Hillary Clinton criticized the use of offshore tax havens on Monday, even though she and husband Bill have been paid millions of dollars in investment income, consulting fees and speech honoraria from companies doing business in the Cayman Islands.
“We’re now in a position, I think, where we can go after some of these schemes that you did read about, the kind of misclassifying of income, trying to make it look like it’s a capital gain, when it’s really ordinary income, going ahead and routing income through the Bahamas or the Cayman Islands or wherever,” Clinton told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes during the interview.
Clinton’s public stance on the issue — which she has discussed in the past — and the private actions of her family seems to tie together something Vice President Joe Biden said Monday about the Democratic presidential front-runner and her campaign opponent, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Biden said that while Sanders “has credibility” when discussing income and wealth inequality in the U.S., “it’s relatively new for Hillary to talk about that.”
There may be good reason for that. Emails Raise New Questions About Sid Blumenthal’s ‘Projects’ For The Clintons
Before Hillary Clinton was appointed secretary of state and while she was still in the U.S. Senate, Bill Clinton was a partner in an investment fund, Yucaipa Global Partnership, which is registered in the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory located in the Caribbean Sea which is a popular tax haven for the wealthy.
As a partner to the firm between 2002 and 2007, Clinton was paid an estimated $10 million, according to a Washington Post article from 2008. He was also rumored to been in negotiations with Burkle for a $20 million payout when he separated for the firm in 2008, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
Clinton’s involvement with Yucaipa, which was founded by Ron Burkle, a longtime Democratic donor who is now supporting Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich, was first reported by ABC News in 2008 when the former first couple’s financial statements were revealed during Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid.
As Jack Blum, an attorney and expert on offshore tax havens, told ABC at the time: “No average person has interest and funds in the Cayman Islands. This is all the above-average, non-tax-paying, super rich.”
The former president earned money from Cayman interests in other ways. As Clinton financial records show, Bill Clinton was also paid $225,000 by a company called Whisky Productions to speak at a March 28, 2011 “event that will target the business community in Grand Cayman.”
And as the Washington Examiner reported on Tuesday, the Clinton-Cayman links extend beyond the political couple.
Marc Mezvinsky, the Clintons’ former Goldman Sachs banker son-in-law, is a partner at Eaglevale Partners, a hedge fund with entities incorporated in the Cayman Islands.
The investment company operates Eaglevale Partners Offshore Fund, Ltd. and the Eaglevale Hellenic Opportunity Offshore Fund Ltd., which are both incorporated in the offshore tax haven.
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