner, Declan Kelly, a former State Department envoy for Mrs. Clinton. And Mr. Clinton had signed up as a paid adviser to the firm.

Teneo worked on retainer, charging monthly fees as high as $250,000, according to current and former clients. The firm recruited clients who were also Clinton Foundation donors, while Mr. Band and Mr. Kelly encouraged others to become new foundation donors. Its marketing materials highlighted Mr. Band’s relationship with Mr. Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative, where Mr. Band sat on the board of directors through 2011 and remains an adviser. Some Clinton aides and foundation employees began to wonder where the foundation ended and Teneo began.
It's a big money wash, sloshing back and forth for Clinton insiders. Abedin and Band exemplify the low ethical standards in the Clinton camp.  They also symbolize those who've been enriched in outsize ways, while most suffer from stagnant wages and dwindling retirement/healthcare benefits.  

Teneo caters to the corporate CEOs who've capped wages and shifted benefit responsibility to workers and retirees.


Just like the political world, everything boils down to image management.  Those who uphold the myths receive a king's ransom while truth tellers are eviscerated. It's necessary to keep one's good name.

Update 11-5-16:  Clinton's inner circle mining of cash from inside and outside government is the topic of at least one Wikileaks e-mail.

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Clintons Above Review: Therefore Unaccountable


Politico reported:

The foundation has also come under scrutiny for failing to clear all foreign government donations through an agreed-upon State Department vetting process when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, and for failing to identify foreign government donations on tax returns.
President Obama's State Department took this position.

"The State Department has not and does not intend to initiate a formal review or to make a retroactive judgment about items that were not submitted during Secretary Clinton's tenure."
This is surprisingly similar to Obama's head in the sand position on fraud leading up the 2008 financial crisis.

The Clintons failed to live up to their proactive commitment and legal obligation, thus there will be no retroactive review.  Typical for the group that makes their own rules (like the Baron Class who wrote the Magna Carta).

Long ago I questioned the sources of Clinton Foundation cash.  I renamed the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) as Conflicts of Global Interest.  Once upon a time the Clinton Foundation released donor names.

Frankly, it's difficult to comply with internal accounting controls and shovel fists full of cash to your friends.  The Foundation itself confessed to operational problems and making mistakesNYT reported:

The Clinton Foundation had become a sprawling concern, supervised by a rotating board of old Clinton hands, vulnerable to distraction and threatened by conflicts of interest. It ran multimillion-dollar deficits for several years, despite vast amounts of money flowing in. 

And concern was rising inside and outside the organization about Douglas J. Band, a onetime personal assistant to Mr. Clinton who had started a lucrative corporate consulting firm — which Mr. Clinton joined as a paid adviser — while overseeing the Clinton Global Initiative, the foundation’s glitzy annual gathering of chief executives, heads of state, and celebrities.
As for how the Clintons play consider this statement:

And efforts to insulate the foundation from potential conflicts have highlighted just how difficult it can be to disentangle the Clintons’ charity work from Mr. Clinton’s moneymaking ventures and Mrs. Clinton’s political future, according to interviews with more than two dozen former and current foundation employees, donors and advisers to the family. Nearly all of them declined to speak for attribution, citing their unwillingness to alienate the Clinton family.

Friends won't alienate and officials won't review.  Life as a Clinton means you write your own rules and can change them at a whim.

Update 5-11-15:  Clinton arrogance can be seen in their strong arming a charity rating website.  The rules never apply to Bill and Hillary.

Update 10-28-15:  Accounting restatements may reveal the Clinton Foundation's history of ethical transgressions 

Update 9-19-22:  The Clinton Global Initiative is back.  Fall needed a Davos type gathering for deals to get done. 

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Hillary Clinton is Wall Street


Democratic Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton botched her debate question on her longstanding ties to Wall Street and her reliance on their campaign donations.

CLINTON: So I represented New York, and I represented New York on 9/11 when we were attacked. Where were we attacked? We were attacked in downtown Manhattan where Wall Street is. I did spend a whole lot of time and effort helping them rebuild. That was good for New York. It was good for the economy, and it was a way to rebuke the terrorists who had attacked our country.
The reaction to Hillary's wrapping her ties to the greed and leverage boys in a 9-11 flag was swift.  WaPo reported:

Wall Street is not a warm and fuzzy friend in need of comfort in the minds Americans still digging themselves out from the Great Recession and monstrous housing crisis.

... just the day before Saturday's debate, millions of Americans watched in horror as France, this country's first ally, endured its own large-scale terrorist attack. Especially in this context, it was not -- and on this there really is little room for debate -- appropriate to summon the memories of 9/11 or the fallout from a terrorist attack to explain her connections to Wall Street and its campaign cash
A week after the debate NYT ran a piece on Hillary's Wall Street "image problem."  This piece made no mention of The Clinton Foundation, which employs similar methods as Wall Street by raising and accounting for funds. 

