Hillary Clinton's donor scandal woes have widened to include links to Chinese mobs, scams involving the ex-first lady as a front, and required donations to her campaign. A Laguna Beach investment firm filed a lawsuit against Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu, claiming he defrauded investors out of at least $23 million and required them to donate to Hillary Clinton.
According to the lawsuit filed by Briar Wood Investments, Hsu persuaded the company's operator to do business with him by taking him to Democratic Party events where New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton praised Hsu.
As a condition of doing business with Hsu, he insisted that investors make contributions to certain Democratic candidates, including $30,000 worth of checks to Clinton's campaign on a single day.
The Clintons have been linked before to donors who used them as an access point to acquire more money, power and political favors. For example, there is the story of Roger Tamraz, a Lebanese oil financier, who was wanted by Interpol for embezzling nearly $80 million dollars from a Middle Eastern bank.
Documents from the files of Ron Brown show that Roger Tamraz was inside the Clinton administration as early as 1994 — two years before he met Bill Clinton in the White House.
In 1994 Tamraz was authorized by Bill Clinton to travel with Ron Brown on the Presidential Business development mission to Russia. The document, an unclassified March 1994 telegram to U.S. Commerce representatives in Russia, orders them to arrange meetings between Tamraz and the Russian First Deputy Minister of Fuels and Energy.
Two years later, in April 1996, Tamraz used his influence to get into the White House. National Security Council (NSC) staffers did not want Tamraz to meet the president because of his outstanding Interpol warrant on the fraud charges.
In the end Tamraz got his meeting and managed to donate over $300,000 in total to the DNC. Tamraz met with Clinton six times, including a long coffee session in April 1996. When asked by a senator if he would do it again, Tamraz replied that he would "donate $600,000" next time.
One way Mrs. Clinton raises money is by charging for photographs. Mrs. Clinton has left us with a wide selection of photos with convicted felons including pictures of her with Norman Hsu.
Mrs. Clinton had her photo taken with drug dealer Jorge Cabrera. Jorge donated a load of money to the DNC in order to get close to the first lady. He is currently serving federal time for smuggling 3,000 pounds of cocaine into the United States.
Ironically, Jorge and Hillary were photographed in front of the White House Christmas tree.
Finally, there is the story of Sacramento developer Angelo K. Tsakopoulos. Eleni Tsakopoulos, Angelo's daughter, is currently like Norman Hsu, one of Mrs. Clinton's "Hillraiser 200" major campaign contributors.
The Tsakopoulos family is also well known inside the Clinton White House and DNC circles. Angelo has spent a night in the Lincoln Bedroom and was a major financial supporter of former California Gov. Gray Davis.
In fact, in 1999, only months before the California energy crisis, Davis led a $200,000 trade trip to Europe for the now bankrupt Enron Corporation. Davis traveled at the California taxpayer expense with his wife for two weeks in Europe and finally in ancient Greece, lobbying on behalf of Enron for the "Greek Wind Project."
Davis also took a close-knit group of heavy campaign donors along on his trip to Greece. The group included grocery store magnate Ron Burkle who donated $350,000 to Davis and his good friend, major DNC donor and Sacramento developer Angelo K. Tsakopoulos.
Tsakopoulos and his family are million dollar contributors to the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton.
According to documents forced from the U.S. Commerce Department, Enron noted that Davis and Tsakopoulos were tripping to Greece with some very unusual comments.
"Best man at my greek wedding," noted one hand written comment next to a Los Angeles Times article on Tsakopoulos attached to documents from the U.S. Embassy in Athens.
"Major Clinton donor — may be on Clinton trip to Greece," states the handwritten comments.
Enron considered the trade trip so important that they also included a 22 page briefing paper addressed to Gov. Davis detailing the "Greek Wind Project Permitting Issue." Interestingly, the same briefing paper made its way into the U.S. commercial section of the American embassy in Athens.
The 1999 documents are part of a long string of heavy lobbying efforts that the Clinton administration carried out to convince the Greeks to buy Enron products for Crete.
According to the Los Angeles Times article with the unusual handwritten comments, Tsakopoulos managed to get "a series of accommodations from three federal agencies" to resolve a wetlands dispute. The dispute revolved around 800 acres of wetlands that Tsakopoulos wanted to convert to a vineyard.
Despite federal warnings, Tsakopoulos went ahead and "deep-ripped" the acreage without obtaining the necessary permit. Normally, such action should have resulted in major fines and even criminal penalties.
Regulators offered Tsakopoulos what a Fish and Wildlife Service memo termed a "highly favorable" bargain.
"Tsakopoulos would set aside about 50 acres of wetlands scattered among 1,400 acres of highlands. And the Fish and Wildlife agency would waive its requirement that the developer fix or create twice the number of vernal pools destroyed," noted the Times article.
Immediately after the sweet deal from the Clinton administration, Tsakopoulos donated $100,000 to the DNC.
© 2007 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
|
