Clintons and Wall Street
The Clintons' ties with bankers have been known for a long time - from the time when Bill Clinton participated in the presidential race of the early 1990-s. And the connections themselves began to start at the end of the 1970s, when Bill took the chair of the governor of Arkansas.
Clintons and Goldman Sachs: the beginning of a long novel
The beginning of a serious Clinton couple affair with Wall Street banks dates back to 1985 the year when Goldman Sachs spotted the young governor of Arkansas. In 1991, Bill Clinton met with Co-Chairman Goldman Sachs Robert Rubin in New York. Then the banker and made the final decision to bet on Clinton in the campaign to elect the president. The decision was supported by good financial injections - both official and those that were in conflict with US law. Influential Rubin directed not only Goldman Sachs money to support Bill, he also organized financial support for other Wall Street banks - Lehman Brothers and Citibank. After becoming president, Bill quickly returned his debt to his benefactor, fulfilling all the wishes that Rubin expressed during a memorable meeting in 1991. Bill thanked Rubin even more than once, appointing him US Treasury Secretary and calling him "the greatest finance minister since Alexander Hamilton's time." They say that Rubin in this post managed to earn huge money for himself, for Goldman Sachs, as well as for City Bank, where Rubin moved from his post as Minister of Finance.
Family business
When Bill was already president, he was constantly hung over the sword of Damocles of exposures connected with unscrupulous financial operations and the “special relations” of the Clinton family with bankers. Tried to even unleash history Bill's involvement in illegal real estate transactions in his Arkansas in the 80s, in which Hillary helped him. However, in the end, political opponents chose to use another card against him - the connection of the White House’s owner with Monica Lewinsky. For the president’s wife, the fact that all of America was gossiping about his affair with Monica was far less evil than finding Bill’s connection with bankers.
After Bill’s departure from the White House in 2001, the Clinton couple continued to do what they loved - making money using various dubious methods. Hillary Clinton, by the time she entered into the struggle for the presidency of the United States, had an extensive list of sins. And not only those that were formed during her tenure as secretary of state, but also those who had been drawn after her for a long time. In the first place in this long list is the “special relationship” with the Wall Street banks, which, as we know, few in America love.
"World-class Liar"
Donald Trump systematically strikes at this vulnerable point of the Democratic candidate. So, last summer, Trump said that Hillary Clinton is a "world-class liar", meaning that she shies away from direct questions about her multi-million dollar revenues and the main sponsors of her election campaign.
The Republican candidate also said that Clinton is arguably the most corrupt US presidential candidate in history. As the lady prefers to remain silent, Trump answers unpleasant questions for her.
On the eve of the start of the election campaign, she earned 21,6 million dollars for her performances in front of the Wall Street bankers (she calls this earnings “fees”). List of banks that wish to listen to the "lecture course"? Please: Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and UBS. And this is not counting the fees in the amount of 4,1 million dollars, which Madame received, speaking to banks in the 2013 year, when, after leaving the post of Secretary of State, she shared her foreign policy experience with the bankers. “Enlightenment activity” is a hobby of the Clinton couple. Trump recalled that this married couple had earned 2001 million dollars in 153 for speaking in different audiences. Their listeners and “admirers” were the heads of large corporations and banks, as well as the heads of leading lobbyist offices. True, then in the family tandem was Bill, who had just recently left the White House, and Hillary went to the jury.
How Clintons do charity
An important tool for the family is the Clinton Foundation, declared as a charity. In fact, this is the structure of a family business. The arrival and expenditure of the Fund looks very dull in the accounts, but if you look at the costs that are always more transparent in any charitable foundation than the article “parish”, it turns out that in 2013, the main activity (for charity purposes) was only 10% of the expenses of the Fund, the rest - the so-called administrative costs. Here, as they say, no comment.
If we talk about revenues to the Clinton Foundation, then there are solid anonymous contributors who transferred money through the Canadian partner structure of Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership (CGEP). The media got information about more than 1100 foreign donors that are not reflected in the official statements of the Fund. Clinton Foundation Vice President Mora Palley stated that donor names were not disclosed because the CGEP is governed by Canadian law, which prohibits publishing information about “benefactors” without their consent. But the Clinton Foundation had to either force anonymous donors to open up, or refuse donations, since US law requires the disclosure of the names of "donors." There is a gross violation of the laws of the United States.
The Clinton Foundation didn’t stop sucking money even when Hillary was Secretary of State. She, however, said that at that time the Foundation would not accept donations from governments (direct conflict of interest). However, she did not reject private donations. During the period that Hillary headed the US State Department (2009-2013), the Clinton Foundation received, according to various estimates, from 34 to 68 million dollars from a dozen foreign nationals or funds belonging to them and companies. In addition, 60 million was directly transferred to the fund to support projects supported by the Fund. For some reason, Barack Obama, his advisers and members of his administration did not see any “conflicts of interest” in this practice.
Bestseller "Money Clintons"
All this and more can be found in Peter Schweizer’s best-selling book in the US, “The Clinton Money: The Untold Story of How Foreign Governments and Businessmen Helped Bill and Hillary Become Rich” (Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make (Bill and Hillary Rich).
The Clinton Money Investigation book was published in 2015 year. The author has calculated that over the period 2001-2015. the family business (first of all, this is the Clinton Foundation) brought the married couple a net income of $ 230 million. The book took the highest position in the rating of the New York Times. On it the film is already made. In addition, the media during the current election campaign regularly publish separate excerpts from the investigation of P. Schweitzer. There is no doubt that Donald Trump knows the contents of the book from cover to cover. He uses separate figures and facts from this source in his speeches, but the main blow, apparently, will be closer to election day.