NYT did not mention the Clinton Foundation having to refile years of tax returns with the IRS for omitting donations from foreign governments, some unauthorized, while Hillary served as Secretary of State.  The Clinton's skirted the agreement that allowed the foundation to keep raising money from foreign governments and circumvented the ethics procedure within the State Department for approving Bill Clinton's speeches.

The Clinton Foundation also funnels donor money to friends and insiders.   

And efforts to insulate the foundation from potential conflicts have highlighted just how difficult it can be to disentangle the Clintons’ charity work from Mr. Clinton’s moneymaking ventures and Mrs. Clinton’s political future.
Fall 2013 saw Hillary move into offices at the foundation’s new headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, occupying two floors of the Time-Life Building. Hillary is in close proximity to Wall Street.

The foundation, which has 350 employees in 180 countries, remains largely powered by Mr. Clinton’s global celebrity and his ability to connect corporate executives, A-listers and government officials.
Recent revelations show The Clinton Foundation a 50% owner and sole manager of a $20 million South American private equity firm, Acceso.   The Clinton Foundation holds an equity stake in two Colombian companies, Alimentos SAS and Fontel SA.

Many of the Clintons' speeches the last decade have been to private equity audiences.  Bill Clinton advised Ron Burkle's Yucaipa and Teneo.  Chelsea worked for Avenue Capital and sits on the IAC board.  Hillary spoke to numerous PEUs after retiring from public service.

The Clintons are Wall Street, plain and simple.  It's not an image.  It's a fact.

Note:  PEUReport found an undeclared speech Bill Clinton gave to The Carlyle Group and has numerous posts on the Clinton Foundation.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Clinton Sees "Wealth Potential Everywhere"


President Bill Clinton won't criticize Mitt Romney's Bain Capital experience.  That's because Clinton is also a private equity underwriter (PEU).  Clinton started as a advisor for Ron Burkle's Yucaipa and is currently Chairman of Teneo Capital's Advisory Board.  Britain's Tony Blair also advises Teneo.



Clinton won't slam private equity, as he is one.  Also, Clinton's Global Initiative counts on political and corporate heavyweights.  PEU's are ubiquitous across the globe.  President Clinton knows privatization and the politics of fellow back scratching.  That will be on display this week in Chicago, where Mayor Rahm Emanuel pushes his infrastructure bank.  That's one example Clinton offered to Maria Bartiromo during their CNBC interview.

We've got a Democratic mayor of Chicago who's working with all the Republicans in banking and finance there to give America its first urban infrastructure bank, something that used to have bipartisan support in Washington.  
Rahm will show up at Clinton's CGI America.



Chelsea worked for Avenue Capital and sits on IAC's board of directors.  Her annual board compensation is roughly $262,500. 

CGI America starts tomorrow, which helps explain Clinton's handling Romney's PEU background with soft gloves.  The new model of capitalism is colored Red and Blue.  It sees wealth potential everywhere, something not felt by most Americans.

Update 6-7-12:  Mayor Rahm Emanuel has a video out on Tax Increment Fund.  It follows a different video on Chicago's use of TIF's..

Update 6-16-13:  Hillary Clinton's favorite advisor Huma Abedin worked full time for the government and received big bucks consulting for Teneo.  Further evidence of the Government-Corporate Monstrosity.

Update 8-14-13:  The NYT finally noticed the sleaziness of the Clinton corporafornication model.   But they gave it short shrift, so the institutionalization solution could be proffered. 

Update 8-15-16:  ZeroHedge shared Huma Abedin also worked for the Clinton Global Initiative while also a government employee and Teneo consultant.  

Monday, March 10, 2014

Right PEU Moves for Chelsea Clinton


Three years working for Avenue Capital likely gave Chelsea Clinton her wealth base.  The opportunities have only grown for Chelsea (as indicated by her bio in IAC Interactive's 2013 proxy statement):

Chelsea Clinton, age 33, has been a director of IAC since September 2011. Ms. Clinton is currently pursuing a doctorate in public health at Oxford University and working as an Assistant Provost at New York University, where she has focused on interfaith initiatives and the university's Global Expansion Program since March 2010. Since September 2011, Ms. Clinton has also served as a member of the boards of directors of the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Ms. Clinton also currently serves as a special correspondent for NBC news. Prior to these efforts, Ms. Clinton worked as an associate at McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm, from August 2003 to October 2006, and as an associate at Avenue Capital Group, an investment firm, from October 2006 to November 2009. Ms. Clinton also currently serves on the boards of directors of The School of American Ballet, Common Sense Media and The Weill Cornell Medical College. In nominating Ms. Clinton, the Board considered her broad public policy experience and keen intellectual acumen, which together the Board believes will bring a fresh and youthful perspective to IAC's businesses and initiatives.
The IAC board has a number of corporate legends.  That's quite the training ground for Chelsea.  Her board compensation from IAC was $299,991.  That tidy sum beats intern wages.

