1, 100 donors to a Canadian charity tied to Clinton Foundation remain secret

[Uranium One]

A charity affiliated with the Clinton Foundation failed to
reveal the identities of its 1,100 donors, creating a broad
exception to the foundation’s promise to disclose funding
sources as part of an ethics agreement with the Obama
administration.

The number of undisclosed contributors to the charity, the
Canada-based Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, signals a
larger zone of secrecy around foundation donors than was
previously known.

Details of the organization’s fundraising were disclosed this
week by a spokeswoman for the Canadian group’s founder, mining
magnate Frank Giustra.

The Canadian group has received attention in recent days as a
potential avenue for anonymous Clinton Foundation donations from
foreign business executives, including some who had interests
before the U.S. government while Hillary Rodham Clinton was
secretary of state.

The partnership, named in part for Bill Clinton, sends much of
its money to the New York-based Clinton Foundation. Two of the
partnership’s known donors — Giustra and another mining
executive, Ian Telfer — are featured in the soon-to-be-released
book “Clinton Cash” for their roles in a series of deals that
resulted in Russia controlling many uranium deposits around the
world and in the United States.

With the foundation’s finances emerging as an issue for Hillary
Clinton’s presidential campaign, a foundation official this week
defended the arrangement with the Giustra group, noting in a
blog post that Canadian law prevents charities in that country
from disclosing their donors without the donors’ permission.

The Canadian partnership has in recent days begun to reach out
to its 28 largest donors, each of whom gave donations equivalent
to at least $250,000 in U.S. dollars, to seek permission to
release their names, said a person familiar with the foundation,
who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The large number of undisclosed supporters of a Clinton-
affiliated charity raises new questions about the foundation’s
adherence to the 2008 ethics agreement it struck with the Obama
administration, which was designed to avoid conflicts of
interest during Hillary Clinton’s tenure at the State Department.

Former senator Richard G. Lugar (Ind.), who as the senior
Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee quizzed
Hillary Clinton during her 2009 confirmation hearings about
potential conflicts stemming from foundation fundraising around
the world, said Tuesday that he considered such undisclosed
donations to violate the spirit of the ethics agreement.

“Clearly, there was an expectation and a commitment that large
donations to the Clinton Foundation would be disclosed,” Lugar
said via e-mail.

A spokeswoman for the Canadian group said the majority of the
1,100 donors gave small, one-time gifts while attending a 2008
fundraising gala.

A spokesman for the Clinton Foundation said the agreement did
not apply to the Canadian organization, which is a separate
charity based in Vancouver. The spokesman compared the group to
other major charities that provide funding to the Clinton
Foundation but do not themselves disclose all their donors, such
as Partners in Health and the Nature Conservancy.

In the Sunday blog post, the foundation’s acting chief
executive, Maura Pally, said the arrangement was “hardly an
effort on our part to avoid transparency.”

However, the Giustra partnership has been more intertwined with
the Clintons’ $2 billion foundation than other independent
charities.

It uses both the Clinton name and the logo of the Clinton
Foundation. Giustra himself has given more than $30 million
directly to the Clinton Foundation and sits on the
organization’s board. He has separately pledged $100 million to
the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, making him one of
the foundation’s largest donors. Bruce Lindsey, a longtime
Clinton adviser who chairs the foundation board, also sits on
the board of the Canadian organization.

According to Canadian tax filings, the Clinton Giustra
Enterprise Partnership (CGEP) has spent nearly $30 million in
current U.S. dollars since 2007; and nearly $25 million of that
spending has gone directly to the Clinton Foundation, a
spokeswoman said.

Bill Clinton has also personally raised funds for the group,
including at the 2008 gala, where the Canadian mining industry
pledged millions for the effort.

“I love this guy, and you should too,” Clinton said of Giustra
that night, according to Toronto’s the Globe and Mail newspaper.

A foundation official has said the partnership was Giustra’s
brainchild, born of his desire to join forces with Bill Clinton
to work to alleviate poverty around the world, particularly in
places where the mining industry had been present.

The partnership’s projects have included funding thousands of
cataract operations for local residents in Peru and thousands
more meals for starving children in Colombia, where Giustra has
many investments.

A spokeswoman said the organization is active in Haiti, India,
Peru, Colombia and El Salvador and is exploring expanding in
Mexico, South Asia and Africa.

In an interview, Giustra said his group was not dependent on the
Clintons.

“I’m not doing this because of Bill Clinton,” Giustra said. “He
loves what we’re doing with CGEP. But if for some reason he
walked away tomorrow, I would just rename it. Call it something
else and keep doing it, because I think we’re on to something
really great.”

Giustra said many of the organization’s other donors are people
he has met through the mining industry, where he has made his
fortune, a community he saw as an untapped resource for
philanthropy.

“Every year, we come up with a budget for CGEP programs,” he
said. “And I make sure, by hook or by crook, that that amount is
there. It has to come from me or some other means.”

One controversial Clinton Giustra partnership donor is a
Canadian energy company that operates oil fields in Colombia.

The company, Pacific Rubiales, has been the subject of
complaints to the State Department from organized labor groups
reporting alleged mistreatment of workers. Labor officials said
that repeated complaints to the State Department under Clinton
and her successor have not produced significant action. The
counsel for Pacific Rubiales, Peter Volk, denied the
allegations, saying the complaints “stemmed from a rival union
to the one representing our employees.”

The company does not appear in the Clinton Foundation’s
published list of donors. But it has said in a news release that
it has given$3.5 million to the Clinton Giustra partnership.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/1100-donors-to-a-
canadian-charity-tied-to-clinton-foundation-remain-
secret/2015/04/28/c3c0f374-edbc-11e4-8666-
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