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How a Billionaire Friend of Bill Helps Him Do Good, and Well (Ron Burkle and Yucaipa Companies)
NY Times ^ | 4/22/06 | John M. Broder and Patrick Healy

Posted on 04/22/2006 10:30:06 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

After leaving the White House in 2001, former President Bill Clinton was inundated with business and job offers, from investment-bank partnerships to seats on corporate boards. He turned them all down, with one exception: He agreed to be an adviser to a family of funds run by the Yucaipa Companies, a California private equity firm controlled by one of his best friends, the billionaire Ronald W. Burkle.

Mr. Clinton's arrangement with Mr. Burkle is an unusual one for a former president, giving him the potential to make tens of millions of dollars without great effort and at virtually no risk, according to Mr. Burkle and advisers to Mr. Clinton.

Mr. Clinton's role is to help find investment opportunities for Yucaipa projects, give credibility to the funds and champion their mission of investing in poor areas to corporate executives, union leaders and others. But he has put up little of his own money and has no day-to-day responsibilities over how the more than $1 billion in the funds is invested.

--snip--

The relationship brings together two outsize personalities who rose from modest beginnings to inhabit the glamorous heights of the political and financial worlds. The chubby young boy from Hope, Ark., and the grocery bag boy from Yucaipa, Calif., are now joined in a partnership that commands audiences of heads of state, business potentates and movie stars wherever they go in Mr. Burkle's Boeing 757.

It is a bond that is drawing news media attention, too, because of Mr. Burkle's allegations that a contributor to The New York Post, Jared Paul Stern, tried to extort $220,000 from him in exchange for keeping false stories about him out of the Post's gossip column, called Page Six.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: billclinton; billionaire; billionaires; burkle; california; clinton; fob; freeloader; friend; johnbroder; mediabias; nyt; patrickhealy; ronburkle; wjc; x42; yucaipa; yucaipacompanies
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To: NormsRevenge

The Observer has totally busted Burkle on the Jared Paul Smith thing. OK, so they're both creeps!


21 posted on 04/23/2006 12:26:29 AM PDT by BunnySlippers
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To: truth_seeker

Okay. peace.

The article in this thread talked about how Burkle had always been a loyal Republican and never before voted for a Democrat. I find that hard to believe. Did he give money to Leo McCarthy and then vote for his opponent? Same for Gray Davis and Feinstein? It defies credibility. That was all I was really trying to say in my original post.


22 posted on 04/23/2006 12:29:30 AM PDT by calcowgirl
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To: BunnySlippers

sadly, I'm of the opinion there are truly not that mnay 'innocents' around these days, either in the media, gubamint or business.

Many have outright become creeps and are not reluctant to show it.


23 posted on 04/23/2006 12:31:31 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi)
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To: calcowgirl

Burkle hired Jesse Jackson's mistress after she had his kid.

Burkle is in the news trying to out the NY Post and Jared Paul Stern. Although he MAY have something there.


24 posted on 04/23/2006 12:31:56 AM PDT by BunnySlippers
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To: NormsRevenge

Yet, where it originally looked like Stern was the bad guy ... it later
(and now) looks like Burkle was setting him up.


25 posted on 04/23/2006 12:33:31 AM PDT by BunnySlippers
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To: BunnySlippers

here's hoping them that needs and deserves it, whatever it IS , get it and in great abundance..


26 posted on 04/23/2006 12:35:58 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi)
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To: NormsRevenge

I cannot believe how many calories there are in chocolate!


27 posted on 04/23/2006 12:39:24 AM PDT by BunnySlippers
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To: thegreatbeast
Thanks for the reference. I looked it up in Shakedown. Jackson Jr. hooked up with Busch at a meeting in 1996 (after the time period I was looking for).
28 posted on 04/23/2006 1:42:38 AM PDT by calcowgirl
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To: NormsRevenge
Isn't Ron Burkle the guy involved with the NYP's Page Six scandal?
29 posted on 04/23/2006 5:05:06 AM PDT by mewzilla (Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist. John Adams)
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To: NormsRevenge

This nothing but a puff piece for Clinton and Burkle. The MSM makes me sick. I can hardly take the hypocrisy.


30 posted on 04/23/2006 8:16:52 AM PDT by Uncle Hal
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To: NormsRevenge

There's one truth in this article.. the Clintons have the potential to make hundreds of millions off their involvement in the Yucaipa funds when these funds begin to terminate (private equity funds typically have a 5-7 year period between investment and payout.) As somebody that works in finance, let me tell everybody that Yucaipa is the real deal in private equity. This is going to make Hillary's cattle trading look like pocket change.

Now... let's think about it some more.. what kind of damage on our society can Bill and Hillary accomplish with a billion dollars or so?


31 posted on 04/23/2006 4:37:31 PM PDT by nj26
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