Update 3-15-14:  Washington's Blog noted the Clinton's corporate ways, including daughter Chelsea.

Update 3-23-14:  For a Clinton family selfie, click here.

Update 7-27-14:  NYPo noticed Chelsea's fantastic opportunities.

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

PEU Lover Bill Clinton


The American people were subject to former President Bill Clinton last night.  Jeffrey Epstein's close friend spoke at the Democratic National Convention. Clinton, slayer of Glass-Steagall, allowed greed and leverage to overtake our country.  He did his part by privatizing government services.  After his presidency Clinton joined Yucaipa, a private equity underwriter (PEU). 

Consider what Clinton said to fellow sexual predator Harvey Weinstein in June 2012.


“If you go in and try and save a failing company…you can go into a company, have cutbacks and make it more productive with the goal of saving it, and when you try, like anything else you try, you don’t always succeed…so I don’t think that we ought to get into the position where we say this is bad work. This is good work.”
Clinton worked for consulting firm Teneo, bought by BC Partners in 2015.  PEU BC Partners flipped its stake to CVC Capital in 2019. FT reported

Former US president Bill Clinton became honorary chairman although he left in 2012.
Chairman roles usually come with an equity stake. 

The Clinton Foundation ran Fondo Acceso, a private equity firm in Colombia   It took a week for the PEU to disappear from the internet after news became public.

A Guardian columnist lamented Clinton's speaking role:

Along with George W Bush and Ronald Reagan, it’s Clinton who is to blame for the hollowing out of America over the last 30 years
A former business reporter wrote this blog in July 2011:

I have seen so many people -- particularly those in their 50s - 70s -- taken apart by what has happened in their industry as greed has hollowed out the economy. These are people took pride in their jobs and held themselves to this invisible standard that we all just took for granted, but is being wiped out.
The Carlyle Group scares me more than anything I've ever seen on Wall Street. It seems to exist to corrupt politicians and it's hard to know who they even represent.
Politicians love private equity.  The greed and leverage boys return the favor.  The Clintons headlined The Carlyle Group's annual investor meeting of limited partners.  Bill spoke in September 2012 and Hillary got the 2013 gig. 

Bill received $250,000 for a speech for PEU Apollo Global as Hillary ran for President.  He served as honorary chancellor for KKR owned Laureate Education for a cool $17.6 million. 

President Clinton's being front and center last night is a sign that the raw deal for many won't end anytime soon.  Insiders have done and will continue to do quite well.


Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Cisneros, Albright, Cohen and Rubin: From Clinton Cabinet to PEU


PEU lobbying group American Investment Council reported over seven years ago:

May 31, 2012Former President Bill Clinton appeared on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, guest hosted by Harvey Weinstein, to provide his take on the presidential election.  When Clinton was asked about the recent attacks on private equity, he responded:

“If you go in and try and save a failing company…you can go into a company, have cutbacks and make it more productive with the goal of saving it, and when you try, like anything else you try, you don’t always succeed…so I don’t think that we ought to get into the position where we say this is bad work. This is good work.”
Good work for many former members of the Clinton cabinet.   Many joined the greed and leverage boys after serving President Clinton.

Madeline Albright founded Albright Capital.

APR Energy, an Albright Capital portfolio company, secured a contract to supply the South Australian government with a new fast-start power plant made up of nine turbines to help avert potential shortages over summer.  The company also filled the breach for Tasmania last year when an under-sea power cable to the mainland failed.
In the article, APR Energy's executive chairman John Campion discusses the transaction and the invaluable involvement of Ms Madeleine Albright and Albright Capital Management.
Henry Cisneros is Co-Chief Investment Officer and Chairman of American Triple I Partners.  His PEU landed a deal this week to redevelop New York's JFK Airport.

A minority-owned private equity firm led by Clinton administration veteran Henry Cisneros has been selected as an investment partner for a project at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. American Triple I Partners will contribute 30% of the equity for the redevelopment of terminals 6 and 7 at JFK. 

The addition of American Triple I, a 100% minority-owned business, helps the consortium meet Governor Andrew Cuomo’s goal for the JFK redevelopment plan to include 30% participation from minority and women-owned business enterprises, known as MWBEs. 

The Carlyle Group is behind the new Terminal 1 at JFK.  Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein worked in President Jimmy Carter's White House but benefited from Clinton's privatizing the government's background check arm.  Carlyle flipped USIS several times for huge returns.

William Cohen founded TCG Financial Partners in 2004.  His co-founding partner sold a Palm Beach house for $2,312 a square foot in June 2019.

Robert Rubin joined Insight Capital Partners before moving on to Centerview Partners.  Rahm Emanuel worked in the Clinton and Obama White Houses and recently joined Rubin at Centerview Partners.

New Democratic Presidential Candidate Deval Patrick headed up the Civil Rights Division under Bill Clinton.  He recently resigned his PEU position with Bain Capital.

