Tony Rodham’s Ties Invite Scrutiny for Hillary and Bill Clinton [all living large]

"......When Mr. [Tony] Rodham was short on cash in 2010, Mr. Clinton helped get him a job for $72,000 a year raising investments in GreenTech Automotive, an electric car company then owned by Terry McAuliffe, an old friend of Mr. Clinton’s and now the governor of Virginia.

“I was complaining to my brother-in-law I didn’t have any money. And he asked McAuliffe to give me a job,” Mr. Rodham said during the court proceedings, which were the result of a lawsuit over unpaid legal bills filed by his lawyer in a child support case.

A brother down on his luck seeking help from more successful siblings is a familiar story, and presidents and their families have hardly been immune from that sometimes uncomfortable situation. For the Clintons, Tony Rodham has not been the only source of embarrassment.

Mrs. Clinton’s other brother, Hugh Rodham, stumbled through an unsuccessful campaign for the Senate in Florida during Mr. Clinton’s first term. Roger Clinton, the former president’s brother, served a year in federal prison on a cocaine distribution charge. And all three were involved in lobbying Mr. Clinton for pardons for their associates as he left office, prompting a congressional inquiry.

“They’re all colorful,” Rahm Emanuel, a former Clinton aide who later became mayor of Chicago, said in an interview in 2001. “They’re all living large.”.......

NOTE: The Clinton spin is that there is no connection between the Foundations's billions and Hillary's Secy of State position....or any of the lucrative business deals that seem to mysteriously evolve from the Foundation's "global charities" heralded as "helping the poor."

REALITY CHECK---Last month the NY Post looked into how one of Hillary Clinton’s brothers, Tony Rodham, become part of the advisory board of a company that owns a gold mine in Haiti.

Rodham’s involvement was first revealed in publicity about Schweizer's blockbuster book, ”Clinton Cash."

Tony Rodham, and the CEO of the mining company, told the NY Post that they had been introduced at a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, which is run by the Clinton Foundation.

Both denied the Clintons played any role in Rodham's appointment.

The Post asked Rodham if he attended meetings of the initiative to seek out business opportunities. “No, I go to see old friends. But you never know what can happen,” he replied.

2001 LA TIMES---Family Ties Put Rodham Brothers in Spotlight
2001 Pardon probe shows how the ex-president's relatives used connections for themselves and their friends.
March 04, 2001|LISA GETTER | TIMES STAFF WRITER

WASHINGTON — Before their sister moved into the White House, Tony and Hugh Rodham lived simple, anonymous lives in Miami. Tony was a private investigator and process server. Hugh was a public defender. Neither was a political player. All that changed when Bill Clinton became president and their sister Hillary Rodham Clinton became first lady.

These days (2001), Tony Rodham is a Washington consultant who travels around the world in search of business opportunities. He has recently been to Taiwan, Dubai, Cambodia and the former Soviet Union. Hugh is a lawyer in Fort Lauderdale who works on class-action lawsuits and moves in political circles.

The brothers' activities became a focus of attention last week as a (2001) congressional committee examined the controversial pardons and commutations President Clinton granted before leaving office in January. The House panel cited $434,000 that Hugh Rodham collected--and subsequently repaid--for lobbying the White House on behalf of two felons seeking presidential clemency.

Tony Rodham acknowledged that he, too, lobbied his brother-in-law on behalf of a friend and business associate who was later pardoned, but said he didn't receive money for his efforts. The pardon cases provided new examples of the way that the brothers have sometimes entwined family relationships, personal business and political influence since the Clintons entered the White House in 1993.

In a number of cases, people have sought them out for their famous name--and the perception that it is valuable. In others, the two have made good use of the Democratic contacts that come from being part of the president's family. "You've got a man that is the brother-in-law of the president of the United States. He's the brother of the first lady of the United States and certain people are going to know his name," said Tennessee carnival owner Edgar Allen Gregory Jr., who hired Tony Rodham in August 1997 as a consultant for his business. "By nature of who he is, he is going to have various contacts throughout life."

