Hanna Trudo
10/20/2016 01:44 PM EDT
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Clinton confidant complained Bill had undisclosed conflicts of interest at Foundation
Longtime Clinton confidant Doug Band suggested Bill Clinton had ongoing conflicts of interest while serving as a board member on the Clinton Global Initiative, and Band said the former president did not sign the organization’s policy on it.
In an email chain from 2011, Band, who founded the consulting firm Teneo, questioned why Bill Clinton was not required to sign CGI’s conflict of interest policy, despite being paid and receiving high value gifts from three sponsors.
“I signed a conflict of interest policy as a board member of cgi,” Band wrote on Nov. 17, 2011, before describing his own disclosures. “On it, I wrote that my wife designs bags for cgi, and loses money doing so plus donating her time And that teneo represents 4 cgi sponsors, 3 of which teneo brought to cgi.”
He then expressed concerns that Bill Clinton himself was not required to sign the same document.
“Oddly, wjc does not have to sign such a document even though he is personally paid by 3 cgi sponsors, gets many expensive gifts from them, some that are at home etc,” he wrote.
The assertion came from the latest trove of hacked documents stolen from the email account of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, and released by WikiLeaks on Thursday.
“I could add 500 different examples of things like this,” Band wrote in the same email exchange.
Other hacked documents suggest Band was frustrated that Bill Clinton wasn’t getting the same kind of scrutiny that Band’s consulting company was, in a discussion about a memo on “infrastructure” circulated among top Clinton allies including Cheryl Mills and Podesta, according to the email chain.
“As you both have seen by my memo, you now understand the facts of teneo,” he began on November 13. “How then do we go through an exercise like this and wjc doesn't as he is far more conflicted every single day in what he does? Why not apply the structure you set up for him to this situation?”
Band went on to flag five potential conflicts of interest that top staff in Clinton world may have had, including CGI’s CEO Bob Harrison and the vice chairman of the Clinton Health Access Initiative Ira Magaziner, as well as Chelsea Clinton.
“Ira runs chai and has been doing outside consulting all these years Bob harrison has a ton of goldman stock and makes decisions on goldmans engagement/role in cgi Valerie uses office space of a donor in Chicago Bruce was paid by his law firm for years and may still be,” he started.
“People sit on boards, for profit ones and not for profit ones. I am sure there are many others we don't know about,” he wrote. “Cvc [an abbreviated name for Chelsea Clinton used in staff emails] uses office space to run a business…I just don't think any of this is right.”
Band said he wasn’t sure how to best characterize Teneo’s involvement “raising millions for the foundation,” but suggested one possibility: “Perhaps an ethics officer like state has, which can be yet another staff person I get to raise the money to pay.....” he wrote.
“Teneo is the only one of any of those that are additive to the foundation,” he went on, in an apparent reference to the previous concerns he flagged. “Everyone takes, everyone, except we are the ones who do everything back to him.”
Mills, a longtime Clinton ally, in her reply, suggested a different structural framework and wrote that the many concerns Band raised would be caught by their "audit."
“Many of issues you flag will get captured by corporate audit and receive common policy application as against all entities/individuals with multiple lines,” she wrote.
It appears that Mills was referencing an audit conducted by Simpon Thacher, a New York law fir, intended to review “potential conflicts of interest.” According to other hacked materials previously released by WikiLeaks, the review found that “many interviewees were unaware” of the existing conflict of interest and outside employment policies.
In the latest batch of emails, Podesta suggested removing Marc Lasry, a hedge fund billionaire and Clinton adviser, from the document the staff was discussing.
“If I were you I'd take Lasry out of this. You'll get into a deep debate about who's right and who's not with CC [Chelsea Clinton] on this. The list is really strong without it, so why get into that,” Podesta wrote.
POLITICO reported earlier about the infighting between Chelsea Clinton and top aides over how to best manage possible conflicts involving Teneo, which provided services for Foundation donors prior to Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, and the family’s charitable work. Other hacked emails indicate that Band was quick to dismiss Chelsea Clinton as entitled.
“She is acting like a spoiled brat kid who has nothing else to do but create issues to justify what she's doing because she, as she has said, hasn't found her way and has a lack of focus in her life,” Band wrote to Podesta.
Responding to Podesta’s earlier suggestion to remove Lasry from the document, Band said, “i removed he lasry section all together,” before flagging other possible concerns, this time with Bill Clinton’s speeches to finical firms like UBS and suggesting that advisers “could care less” if he actually delivers the speeches he signs off on.
“… as for ubs, for ex, wjc did a speech for vernon last week for 50k,” he wrote. “…the ubs deal i made was 6 speeches for 150…3 in 2011 which he has done and 3 in 2012 which he can do regardless, he signs off on them all and we could care a less if he does them or not.”
The next month, in December, Chelsea Clinton emailed aides that people she met with in London had “serious concerns” about Teneo’s use of Bill Clinton’s name to help set up client meetings, other stolen emails released by WikiLeaks indicate.
“I will raise all of this and more with my father this evening," she wrote.
Doug Band did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ken Vogel and Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.
Read more:
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