A flashback to Bill Clinton defending the PEU boys to Harvey Weinstein is symbolic on a number of levels.  The greed and leverage boys are predatory. 

Update 12-19-19:  Presidential Candidate Pete "PEU" Buttigieg worked for The Cohen Group and the Truman Center, where Madeleine Albright sat on the board.   Peuttigieg!  

Update 3-23-22:   Madeline Albright died today.  Cancer took her life at the age of 84.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Clinton Foundation Runs $20 Million PEU


The Washington Free Beacon reported:

The Clinton Foundation is operating a $20 million private equity firm in Colombia, raising concerns from government and consumer watchdog groups who say the practice is unusual and could pose a significant conflict of interest

The line between the firm and the Clinton’s nonprofit world is hazy. Fondo Acceso is run out of the Clinton Foundation’s Bogota office and staffed by foundation employees, a representative at the office told the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday. 
The Clinton Foundation has long been full of conflicts of interest and slipshod accounting.  Those are necessary to send big money to friends.

The firm is managed by Carolina Botero, who is also chief financial officer at the Clinton-Giustra Enterprise Partnership. It lists various Clinton Foundation and CGEP officials as directors in its corporate filings. The Clinton Foundation’s tax returns list Fondo Acceso as a related corporation in which the foundation holds a 50 percent stake.

Colombian companies that want to apply for venture funding from the Fondo Acceso must also sign a contract turning over financial and internal information to both the private equity firm and the Clinton Foundation.
Here are Acceso's affiliates as of a July 2012 presentation:


There's a new method for taking advantage of banana republics, the PEU way.

 The Clinton's helped create the system, thus they know how to navigate PEU waters.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

CGI Brothers Clinton & Rubenstein at Ex-Im Bank Conference


President Bill Clinton and private equity underwriter (PEU) David Rubenstein will speak at the annual Export-Import Bank Annual Conference in April.  Clinton and Rubenstein frequent other gatherings of the wealthy and powerful.  Ironically, two share the initials CGI.

Bill Clinton - Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)
David Rubenstein - Carlyle Group Investors (CGI) annual meeting
President Bill Clinton helped Carlyle profit by privatizing the security investigation arm of the Office of Personnel Management in 1995.  This division became USIS, which turned into Altegrity.  Carlyle took its share of $1 billion in profit from their PEU exit.

Chelsea Clinton and David Rubenstein recently attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where Rubenstein offered China's economic model as the panacea for America's financial ills.

The Export-Import Bank provided $32.7 billion in financing in 2011.   Carlyle knows how to tap the federal teat.  How many PEU affiliates got Ex-Im money last year?

Update 4-7-12:  This blast from the past shows how Clinton and Carlyle go way back.

Update 7-7-13:  CGI squared last fall.  This post ended up being predictive as Bill Clinton spoke at The Carlyle Group's Investor Meeting in September of 2012.   FT reported:

"Private equity groups compete with each other to host the most glitzy affairs and solicit the biggest names. Last September, Carlyle’s co-founder David Rubenstein led a question-and-answer session with Mr Clinton, who charges as much as $200,000, at its annual event."

Monday, May 2, 2022

California Davos Hosts Crypto Related Panels

Last week former President Bill Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair were in The Bahamas discussing world events with crypto's FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. 

California Davos, aka the Milken Global Conference, promoted connections with its theme "Celebrating the Power of Connections." A promotional video for the event had a segment of Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein with Mr. Blair.

Bloomberg reported:

...as more and more money pours into crypto and blockchain technology, the conference has perhaps its most sizable digital asset contingent yet. There will be several crypto-related panels, including two on the metaverse and one on digital nationalism. 

Rubenstein recently said the crypto "genie was out of the bottle."   The Berkshire Hathaway boys feel differently about crypto than Blair, Clinton and Rubenstein.  Charlie Munger called crypto "stupid and evil."  Warren Buffett said he wouldn't pay $25 for all the bitcoin in the world.

Clinton has been a regular at Milken.

President Clinton paved the way for Carlyle to profit more than once from USIS, once a federal security background check department until Clinton privatized it.  

It's good to know Clinton and Blair haven't lost their nose for money.  How did they take their speaking fees?  Was it in dollars, the British pound, cryptocurrency or FTX stock?  There are so many ways for insiders to be paid nowadays.

Update 5-2-22:  Jesse's Cafe Americain noted the Nordic Flash Crash and commented:

Seriously, how can one expect a multi-billion dollar trading platform for a global financial institution to bother with any safeguards against potentially systemic critical 'typos.'   LOL

The financial fourth estate was too busy swooning over the international cast attending the Michael Milken conference at the Beverly Hilton to be concerned about any of these market-busting, existential questions.

