STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 22 May 2015

[Demeter]

14. Clinton Foundation Discloses More than $12 Million in Speech Fees

The Clinton Foundation on Thursday disclosed nearly 100 instances in which it was paid directly for speeches delivered by Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton in the past dozen years.

In all, the fees from those engagements total between $12 million and $26 million that went into the foundation’s coffers and had not been previously disclosed by the organization or by the Clintons. The release comes on the heels of the Friday filing of the Clintons’ latest financial disclosures, which showed them earning at least $30 million since the start of 2014 and having a net worth of between $11 million and $53 million—not including their two multimillion dollar homes and other personal property.

The disclosures come amid questions about the web of influence around the Clintons as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton runs for president.

The list released Thursday is composed primarily of fees collected by former President Bill Clinton, including three between $500,001 and $1 million. Those speeches were paid for by DMC Communications Ltd. on behalf of All Ireland Scholarships, a program providing financial support to undergraduate students in Ireland; Hanwha, a South Korean company with holdings in the explosives, manufacturing and financial services industries; and Leaders and Company Ltd., which publishes Nigeria’s THISDAY newspaper.

The biggest fees brought in by Hillary Clinton for the foundation were between $250,001 and $500,000 from Citibank, N.A.; Colgate University; Fundacion Telmex, billionaire Carlos Slim’s foundation; Goldman, Sachs and Co.; Hamilton College; JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.; UB Foundation Activities, Inc., the University at Buffalo’s foundation; and the University of California Los Angeles.

Bill Clinton also brought in several fees in that range.

Chelsea Clinton’s biggest paydays on behalf of the foundation came for speeches to three separate Jewish groups and at the University of Missouri-Kansas City—for which she was paid between $50,001 and $100,000 apiece.

Craig Minassian, the foundation’s chief communications officer, said the list was " just another example of how our disclosure policies go above and beyond what's required of charities.”

But the disclosures came only after investigative reporting dug up inconsistencies in the foundation’s previous disclosures and amid pressure for the Clintons to be more transparent as Hillary Clinton embarks on her second presidential campaign.

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-05-22/clinton-foundation-discloses-speech-fees