Posted on 01/12/2003 8:07:08 AM PST by Liz
PLEASE NOTE: This February 2002 article has been posted as a public service in the aftermath of Tommy Daschle's aborted presidency. Partly to blame, in addition to Tommy's incompetency, is that a spotlight has been shown on Tommy's wife Linda's lucrative lobbying. Herein we find more instances of Senators' wives lobbying.
WASHINGTON -- Under the Clinton administration, the Overseas Private Investment Corp. "gave hundreds of millions of dollars" in loans and other government support to risky Enron-related projects overseas, according to a Senate Finance Committee audit released today.
As WorldNetDaily first reported Jan. 22, Enron became one of OPIC's biggest customers during the Clinton years.
From fiscal year 1993 to fiscal 2000, OPIC gave at least $544 million in loans to Enron-related projects, the agency reported in a letter to the Senate panel. It provided another $204 million in political-risk insurance. OPIC listed only currently supported projects.
The Export-Import Bank, another federal overseas economic-development agency, gave more than $650 million in loans to Enron-related projects, confirming WorldNetDaily's earlier reporting.
The Senate panel asked for data back to 1985. "It appears the agency made no loans to Enron-related businesses from 1985 to 1992," said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking committee member.
Current outstanding balance on all the federal loans is $965 million, according to the audit. With the insurance liability, the federal agencies' indirect exposure to Enron-related projects totals nearly $1.2 billion.
"These loans obviously were a tremendous benefit to Enron's operation," Grassley said, particularly since commercial banks rarely finance such long-term projects in unstable foreign markets.
A committee investigator told WorldNetDaily that the panel is reviewing confidential memos written or received by OPIC and Ex-Im Bank officials regarding the Enron transactions.
Former OPIC head Ruth Harkin was appointed by Clinton after her husband, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, campaigned vigorously for Clinton in '92 and '96. The senator was one of the ex-president's biggest boosters during his impeachment trial.
Prior to joining the Clinton administration, Ruth Harkin was a top corporate lawyer at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, a Washington firm that includes Clinton pal Vernon Jordan and Democratic power broker Robert Strauss.
Ex-Im Bank board members during the Clinton years include Jackie Clegg, wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Maria Haley, a former aide to Clinton in Little Rock and ex-wife of John Haley, who was convicted in the Whitewater investigation.
Dodd served as co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the '96 Clinton-Gore campaign. Clinton appointed Clegg vice chair of the Ex-Im Bank board in June 1997.
Haley has ties to the crooked Riady family who operate the Lippo Group out of Jakarta, Indonesia. The Riadys ran afoul of federal bank regulators after they took control of the Worthen Bank in Little Rock in the 1980s. Haley's long-time law partner, Mark Grobmyer, a Clinton golfing buddy, is a Lippo lobbyist.
While at Ex-Im Bank, documents show Haley OK'd tens of billions of dollars in federal loans for Indonesian projects, including many involving Lippo and its subsidiaries.
Clinton replaced her on the board with Vanessa Weaver, who was forced by the Senate Banking Committee to recuse herself from Lippo transactions after a 1999 Investor's Business Daily story exposed her close ties to Lippo executive John Huang.
Both Huang and James Riady have since been convicted of fraud relating to Clinton-Gore fund-raising.
Two Enron executives -- Joseph Sutton and Rebecca McDonald -- have served on the Ex-Im Bank's advisory committee.
Enron, which usually backs Republicans, gave more than $150,000 to Clinton's party during the 1996 election cycle.
Yet another federal agency, the Trade and Development Agency kicked in more than $1.1 million from 1992 to 2001 for foreign projects involving Enron or its subsidiaries. It also sponsored 11 visits to the U.S. by foreign officials who participated in Enron-related projects.
I don't think the Gramm's ever pretended to be anything but who they are.
If you are saying that its OK to use political clout to enhance your own bank account as long as you are up front about it, I agree with you. At least we know who you're working for then.
I make a brief for no one.
They are the architects of evil. The rest of them pale in comparison to the two of them.
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