Reply #13: Yes, and Bubba's new best buddy (an Canadian Investment Banker) lets him use his private [View All]

[ShortnFiery]

jet, whenever the spirit hits Bill Clinton. Oh, it's nice to be the "Big Dawg." :puke: :thumbsdown:

Clinton Used Giustra's Plane, Opened Doors for Mineral Deals

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080219/pl_bloomberg/akd3k5dmu3sy

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- On June 21, 2005, Bill Clinton flew to Mexico City aboard a private jet that belonged to a Canadian investment banker he was meeting for the first time. The introduction paid off for both men. Clinton was borrowing the jetliner to begin a four-day speaking tour of Latin America that would pay him $800,000. Frank Giustra of Vancouver was forming a friendship that would make him part of the former president's inner circle and gain him introductions to presidents of Kazakhstan and Colombia, where he bought mineral rights.

Giustra, 50, has since put his plane at Clinton's disposal at least a dozen times to raise money for charity, his wife's presidential campaign or himself, according to U.S. flight records and spokesmen for Clinton and Giustra. The Canadian businessman has become one of the largest donors to the Clinton Foundation, pledging half his future minerals earnings in a way that ties the foundation's success to his own.

``If former President Clinton is making decisions about where to put the charitable efforts of the Clinton Foundation based even partly on where he's likely to benefit personally, or see his friends benefit, then that clearly is a classic conflict of interest,'' says Aaron Dorfman, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy in Washington.