 Update 5-11-22:  Fortune reported:

In the event the crypto exchange goes bankrupt, Coinbase says, its users might lose all the cryptocurrency stored in their accounts too.
Update 5-18-22:  The cryptocurrency unwind came quickly after financial whores Bill Clinton and Tony Blair were in the Bahamas pushing crypto.
If you don’t see that the crypto “industry” has become just as blindingly corrupt, just as oozingly fatuous, just as profoundly captured by the Nudging Oligarchy as the traditional financial services industry it was supposed to replace … well, you’re just not paying attention.

Update 5-25-22:  Tony Blair received emergency payments from J.P. Morgan according to a whistleblower.  Sam Bankman-Fried enjoyed his time with Clinton and Blair so much he will contribute as much as $1 billion toward future political campaigns.  Sounds like Sam has been promoted to policy making billionaire.

Update 6-20-22:  Clinton and Blair's crypto buddy gave $16 million to U.S. Super PACs in April.

Update 6-21-22:  “Sam Bankman-Fried is the new John Pierpont Morgan -- he is bailing out cryptocurrency markets the way the original J.P. Morgan did after the crisis of 1907,” Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital, said in an interview, referring to that year’s banking panic, which led to the creation of the Federal Reserve System. 

Update 7-11-22:  Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital founders are AWOL.  Creditors asked a court to "subpoena the founders and have them provide a list of company assets including wallets it controls, bank accounts, digital assets in its possessions, derivatives contracts, securities, accounts receivables, and all company records."

Update 8-2-22:  A number of FDIC insured banks ran with the crypto devils and may go under as a result.  How this is remotely OK is a question one should ask David Rubenstein and his former employee Jerome Powell.

Update 8-4-22:   JP Morgan's payments to Tony Blair went an unusual route inside the company, raising ethics and compliance concerns.  Those payments may come to light in an upcoming trial for wrongful discharge of a JP Morgan compliance official.

Update 11-10-22:  Bloomberg reported FTX with an $8 billion hole is careening toward bankruptcy. 

Update 11-11-22:  Marc Cohodes saw through SBF in this video from September.  The media finally found SBF's operation was headed by college friends.  This would have been more important information than SBF running with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. 

Update 2-15-23:  Famed investor Charlie Munger said of cryptocurrencies:

"It isn't even slightly stupid, it's massively stupid, and of course it's very dangerous, and of course the governments were totally wrong to permit it."

Update 10-15-23:  SBF's fraud trial revealed his "trademark disheveled appearance — including his unkempt hair and wardrobe of cargo shorts and T-shirts — as a calculated PR move to portray himself as an eccentric entrepreneur."

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Bill Clinton's Undeclared Carlyle Group Speech


FT reported ex-President Bill Clinton's spoke at The Carlyle Group's annual investor meeting in 2012.  This was not Carlyle's NASDAQ unit-holder gathering, but the meeting of Carlyle's high dollar private equity investors.  FT's piece stated:

Private equity groups compete with each other to host the most glitzy affairs and solicit the biggest names. Last September, Carlyle’s co-founder David Rubenstein led a question-and-answer session with Mr. Clinton, who charges as much as $200,000, at its annual event.

Why doesn't Clinton's federal financial disclosure filing include Bill's Carlyle Group speaker fee from September 2012?  Because it doesn't fit with the narrative for Hillary's Presidential run.  Clinton's listed September speeches include:

Five Star Institute - Sept. 7, 2012
Solar Energy Trade Shows LLC - Sept. 12, 2012
C3 Summit LLC - Sept. 13, 2012

Bill's Carlyle talk likely would've been September 10 or 11, 2012.  Clinton made other PEU speeches that year, including:

GTCR - June 27, 2012
Pershing LLC - June 6, 2012
UBS Wealth Management - 3 speeches, Feb. 2, April 17 and Oct. 18
J.P. Morgan -  Oct. 17, 2012
Goldman Sachs - Oct. 23, 2012
Mortgage Bankers Assoc. of America - Oct. 23, 2012

Bill's missing Carlyle Group speaker fee brings to mind two other PEU omissions.  One, The Carlyle Group's LifeCare Hospitals got not one mention in the Bush White House Lessons Learned report on Hurricane Katrina.  LifeCare had the highest number of patient deaths in Katrina's aftermath.  Thirty five patient deaths warranted not a peep from Frances Townsend, the report's author. 

Two, residual private equity stakes have been as absent as Clinton's Carlyle Group fee.  For years White House Health Reformer Nancy-Ann DeParle's disclosures showed no residual PEU holdings from CCMP affiliates.  Yet later, residual profits from the sale of a healthcare affiliate appeared.

DeParle's 2011 filing showed a gain from her earn out from MedQuest, a medical imaging company.  Nowhere on two prior disclosures did she indicate residual private equity stakes in MedQuest or any other healthcare firms, where she served as a board member.

Private equity underwriters (PEU's) metastasized from leveraged buyout organizations (LBO's).  Oddly, convicted LBO genius Michael Milken now operates a global confab called The Milken Institute Global Conference.  Clinton spoke at that event in 2012 and also failed to list this speech or its income in the federal disclosure filing. 