Gregory sent Tony Rodham to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in 1998 to pursue a carnival deal there that never materialized. Last year, the New York Times reported this week, Rodham talked to President Clinton about Gregory's desire for a pardon for a 1982 bank fraud conviction. Gregory received the pardon in March.

"It is absurd to even say that I used any kind of influence," Tony Rodham said Friday night on CNN's "Larry King Live." "Yeah, I talked to my brother-in-law. I told him that Ed Gregory is a good guy, he is a guy that, you know, this was hurting his business. He needs it, his business, to support his family, and he is the kind of person that the pardon system was designed for."

Friends of the brothers acknowledge that on occasion they have taken advantage of their special access to the Clintons but insist they did not demand special favors. "They were very sensitive not to overstep the line," said Gene Prescott, a Miami hotelier and friend. Neel Lattimore, the former first lady's press secretary, said Hillary's younger brothers were familiar faces at the White House, where they visited often. "They seemed harmless," she said.

Friends cite Hugh's fees in the two clemency cases--which Hillary Clinton publicly called last month a "terrible misjudgment"--as an aberration. Both Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton said they were unaware of his fees and demanded he return the money.

By most accounts, Tony Rodham, 46, has been the most active in seeking business opportunities since the Clintons moved into the White House. In the last four years, he has sought deals all over the world, sometimes using his political contacts. "I just bring different peoples together. I help them negotiate deals. I solve problems for people," Tony Rodman said on CNN.

In August 1999, he and Hugh traveled to the Republic of Georgia to set up a $118-million hazelnut company. Tony had met his partner in the deal, Stephen Graham, through the Democratic National Committee, where Tony went to work in the mid-1990s.

http://articles.latimes.com/2001/mar/04/news/mn-33242

From Washington Post, July 6, 2007:

CLINTON'S BROTHER NEAR LEGAL SETTLEMENT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A lawyer for the brother of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said he's confident he can avoid a trial next week and settle a lawsuit that accuses Tony Rodham of failing to repay debts to a Tennessee carnival operator.

That should be a relief to Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign since the case could have revived stories about how her brothers accepted money from people pardoned by her husband, President Bill Clinton.

Rodham is accused of failing to repay $107,000 plus interest to the bankrupt estate of Edgar Allen Gregory Jr. and his wife, Vonna Jo, both of whom received a presidential pardon in 2000.

Rodham’s attorney, Samuel Crocker, said he's sure a settlement will be reached before the trial begins Thursday. “May lightning strike me down if it does (go to trial),” Crocker said.

Bankruptcy trustee Michael Collins said he was glad to hear Rodham was eager to settle because negotiations have been going on for some time. “There's certainly room for a settlement,” he said.

Rodham claims in court documents the money he received from the Gregorys was for consulting services, but the trustee for the Gregory estate claims it was a loan. Rodham was reached by telephone Thursday at his home in Vienna, Va., but declined to comment.

Ed Gregory died in 2004, but the Gregorys have said in the past that the money they gave Rodham had nothing to do with the pardon request. They loaned Rodham $107,000 between May 2000 and February 2002, the lawsuit says. Collins said Rodham also was paid for consulting services, but he did not know the amount.

After Clinton left office, the Republican-controlled House Committee on Government Reform found that United Shows paid Rodham $240,000 for undocumented consulting services and that President Clinton was interested in the pardons solely because of his contacts with Rodham.

Another brother, Hugh Rodham, was paid more than $400,000 for his successful efforts to win pardons for a businessman under investigation for money laundering and a commutation for a convicted drug trafficker. He eventually returned the money at his sister's request.

In the closing hours of his presidency, Bill Clinton pardoned 140 people, including billionaire financier Marc Rich, who fled the United States in 1983 rather than face charges of tax evasion, fraud and making illegal oil deals with Iran.

Rich's ex-wife, songwriter Denise Rich, contributed $450,000 to the Clinton presidential library project, $1.1 million to the Democratic Party and at least $109,000 to Hillary Clinton's bid for the Senate. . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/AR2007070601185_pf.html

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