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Clinton Agency Took on Debts For His Library

By JOSH GERSTEIN
September 26, 2005

President Clinton's charitable foundation went nearly $38.5 million into debt last year to cover the costs of building and endowing the former president's new library in Arkansas, according to a recent financial report.

The borrowing took place despite $57.7 million in donations Mr. Clinton secured in 2004, an increase of 30% from the prior year, the new figures show.

The foundation's president, James L. Rutherford III, said in an interview yesterday that he had always anticipated that opening the $165 million Clinton Presidential Center would push the foundation into the red.

"The borrowing, it was planned because we knew that with a capital campaign that our building expenses and construction expenses would come in before some of the pledges," Mr. Rutherford said. "We still have many pledges that will be coming in and will help provide a financial base for years to come ... and we will certainly continue fund raising."

Mr. Rutherford said he was pleased with last year's tally, which brought the total raised by Mr. Clinton's foundation since 1997 to more than $151 million. "It was a very strong year," said the foundation's president, who is a Little Rock public relations executive and longtime friend of the former president.

The William J. Clinton Presidential Center, a sleek glass and steel structure jutting toward the Arkansas River in downtown Little Rock, opened on November 18 with a rain-soaked dedication ceremony that drew Mr. Clinton and scores of other dignitaries including President Bush and his father, President George H.W. Bush.

The new details of the foundation's finances were contained in an annual report sent on Friday to the Internal Revenue Service. Most of the filing is public under federal law. The foundation is not required to disclose the identities of its donors to the public.

When the library opened last year, a computer display in the exhibit halls included information on some, but not all, donors. The Saudi Royal Family and the governments of Dubai, Kuwait, and Qatar all gave $1 million or more. Other major donors included a film director, Steven Spielberg, and a New York labor group, Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union.

After The New York Sun published a report on the donor list, the computer display was shut off. It has not been restored.

According to the new IRS filing, in February 2004, the foundation took out its largest loan for about $26.5 million from Bank of America. The report describes the collateral for the loan as "pledges receivable."

Within weeks of the library's opening, the foundation also borrowed $10 million from Titanium Acquisition Corporation. The obscure Santa Monica, Calif., firm is connected to an entertainment industry executive who is a close friend of Mr. Clinton, Haim Saban, corporate filings show. Efforts to reach Mr. Saban for comment yesterday were not successful.

The unsecured, low-interest loan was repaid earlier this year, Mr. Rutherford said.

At the ceremony in November, Mr. Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, handed the keys to the new presidential center to over the National Archives. However, the relationship between the federal government and the Clinton Foundation remains complicated, Mr. Rutherford said. The portion of the building complex housing official records from Mr. Clinton's presidency will be run by the government, but the main visitor areas remain under the joint control of the foundation and the government.

Another part of the facility is being run by the University of Arkansas.

The tax filing shows a transfer of $43.2 million to the federal government in connection with the opening of the library. Mr. Rutherford said that figure includes a partial interest in the building, as well as an endowment of about $7 million that the foundation was required to provide for future upkeep of the facility.

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The foundation, which maintains offices in Little Rock and on 125th Street in Manhattan, had 28 employees last year, according to the new report. The organization's highest-paid employee in 2004 was Mr. Clinton's chief of staff, Margaret Williams, who made $118, 648 before leaving late in the year.

The foundation's new CEO is Bruce Lindsey, an attorney and former White House aide who is a lifelong confidant of Mr. Clinton. A former White House scheduler for Mr. Clinton, Laura Graham, is now the foundation's executive director.

The foundation's new public accounting of its finances was first reported on Saturday by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

http://www.nysun.com/article/20544