What is it about private equity that enables residual stakes and speaking fees to be secret from public disclosure?  The PEU world thrives on secrecy and elected leaders foster such.  Politicians Red and Blue love PEU.

Update 4-23-15:  WaPo found what PEU Report discovered last year.

Monday, January 4, 2010

The Long Lists of 2009


The year closed with its usual proliferation of lists, with several surprise additions. Two were impossibly long, yet sparse with real information. They are the Clinton Global Initiative donor list and White House visitor logs.

December 30 saw the White House release 25,000 visitors, albeit some were double counted. I searched David M. Rubenstein, co-founder of The Carlyle Group, a huge private equity underwriter (PEU). He showed up six times, yet he only had three visits. The White House reclassified his 2-12 visit with POTUS from "Group Tour" to "Business Council Speech." One would expect the President of the Economic Club of Washington to warrant more than a group tour. Especially one with the foresight to call for the "mother of all economic stimulus packages" in October 2008.

Several Carlyle connections showed up on the Clinton Global Initiative donor list. Joint venture partner Robert L. Johnson gave between $1 million and $5 million. Further down the list was Bob's buddy Thomas F. "Mac" McLarty, Carlyle Senior Adviser. Mac's auto company kicked in as well. Carlyle affiliate Booz Allen Hamilton made the Clinton list.

Other CGI donors included a cornucopia of Wall Street firm, investment house, private equity underwriters, hedge funds and corporations living on the government tit, like AIG, Freddie Mac, CitiGroup and General Motors. Financial donors included Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers Holdings, JP Morgan Chase, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch, Bloomberg LP, Chicago Climate Exchange, Apollo Management LP and UBS AG.

Other interesting names included Rahm Emanuel, Denise Rich, Erskine Bowles, Richard Holdbrooke, Vernon Jordan, Donna Shalala and Samuel Berger. Lobbying firms ponied up money for Clinton's Foundation, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, DUTKO Group, APCO Worldwide,

Two groups used the CGI as a middleman for commodity purchases, UNITAID and Jamaica. I don't understand the benefit of running a food buy through CGI. Does CGI or another group match the money?

This leads back to the gathering of big philanthropists in May 2009. Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffet and company discussed leveraging their donations to improve world problems. The same Bill Gates donated over $25 million to CGI and showed up twice on the White House visitor list. He met with President Obama and Larry Summers. What did one of the richest men in America ask from the White House?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wants to shift U.S. foreign aid to private organizations, possibly matching funds for big philanthropists. The Clinton Global Initiative would be the beneficiary of such a change. Might CGI donor Benny Hinn benefit as well? Taxpayers will set up a $50 million endowment for Egypt.

As an aside, I noted the Bon Secours Health System gave to the CGI. Why would a regional nonprofit hospital system feel the need to donate $25,001 to $50,000 to Clinton's nonprofit? I smell the Government Industrial Monstrosity, Eisenhower's MIC on steroids. Health care, education, infrastructure and foreign aid are next for "modernization," the euphemism for Uncle Sam contracts out the work to a very profitable private sector.

On the openness front, the public should be grateful for the list release. The White House wouldn't confirm or deny the David M. Rubenstein on their list as a Carlyle Group co-founder. Surely they know David. Rahm Emanuel dined with Rubenstein at the Blue Duck Tavern?

Bill Clinton's Foundation listed a $10,001 to $25,000 donor as "T". Is that AT&T's ticker symbol or Mr. T. without the the "Mr."? The public is grateful for the information crumbs dropped from the rich man's table.

Update 4-27-15:  Five years later the public is now interested in the Clintons' slush fund

Friday, September 27, 2013

CNBC Runs More Ads for Clinton Global Initiative

This looks like a "shhshhh", maybe over the Clinton Global Initiative's past conflicts of interest through overt influence peddling.  Bill Clinton seems able to talk himself out of almost anything.

Or is it into almost anything?
Did Maria buy into the Clinton presence?  Whether she did or did not, CNBC did their part to push the Clinton Global Initiative this week.

CGI is the Blue team's marquee event, held annually in conjunction with the United Nations confab.  The Red team launched The Concordia Summit two years ago, courtesy of two "well connected" young men.  Bill Clinton headlined the Concordia Kids meeting in 2012.

The NYSE took over promotion for the Kids.  Here's the Closing Bell on Thursday, September 26:

The kids are the two gentleman second from either direction, kind of "one off" bookends in the picture.  The NYSE clip showed the Concordia logo in front of a trader.  You can wager on the political Red or Blue team, but you can't buy one share of Concordia.

The NYSE event was the kickoff for the Concordia Summit.  It's clear a number of  global leaders made the trek from the Clinton Global Initiative to the NYSE.  All week long a number of international political leaders graced the Opening and Closing Bell.