In the book of Peter Schweitzer, Wall Street banks are featured, but they are not in the center of attention of the author. In addition, new facts have appeared that shed additional light on Hillary’s relations with bankers. So, in 2013, Hillary received three Xnumx thousand dollars for three performances before the leadership of Goldman Sachs (675 thousand dollars per hour lecture). Opponents of Clinton began to demand the submission of a transcript or video recording of speeches as documentary evidence of the legality of the money received. No confirmation is still available.
Then Donald Trump declared that Hillary is a Wall Street protege, by contrast, Trump, who pays his campaign mainly from his own pocket. On the pages of The Wall Street Journal and other publications periodically published assessments of financial support for candidates. So, in March 2016, the share of Wall Street transfers to Hillary Clinton’s campaign was 53%. Donald Trump’s share in any month did not exceed 1%. A candidate from the Republican Party concludes: Hillary, if she becomes president, will not touch the bankers: “Hillary will never reform Wall Street. It belongs to Wall Street! ”Trump wrote on his Twitter.
Banking in a Trump-Clinton duel
Trump, as is known, has publicly promised that, having come to the White House, he is organizing a full-fledged audit of the US Federal Reserve. This has not been since the founding of the Fed. There was, however, a partial audit, the purpose of which was to find out to whom, how much and under what conditions the Federal Reserve distributed money during the financial crisis of 2007-2009. When in the 2010 year, following the results of a partial audit, the report was released, it was discovered that the Fed had distributed over 16 trillions of dollars in almost free loans. The main beneficiaries were the main shareholders of the Fed, among which the Wall Street banks ranked first.
President Obama came to the White House in the wake of general discontent with banks. While still a presidential candidate, he promised that he would restore order in the banking system. After all, it was she who became the cause of the financial crisis, then taking money out of the budget for her salvation. We must pay tribute to Obama: becoming president, he achieved the adoption by the US Congress of a law known as the “Dodd-Frank Act”. With the help of this law, it was supposed to reform the banking system of the United States, but the reform was choked up, the greed of bankers won, the banks went bad, and today America is on the verge of a new crisis.
Against the background of what Trump says on this issue, the criticism of banks from Hillary Clinton looks very sluggish. Words that the bankruptcy of any giant bank in America could be the trigger for the crisis of the entire US banking system, Americans have already heard many times. "The Wall Street protege" and she understands that she needs some other move.
Wells Fargo, or the story of hypocrisy
And just recently, it seemed to her, she found such a move. The point is that American banks began to deceive their customers in droves. Not VIP-clients with millions and billions of accounts, but ordinary Americans. This deception can be qualified as a petty scam. The story is connected with the bank Wells Fargo - the largest in terms of capitalization on Wall Street. The Los Angeles Procurator and the Commercial Banking Regulatory Commission revealed serious irregularities in the work of the bank. It turned out that, from May 2011 to July 2015, bank employees opened and issued more than 2 million bills and credit cards without the clients' knowledge. The maintenance of these accounts required the payment of commissions, for which, by default, funds were withdrawn from other accounts of clients with money. Simply put, customers were gradually robbed.
The total amount of illegally withdrawn funds amid the billionth profit of the bank looked ridiculously small - 2-3 million dollars. Bank employees did this under pressure from their superiors, who sought to increase the number of clients. Frauds embellished reporting and gave grounds for accruing bonuses to employees. In general, a banal story. Nevertheless, the authorities decided to raise a fuss about this, demonstrating that they are struggling with the “arbitrariness” of banks that are hated by the people. Recently, the investigation was completed, the authorities demanded that Wells Fargo pay a 185 million fine. And the bank, without waiting for the verdict, dismissed the suspected employees - more than 5 thousand people. In the course it turned out that this is happening in other banks, they are already named: Bank of America, Citizens Bank, PNC, SunTrust and Fifth Third. Bank employees trick customers into opening a large number of accounts and arranging credit and debit cards.
On this story, and decided to earn points Hillary. She joined the criticism of the Wells Fargo bank and even addressed the people with an open letter in which she daubed unprincipled bankers and promised to tighten control over Wall Street moneylenders after becoming the mistress of the White House. The meticulous journalists, however, found Hillary herself unprincipled. The fact is that shortly before the scandal with the bank Wells Fargo, the Clinton Foundation received a donation from the Wells Fargo Foundation (the Fund established by this bank). According to various sources, from 100 to 250 thousand dollars. In addition, back in 2011, Wells Fargo “did a good job” to Bill Clinton, paying him a “fee” in 200 thousand dollars for a single speech to the management of the bank.
The Clinton family ties with the bank are also visible in the fact that the main shareholder of Wells Fargo, Warren Buffet (he owns 10% of the bank’s shares), actively supports Hillary in the current presidential race. So Hillary attacks against Wells Fargo - just a play. "This is a classic example of Hillary Clinton's behavior," says Jeff Bekdel, director of public relations at America Rising, "publicly criticize the company, receiving political dividends, while the bearer in her name takes hundreds of thousands of dollars from the same the company. If in her letter Clinton was sincere, she would have to attach a check to him for the amount received by the Clinton Foundation from the company Hillary is so hypocritically complaining about. ”
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