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International Business Times reported that then-Secy of State Hillary Clinton threw tech company Cisco “a lifeline” shortly after the company had undergone a high profile Senate hearing regarding its Chinese operations-- Cisco had a large part in developing China’s “Great Firewall that helps China’s authoritarian regime censor information....and conduct sub rosa surveillance of its citizens.”

In November 2009, a group of Cisco shareholders stormed the annual shareholder’s meeting demanding that the company’s technology not be used to help the Chinese government commit human rights abuses; shareholders and company executives opposed that effort.

Shortly thereafter, as IBT noted: Cisco was honored as a finalist for the State Department’s award for “outstanding corporate citizenship, innovation and democratic principles.” The next year, the company won the award. While the honors were for the company’s work in the Middle East, they gave Cisco a well-timed opportunity to change the subject and present itself as a champion of human rights.

What Secy Clinton did not say at the State Department award ceremonies was that Cisco had been pumping money into The Clintons' family foundation.

Though the Clinton foundation will not release an exact timeline of the contributions, records reviewed by International Business Times show that Cisco had by December 2008 donated from $500,000 to a $million to the foundation.