Clinton Foundation Donor Violated US Iran Sanctions (as usual, clueless Obama knows nothing)

thedailybeast.com ^ | 7/10/15 | w/ Jackie Kucinich

[Liz]

EDITED EXCERPT An Iranian businessman accused by the US government of violating sanctions on Tehran donated money to the Clinton Foundation, The Daily Beast has confirmed.

Vahid Alaghband’s Balli Aviation Ltd, a London-based subsidiary of his commodities trading firm tried to sell 747's to Iran, despite a US federal ban. The company pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal information. The hefty sum imposed was “a direct consequence of the level of deception used to mislead investigators," Thomas Madigan, a top DOJ official, said at the time. Balli Aviation agreed to pay a $2 million criminal fine, serve five years corporate probation, and pay an additional $15 million in civil fines. The settlement was the largest civil penalty ever imposed by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security.

Alaghband is just one of an array of questionable actors who’ve surfaced as donors to the Clinton Foundation. The donations to the Clinton Foundation include foreign governments with human rights violations like Qatar, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and China as well as FIFA, soccer’s corrupt governing body – have complicated Hillary Clinton’s campaign and raised questions WRT these entities were trying to curry favor with then-Secy Hillary's State Dept.

Donor Alaghband stands out, because if an agreement is concluded – as is widely expected – Alaghband could stand to benefit. Hillary Clinton will be put in the awkward position of either defending the act of the Obama administration in which she once served or criticizing the culmination of a US-Iran rapprochement effort, which her State Department began.

One of the two counts against Balli Aviation was that it “conspired to export three Boeing 747 aircraft from the US to Iran,” without obtaining export licenses from the US government. The company then used its Armenian airline subsidiary to buy the 747s with financing obtained from Mahan Air, Iran’s largest private airline, considered by the US State Department to be controlled by former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

In 2011, the US Treasury Department sanctioned the airline for “providing financial, material and technological support to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF),” or the expeditionary arm of the Islamic Republic's praetorian military division, now heavily active in both Syria and Iraq. Treasury accused the Qods Force of “secretly ferrying operatives, weapons and funds” on Mahan flights.

On the Clinton Foundation website, Alaghband’s company is listed as a $10,001-$25,000 donor. Moreover, on the website for Balli Real Estate, a UK-based property investment and development subsidiary, his personal bio describes him as a member of the Clinton Global Initiative. This affiliation, along with his donation, came as a surprise to Alaghband. “I am not a member of the Clinton Global Initiative,” he told The Daily Beast from London. “I attended a few meetings. The last meeting was 10 years ago. I don’t recall having ever made a contribution.” Asked why he was listed as a member of the Clinton Global Initiative on his own corporate website, he said: “I haven’t seen this website recently. If attending a few meetings makes you a member, I don’t know.”

A source familiar with the Clinton Foundation told The Daily Beast that “Vahid Alaghband was never a member of CGI in a personal capacity.” However, the source added, “In 2007, Balli Group paid a onetime Clinton Global Initiative membership fee; they designated him as their delegate to the meeting.”

Alaghband did recall giving money to the influential DC-based think tank---the Brookings Institution by way of Brookings’ former Middle East policy shop----the Saban Center---been named for its major benefactor, the Israeli billionaire Haim Saban. (Staunchly pro-Israel, Saban is an avowed supporter of Democrats and a huge donor to Hillary Clinton. Bill CLinton also fronts for Saban's Univision network---a Spanish language outlet that criticizes Republicans and touts Hillary for president to latinos).

“When we took the donation nobody knew there were any problems with Alaghband,” David Nassar, the Vice President of Communications for Brookings, told The Daily Beast. Nassar also specified that the donation came from Balli Group bank accounts, not from Alaghband’s personal accounts. (Full disclosure: Daily Beast executive editor Noah Shachtman previously did work as a non-resident fellow in Brookings’ foreign policy division.)

A former Brookings staffer told The Daily Beast said that, on the contrary, Alaghband’s problems with the U.S. government were known to the think tank at the time and that the money helped finance the work of Suzanne Maloney, a former State Department policy advisor and Republican advocate of U.S.-Iranian rapprochement.

Nassar told The Daily Beast that the suggestion that Alaghband’s donation was intended to bolster Maloney’s pro-rapprochement research was false. “The money was general funding for the Persian Gulf Initiative and not directed at any particular issue or any particular scholar,” he said. Nevertheless, the Persian Gulf Initiative was a program run by the Saban Center and Maloney worked on it. Maloney is married to Ray Takeyh, an Iran scholar who served in the Obama White House in 2009 and who, during that period, was one of the lead advocates of engagement with Tehran.....in 2008, Maloney and Takeyh jointly published a 34-page white paper with the Saban Center titled, “Pathway to Coexistence: A New U.S. Policy toward Iran.” In many ways, the paper essentially forecasted what Obama administration’s approach to dealing with Iran, from the largely hands-off approach to Iran’s bloody 2009 Green Revolution to the present-day compromises on its nuclear program.

Alaghband’s legal troubles did not appear to affect his relationship with Brookings....In February 2009, he spoke at the US-Islamic World Forum in Doha, bankrolled by the Qatari government (a huge donor to the Clinton Library in Arkansas). That forum was organized by the Saban Center on behalf of that government.

Vahid Alaghband’s, The Balli Group PLC, had once been the world’s second-largest steel trader but it declared bankruptcy in 2013. A major reason for its folding? U.S. sanctions on Iran.

[MeshugeMikey]

You are doing yeoman’s work .

If I can locate yeoman I will insist he get on the ball....../s

Seriously. Thank you.

https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/contactUs/filecomplaint.aspx

[DrDude]

So who is going to file a complaint? The IRS is obligated to investigate fraud. The entire Clinton Foundation(s) are a fraud. Where is the investigation? Where is the AG who is the law of the land? Holder laughed at the GOP. No one is going to do anything. This would be a perfect time. Hillary would be out of the Potus race once an official investigation opens. All her assets would be frozen BJ Clinton would be in prison along with 1,000’s of their cronies. Not going to happen. Boehner & McConnell are the two main culprits. McCain is in this up to his neck.

I like your work but you have to be realistic. The person filing a complaint would be “sanctioned” within hours. That’s the way it works. No more complaint.

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[Liz]

Never give up.

The crooks always make a mistake---Madoff got away w/ it for 20 years---now he's in jail for 110 years.

Al Capone committed every crime in the book---they got him on tax evasion.

Could happen.

[piasa]

bump

[Liz]

Thanks for the headsup.

The band of criminals, misfits and malcontents donating to the nefarious Clinton Foundation (that includes the Clintons) is going to take L/E years to proecute.....

The various crime these “do-gooders” are involved in would fill several law books.