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Clintons Made As Much As $26 Million For Foundation From Speeches

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
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The Clinton Foundation has revealed it received between $12 million and $26 million in previously unreported income from major corporations, foreign entities and universities for speeches given by Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton since 2002.

The foundation published a list of the 97 speeches on its website on Thursday.

Bill Clinton earned the most overall for the family foundation and gave the most lucrative individual speeches. He brought in between $500,000 and $1,000,000 each for three speeches given on behalf of an Irish scholarship fund, a South Korean conglomerate, and a Nigerian newspaper group.

The South Korean company on the list, Hanwha, has a sordid history.

According to a 2006 article from The Washington Post, Hanwha funded a non-profit group called the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council which had a goal of enhancing “the influence of Hanwha’s chairman, Seung Youn Kim.”

Kim was described as a “controversial figure” who was once jailed for violating Korean financial law. Hanwha was also the target of an FBI inquiry after it was revealed it paid for junkets for 12 members of Congress and 31 staffers totaling more than $500,000.

In Nov. 2003, when Hillary was a member of the U.S. Senate, Bill appeared with Kim at the grand opening for a Hanwha subsidiary, Korea Life Insurance Co. After that appearance, Clinton traveled to Seoul, South Korea to golf with Kim, The Post reported.

The foundation’s new list shows that the Clintons gave 19 speeches that brought between $250,000 and $500,000 apiece. Notable names include the Beijing Huaduo Enterprise Consulting Company and Qatar First Investment Bank, which hosted Bill. Citibank and Carlyle Investment Management paid Hillary to appear.

The release comes as the Clintons face intense scrutiny for their relationships with foreign donors and for making tons of money on the paid-speech circuit. In his recent book “Clinton Cash,” author Peter Schweizer drew attention to several suspicious arrangements involving donors who appeared to have profited in various ways after giving to the Clinton nonprofit.

As one condition for Hillary’s appointment as secretary of state in the Obama White House, the Clintons agreed to disclose all donations to the foundation. But the charity has so far avoided disclosing the speeches by claiming that the money they generated was in exchange for services, not donations.

In contrast, the Clintons have disclosed speeches given in exchange for personal income. Bill Clinton has earned more than $100 million for speeches he gave between 2001 and 2012. Together, the Bill and Hillary have earned $25 million from paid speeches since Jan. 2014.

In an interview with NBC News earlier this month, the former president defended his fruitful paid-speech career, saying that he likely would not give it up if Hillary is elected president in 2016.

“I got to pay our bills,” he said in the interview.

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