New York Times reporter Jo Becker said that after Bill Clinton gave Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev a "propaganda coup," businessman Frank Giustra got a large uranium concession in the country, and then gave large sums to the Clinton Foundation in an interview broadcast on Friday's Fox News Channel special "The Tangled Clinton Web."
"Clinton Cash" author Peter Schweizer said that Clinton showed up in Kazakhstan, the same place businessman Frank Giustra was attempting to acquire uranium mines, and became "partners" with Bill Clinton in charity work, and has facilitated speaking engagements for the Clintons.
Becker said that Giustra and Clinton were "whisked to the presidential palace of President Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan, and it's a fascinating story because everybody walked away from the table that night with something."
She continued, "what President Nazarbayev got was this huge propaganda coup. Bill Clinton basically endorsed the progress that Kazakhstan had made in terms of their own democracy, which was sort of interesting given that President Nazarbayev was elected with 90+% of the vote in an election that was widely criticized as being rigged."
Schweizer added, "Bill Clinton has a public press conference, with President Nazarbayev, where he praises his rule and praises his human rights record, but the bottom line is, after they leave, a couple of days later, Frank Giustra gets his uranium concessions, which end up being enormously lucrative to him and to a small group of Canadian mining investors." small number of uranium investments." Becker stated that after the uranium concessions to Giustra, "Bill Clinton got a huge donation, $31 million from Frank Giustra to his charitable foundation, followed by a pledge to $100 million more."
Schweizer then rebutted assertions that there wasn't any undue influence because the deal didn't require the Kazakhstan government to approve it, saying "there are corporate records that indicate very, very clearly that the Kazakh government did have to sign off and approve."
The second part of the report focused on Kazakhstan's attempt to get an equity stake in Westinghouse, a US civilian nuclear company, and a deal that requires US government review, according to Becker.
She reported that Giustra arranged for Kazakh officials to meet with the Clintons in New York, and that both Bill Clinton's spokesman and Giustra lied to her about whether the meeting took place, reporting, "when I first contacted both the Clinton Foundation, Mr. Clinton's spokesman, and Mr. Giustra, they denied any such meeting ever took place. And then when we told them, 'well, we'd already talked to head of Kazatomprom [Kazakhstan's state-owned nuclear firm], who not only told us all about the meeting, but actually has a picture of him and Bill at the home in Chappaqua, and that he proudly displayed on his office wall. they then acknowledged, that yes, the meeting had taken place."
The report concluded with Schweizer talked about Giustra's company, which, after a merger became Uranium One, being purchased by Russia.
NYT, 24 Apr 2015