Enjoy the spotlight boys.  Some day citizens will wake up to the shameless influence peddling both political parties employ.  It's absurd that two kids right out of college, no matter their esteemed family pedigree, can start a meeting and get a star studded Red Team to show up at short notice.

Leadership does not take ethics (Clinton), experience (Concordia Kids), much less theory/knowledge (both Red & Blue teams).  But they can do marketing/PR and hire their ethically challenged peers.  

Friday, June 13, 2014

NBC Employs Daughters of America's Royal Families


Politico revealed Chelsea Clinton earned $600,000 a year working part time for NBC.  NBC also employs Jenna Bush Hagar, another White House Royal.  The Clintons are the titular head of the Blue Team while the Bushes lead the Red Team.

Cementing their political dominance, rumors have it Blue Hillary Clinton could square off against Red Jeb Bush in 2016.  That would be both instructive and sad. 

Politico said this about Chelsea's other work while earning over half a million at NBC:

In that time (since November 2011), Clinton’s principal occupation has been the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, where she has been a major force in steering her parents’ charitable work in the final years of her mother’s tenure at the State Department, and since.
That's the same charitable foundation that hired Clinton's friends and used money in unethical ways.  The William J. Clinton Foundation was renamed the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation in April 2013.   Chelsea went from working 2 hours a week for the foundation in 2011 to 30 hours a week in 2012 (source IRS 990 forms). 

Chelsea earned $300,000 sitting on IAC's board of directors.  No word on how much NYU paid her to be Assistant Provost or the Clinton Foundation paid her. 

Who else gets $900,000 a year for two very part-time jobs?  The Royals do...

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

CEO Resigns in Disgrace from Clinton and Blair's Teneo


Teneo's politically connected CEO Declan Kelly resigned in disgrace after behaving badly at a Global Citizen charity concert in May.  Teneo was a corporate sponsor of the event.

VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the World is executive produced by Global Citizen, the Ad Council & COVID Collaborative, YouTube Originals, iHeartMedia, Teneo and Live Nation

Teneo is part owned by CVC Capital.  Kelly got drunk and groped women in front of his private equity sponsor at an event his company supported.

Chris Stadler is co-chair of the Global Citizen board of directors and a managing partner at CVC Capital Partners

PRWeek reported:

The allegations were that Kelly had behaved inappropriately at a party on 2 May linked to the high-profile concert put on by Global Citizen, chaired by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which featured artists including Jennifer Lopez. According to the FT, several sources claimed the inappropriate behaviour included the non-consensual touching of a number of women. 

PageSix reported:

The insiders at Teneo — the Manhattan firm that promotes itself as helping Fortune 500 CEOs maintain their pristine reputations and avoid scandals — claim that Kelly has been “having an affair with a subordinate for years.”

Another Teneo insider said of the alleged relationship, “It has been an open secret at the firm.”

Former President Bill Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair worked as advisors for Teneo.  They also rode multiple times in Jeffrey Epstein's plane, known as the Lolita Express. 

In 2006 Epstein donated $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation. Bill Clinton made more than two dozen trips on Epstein’s jet around this time, Epstein’s flight logs show. In January 2003, according to Band, Clinton visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island, Little St. James.

Consider this story from Vanity Fair

Around the time Doug Band launched Teneo in June 2011, Chelsea summoned Band and his cofounder Declan Kelly to the Clinton office in Harlem. Band walked in to find Bill flanked by Chelsea and her husband, financier Marc Mezvinsky. According to Band, Chelsea said Band’s $2.5 million offer to put her dad on Teneo’s advisory board wasn’t enough. She wanted Band to give her and Mezvinsky an ownership position in Teneo. To Band, it felt like a shakedown. “I thought she was kidding or deeply sick,” he told me. Band looked across the table at Bill, but he sided with Chelsea. Band refused to give up an equity stake.

Teneo's roots are private equity underwriting (PEU) level greed. 

Teneo aspired to be a communications firm, investment bank, and management consultancy all in one, with fees to match: Teneo’s retainers would start at $150,000 a month and reach into the millions.
The Clinton Global Initiative and Teneo were intertwined until Bill's charity shriveled.

Teneo recently expanded with the purchase of another advisory firm:

In March, they invested in WestExec Advisors, a Washington geopolitical risk consulting company.

WestExec Advisors was founded by Anthony Blinken and Michele Flournoy in 2108  Both also worked for PEU Pine Island Capital.  Blinken is President Biden's Secretary of State.

President Biden tapped more than one Pine Island Capital advisor for his cabinet.  Defense Secretary General Lloyd Austin is also a PEU.

Teneo doesn't just cater to the Blue political team.  Former House Speaker Paul Ryan works for Teneo and former White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders interviewed with Teneo after leaving the Trump White House.

Teneo executives are supposed to save reputations.   One has to wonder the series of selfish decisions that contributed to Declan Kelly's downfall.  How many ethical lines did he cross on his way to imploding at a high profile charity event?  It's PEU level arrogance.  

