Posted on 06/17/2007 5:11:20 AM PDT by COUNTrecount
For 164 years it has made jewellery fit for a queen but now it turns out that Garrard of Bond Street is fit for a president, too.
In filings in the US on Friday, it was disclosed that Bill Clinton, the former president, holds shares worth up to $250,000 (£125,000) in the exclusive company that Queen Victoria appointed her Crown Jeweller in 1843.
The intriguing investment came to light after senator Hillary Clinton released a statement of personal financial assets, as members of Congress must do, in which item number six on a list of non-publicly traded assets was described as Garrard, “retail jeweller with flagship store in London, England”.
It also emerged on Friday that the Clintons had dissolved a blind trust worth somewhere between $5m and $25m in what appeared to be an attempt to shed stocks that might prove embarrassing to Ms Clinton during her presidential campaign. The trust included holdings in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, oil companies, defence contractors, pharmaceutical groups, and Wal-Mart, the giant retailer on whose board Ms Clinton once sat.
Mr Clinton is far from being the first American to part with thousands of dollars in Garrard, which sets great store by its international clientele. Its customer base also includes hip-hop artist Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott.
The former president’s stake is thought to have been acquired when his friend and business partner Ron Burkle bought Garrard in March last year. The Californian billionaire is thought to have paid $20m-$30m via his Yucapia investment vehicle in a deal that severed Garrard’s eight-year association with fellow luxury group Asprey.
Luxury British jewels attracted Mr Burkle again only last week when he acquired a large minority stake in the business of Stephen Webster, creator of the gem-studded pieces worn by the likes of Madonna and David Beckham.
The pair met through another of Mr Webster’s celebrity clients, pop singer Christina Aguilera. Meanwhile, Mr Burkle has also been considering a bid for Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal.
Under current income is a list of Mr Clinton’s speeches, with fees ranging from $75,000-$450,000, in locations as diverse as Auckland, New Zealand, and Saskatchewan.
The former president’s stake is thought to have been acquired when his friend and business partner Ron Burkle bought Garrard in March last year
Well why not? With the election and the Democrats in charge of Congress these holdings will be worth far less. Not that the Clinton’s will care... they already made their money. ;-)
Hitlery a bumbling Rat hypocrite who can't disguise her unsavory financial dealings? No way! She's "the smartest woman in the world"!
Mr Burkle has also been considering a bid for Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal.
Good news for the WSJ editorial board!
Make six into nine, as it were.
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If Hildebeast reviewed her and Slick's trust for political correctness, it wasn't blind, either.
There won't be a woof from the MSM, though.
It depends on the meaning of 'trust'.
how is a trust blind when the owner of the trust knows all the particulars of what the trust consists...reviews the equitites and then sells certain ones and not others!
this would lead to everyone having mutual funds could consider them to be blind and therefore not pay taxes on them!
only a lib/dem with the complicity of the lib/dem msm could buy this crap!!!!
the public believing this gets to buy a bridge at a bargain...and then will try to place it in a blind trust!
Who really thinks Hillary wants the Presidency for any reason other than for the wealth and power it will accrue to her?
You can bet not one of our esteemed, hardhitting journalists will ever ask Mrs. Clinton anything about this.
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