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SendPosted on 06/19/2003 10:45:57 PM PDT by cgk
Hillary's Hollywood flimflam man
Michelle Malkin (archive)
If Hillary Rodham Clinton is so smart, so savvy, so razor sharp, how did she allow celebrity scam artist Aaron Tonken to dupe her and her husband?
And if she denies being duped -- nobody can pull the wool over those steely blue eyes -- then what exactly did Hillary know about Tonken's fraudulent charity schemes and when did she know it?
Federal investigators are now probing Tonken's involvement with a $1 million Hollywood political event for Hillary's 2000 Senate campaign, according to the Los Angeles Times. Earlier this week, a Los Angeles judge granted a preliminary injunction that prevents Tonken from soliciting any more money for charity. Tonken has been sued by California state Attorney General Bill Lockyer for allegedly bilking a half-dozen charities supported by the Clintons and prominent Hollywood celebrities. Tonken also faces a federal criminal charge of mail fraud.
Here's the lowdown on Hillary's Hollywood flimflam man that you won't find in her new best-selling book:
Tonken is a former street bum with a creepy lifelong attraction to Hollywood stars and powerbrokers. He once cold-called Jackie Onassis and sweet-talked Zsa Zsa Gabor into allowing him to stay at her apartment. He crashed the celebrity fund-raising scene a decade ago and quickly rose to the top. Tonken hooked up with Democratic socialite Denise Rich -- ex-wife of fugitive financier and Clinton pardonee Marc Rich -- for a lavish charity event in Milton Berle's honor five years ago; it was reportedly Mrs. Rich who introduced Tonken to the Clintons.
Tonken's mentor was Peter Paul, a convicted felon who was seeking access to the Clintons on behalf of his business partner Stan Lee (comic-book creator of Spider-Man). Paul claims to have underwritten a Hollywood gala for the Clintons produced by Tonken in August 2000. The liberal elite bash -- attended by Cher, Melissa Etheridge, Ted Danson, Michael Douglas, Whoopi Goldberg, Goldie Hawn, Shirley MacLaine and John Travolta -- was both a tribute to the former president and a soft money fundraiser for Hillary's New York Senate campaign.
Paul, who partied hard with Bill, Hill and Chelsea at the star-studded event, alleges that his direct and in-kind contributions worth $2 million were disguised in order to hide his involvement with Hillary's campaign. He also claims that Democrat officials solicited a contribution from Paul in return for a presidential pardon he unsuccessfully sought for his two prior convictions for cocaine possession and fraud. Paul has since fled to Brazil. He is fighting extradition to the U.S., where he faces an indictment for his role in a $25 million stock manipulation scam involving Stan Lee's media company.
Meanwhile, Tonken faces a lawsuit by California Attorney General Lockyer alleging that he defrauded charities and their donors, diverted donations to bank accounts he controlled and refused to account for more than $1.5 million in contributions to six charitable events he agreed to produce. The defrauded charitable organizations include the Kids Campaign, the Joan English Fund for Women's Cancer Research, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the Betty Ford Center and Inner-City Games Foundation.
The ripped off charities include organizations supported by celebrities such as singer Rod Stewart, the pop music group *Nsync and the cast of the TV show "Ally McBeal."
According to an FBI affidavit relating to the federal mail fraud charge against Tonken: "Tonken routinely made misrepresentations which defrauded the underwriters and donors for these events. To cause donors to contribute to the events, Tonken regularly overstated the amount of underwriting funds that had been raised, understated the cost of producing the event, and promised that celebrities had agreed to appear at the events when they had not."
(Given his connections to two fugitive FOTCs (Friends of the Clintons), one questions the wisdom of allowing Tonken to remain free on a $50,000 unsecured bond.)
How could the brilliant, ethical, do-gooder Hillary get herself entangled with such a creep? The same way so many other lowlife FOTCs came into their lives. Cha-ching. "Through Peter Paul's money, I bought entre to President and Mrs. Clinton," Tonken recently bragged. Whether she was stupidly conned or complicitly cunning, her involvement with Tonken and Paul stinks to high heaven.
This is sordid history she prefers not to relive.
©2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Contact Michelle Malkin | Read Malkin's biography
The accounting firm booking Hitler's deal over at S&S is in a lose-lose situation. They are going to have to (1) add up the figures to suckup to Hitlery and risk flaunting the law ala Enron-Arthur Andersen, or (2) play by the rules and show Hitlery and S&S to be colluding in a fraud.
Seems there are several missing chapters from Ms. Clinton’s book of living history that are eating away at the veracity of her telling of that history; orchestrated to win elections through pretence, fraud, and deception i.e., crime. It takes a Malkin, Coulter, Olsen, Patterson and many other authors who document the truth about the rags to riches of these Arkansas trash – not a village, the Clintons pillaged that.
Can and will the democrats ever take back their party?
I even put up a thread to cast the movie of Ann's book. LOL.
S&S had better start worrying. We want facts and figures. They are not going to get away with Enroning the books.
I'm betting the DNC has got a warehouse somewhere overflowing with books.
Let us pray that a good Republican works there on the night shift.
Well. . .well... a connection to the Red Mafiya. Would would have suspected that?
If those books are in a union HQ, there has to be a supporter of Gephardt who might spill the beans. If they are at the DNC, surely we could find a cleaning lady who would let us know.
Hey, maybe they are stored on the Indian reservations! HA!
That reminds me of that site you posted once created by that guy who traveled around looking for cheesy motels. That one with the Indian museum, complete with hanging tee-pees and a glass enclosed Indian head was freaking hillarious!
I was lmao to the point of tears. I just tried to hit it (http://www.lileks.com/) but it didn't go. I hope it's not permanently down.
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