Update 12-31-21:  A jury found Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of sex trafficking underage girls.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Hillary & Bill's Upcoming PEU Events


WaPo reported on Hillary's talk at the Carlyle Group Investor Annual Meeting which begins September 9th:

$200,000 That is what Carlyle Group is paying former secretary of state Hillary Clinton to speak at its annual investor conference in Washington next week. (Politico reported the engagement earlier.) Private equity has been very, very kind to the Clintons. Last year, Carlyle paid a similar amount to Hilary’s husband, former president Bill Clinton.
President Bill Clinton privatized USIS, the government department that ran security checks.  The Carlyle Group made big money from holding an ownership stake in USIS from 1999 to 2007.

Hillary recently spoke to KKR's investor group for $200,000.  KKR is another private equity underwriter (PEU).

Next up for the PEU Clintons is the other CGI, Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting vs. that of Carlyle Group Investors.  Interestingly, the Clinton Global Initiative confessed to handling money poorly, personally enriching the Clinton's close contacts.  America's Royal Bubba Family will headline their CGI event which runs from Monday, September 23 to Thursday September 26 in New York City.

Directly following CGI 2013 is an event Bill Clinton headlined last year, the Concordia Kids Summit


How many CGI members will head from the Closing Plenary to the NYSE for Concordia's welcome reception on Thursday afternoon?  Bill was the draw last year.  It's not clear who will fill his role in 2013.

Concordia will announce a number of major speakers, including our keynote speaker, over the coming weeks. Our confirmed speaker list includes a number of current and former Heads of State as well as business leaders from Fortune 500 companies and small and medium enterprises.
It'd be too much to ask for Hillary to speak at Concordia 2013, given Concordia is the Red version of public-private partnerships.  Nevertheless, Red and Blue love PEU.

Update 9-23-13:  FireDogLake didn't like the smell of CGI either.  

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Clinton E-mail Staffers Now PEUs


The DailyMail reported:

The Clintonemail.com domain name was originally registered to Bill Clinton confidante Eric Hothem, the Times discovered. 

Hothem is the same aide who was charged with packing up and carting off furniture from the White House at the end of Bill Clinton's presidency that he said was 'Clinton’s personal property.'   The furnishings were later determined to be government property, however, and the Clintons were required to pay $86,000 in restitution for the items they kept. Others, they had to return. 

Hothem now works in finance (for J.P. Morgan Securities) in Washington, D.C., and another former Clinton staffer's name is on the server registration - Justin Cooper.  It is set to expire in 2017, when Hillary Clinton would theoretically take office if she were to compete for and win the presidency next year. 

Cooper has also since left the employment of the Clintons for Teneo Holdings, a firm managed by a former Bill Clinton adviser Douglas Band. 

What are the odds two ex-public servants would end up working for Wall Street or private equity?  Pretty high, actually. 

It's time for the shady Clintons to come clean yet again.  They won't.  Rest assured a lackey will take the fall and in time, their rewards will be great

Sunday, April 6, 2014

State Department: Internal Controls Lacking under Hillary

The U.S. State Department had woeful accounting and poor internal control systems for the last six years, much of that under ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  WaPo reported:

The State Department’s inspector general has warned the department that $6 billion in contracting money over the past six years cannot be properly accounted for and cited “significant financial risk and . . . a lack of internal control.”
Such failure, the IG said, “exposes the Department to significant financial risk and makes . . . oversight more difficult. It creates conditions conducive to fraud . . . [and] impairs the ability” of the government to protect its interests and “to punish and deter criminal behavior.”

Timing:  This has a similar feel to GM's deadly recall announcement after CEO Daniel Akerson stepped down to rejoin the Carlyle Group.

Connections:  Coincidentally, ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earned $200,000 speaking at The Carlyle Group's annual investor meeting. Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein later interviewed Hillary, offering her a private equity underwriter (PEU) job.

Her words:  At her Joint Civilian Service Award ceremony Hillary Clinton said:

"We have pioneered a nimbler, more innovative, more effective approach to foreign policy, so I am enormously proud of what we have achieved, and I'm confident about the future."
"I like being on the American team, not the State Department team, not the Defense Department team, not the partisan team. I like being on the American team. And I think when we take these positions and take that oath of office, we really pledge to be part of the American team."--Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Hillary earned the highest award the U.S. military can bestow to a civilian.  It seems appropriate given the Pentagon's inability to audit itself.

Words about Hillary:

"As Hillary often says, this is not just the right thing to do; it is also the smart and effective thing to do."--Mrs. Ververr

Content:  Poor accounting and loose internal controls aren't new to the Clinton gang.

The Clinton Global Initiative confessed to handling money poorly, which personally enriched the Clinton's close contacts.

My take:  It's a PEU world, where the greed and power class feel best interacting with their own.  There's an unstated obligation to enrich their friends, regardless of the money source.

Leadership Question:  The buck stops where?