Uranium One bribery scandal

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The Uranium One bribery scandal occurred when Obama Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave approval to a deal that allowed a Russian government enterprise to control one-fifth of all uranium producing capacity in the United States.^[1] Rosatom, the Russian company, acquired Uranium One, an American firm owned by Canadian Frank Giustra (pron. Ju-stra). Giustra is a Friend of Bill (FOB) and member of the Clinton Foundation Board.^[2]

With the purchase of Uranium One, Rosatom also bought the uranium exploration rights in Arizona, Colorado, and Utah.^[3] The Clinton's personally received $500,000 from the Russian Bank which financed the sale.

In April 2018 a criminal referral was made for former Obama era Attorney General Loretta Lynch who threatened an FBI informant who tried to come forward with information in 2016.

Russia Reset[edit]

President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cozied up to Putin, charging the Bush administration was intent on reigniting the Cold War. Michael McFaul was the architect of the Obama/Clinton “Russian Reset”, that eventually led McFaul to becoming the Ambassador to Russia.^[4] The Rosatom-Uranium One deal allowed the Clinton Foundation to pocket millions of dollars from Putin cronies in donations and speaking fees.

Rosatom[edit]

In 1991 the Russian Federation inherited the nuclear programs of the former Soviet Union. The Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) is the successor agency to the Soviet state nuclear agencies. Rosatom is aggressively pursuing export contracts throughout the world with its business model of “Build-Own-Operate” (BOO). Rosatom offers to attend to all aspects of construction and operation of a nuclear project. Theoretically, this model would allow a nation to become a nuclear state even though it has little to no knowledge and infrastructure in place to support operation and oversight of a nuclear reactor. The model increases the client's dependency on Rosatom to operate the reactor, as well as its dependency on imported uranium.

Russia's main exports throughout the Cold War were AK-47s and T-62 tanks. When Hitler invaded in mid 1941 Russia was unprepared, and spent the entirety of World War II bringing its weapons manufacturing capacity up to strength. When the Second World War ended, Soviet arms production didn't stop. For the next half century only a portion of Soviet manufacturing was ever converted to the peacetime domestic production of consumer goods. The end of the Cold War brought a pledge from the new Russian leaders to end the declaration of worldwide Marxist revolution and the export of AK-47s, in exchange for membership in the IMF and G8, and access to World Bank loans.

Uranium is the one viable clean energy source that does not create carbon emissions. By 2014 Russia controlled 60% of the world's uranium supply and half of all enrichment capacity.^[5] Energy was one export commodity Russia had to integrate itself into the global trading system. Along with its crude oil and natural gas reserves Russia has set the goal for itself to become the world's energy power house. The American firm Westinghouse along with French and Japanese companies are Rosatom's only competitors. Rosatom has pursued various contracts to provide reactors in China, India, Iran, Turkey, Belarus, Armenia, Finland, Hungary, the UK, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cape Verde, Namibia, Tunisia, Morocco, Brazil and Uruguay. Rosatom additionally has contracts in Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Venezuela, Argentina, South Africa, Tanzania, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, Australia, Canada, Mexico and the US.

Disposal of nuclear waste is the most problematic issue facing the nuclear industry beyond the problem of proliferation. Rosatom has opted to reprocess highly radioactive spent fuel from its foreign plants. The radioactive waste must be cooled onsite for years before it can be transported. The transport of waste itself puts communities along the route at risk, and the final reprocessing generates an even greater volume of radioactive wastes. Reprocessing has been rejected in some nations, such as the United States. Reprocessing increases the volume of radioactive wastes and is a direct pathway to the production of separated weapons grade plutonium.

Blending, on the other hand, is the recycling of nuclear weapons material into nuclear fuel for power plants. In 1992, the United States and Russia signed the HEU-LEU treaty (also called "Megatons into Megawatts"), in which highly enriched uranium extracted from disassembled Russian warheads was blended into low-enriched uranium and sent to American nuclear power plants. In coming years the program fueled ten percent of U.S. electricity. Tenex (Techsnabexport) is the Rosatom subsidiary responsible for the sale and transportation of this uranium to the United States. Tenex maintained its presence in the United States under the name Tenam, established about October 2010, based in Bethesda MD. The HEU-LEU contract worth more than $13 billion terminated in 2013.

Mikerin and Tenex[edit]

Vadim Mikerin was a Director of the Pan American Department of Tenex from about 2004 through about 2010, and was the President of Tenam from about October 2010 through about October 2014. Tenam serviced 19 contracts, directly and indirectly, with 12 American energy companies. As Tenam's director Mikerin had tremendous leverage over American companies in an extortion scheme that awarded contracts to transport uranium in exchange for kick-backs.^[6]

Between 2004 and October 2014, Mikerin conspired with others to transmit funds from Maryland and elsewhere in the United States to offshore shell company bank accounts located in Cyprus, Latvia, Switzerland and the Seychelles Island for the purpose of promoting a corrupt payment scheme that violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

The payments were made to influence Mikerin and to secure improper business advantages for U.S. companies that did business with Tenex. Mikerin used consulting agreements and code words such as “lucky figure,” “LF,” “cake” and “remuneration” to disguise the corrupt payments. Mikerin pleaded guilty in 2014 “to helping orchestrate more than $2 million in bribe payments through a web of secret accounts in Cyprus, Latvia, and Switzerland.” His actions, according to the US government, occurred “with the consent of higher level officials at Tenex and Rosatom…”.

Vadim Mikerin was sentenced for extortion and money laundering on Decenmber 15, 2015.

Robert Mueller[edit]

According to court filings in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, in 2009, the FBI began an investigation into corruption and extortion by senior managers of Tenex, a subsidiary of Rosatom, a Russian entity.^[7] Robert Mueller was Director when the FBI the investigation into the Rosatom subsidiary was undertaken.^[8]

The investigation was an intelligence probe into Russian nuclear officials. Mueller's investigation obtained an eyewitness, William Campbell, known as Confidential Source-1 (CS-1) in documents, recordings, and emails. The evidence indicates Russian nuclear officials sent millions of dollars destined for the Clinton Foundation during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's tenure on the Committee on Foreign Investment of the United States (CFIUS). CFIUS is the government body that provided the approval of the sale of Uranium One to Rosatom.^[9][10] Robert Mueller also was on the committee.

During the investigation, federal agents attempted to turn Vadim Mikerin on his bosses by showing him the evidence the FBI collected of relationships between “shell companies and other Russian energy officials, including President Vladimir Putin.” Mikerin refused and was arrested on charges of conspiracy to extort kickbacks for contracts to transport uranium from dismantled Russian warheads to power plants within the United States.^[11] The investigation found kickbacks paid in cash and foreign wire transfers. From April 2009 to April 2011, the wire transfers went to Wiser Trading, registered in the Seychelles. From July 2011 to July 2013 - to the British Leila Global Limited account in a Latvian bank. And from August 2013 to May 2014 - to Ollins Development in the British Virgin Islands.

Director of British Leila Global Denny Banger, a Latvian citizen, appeared as a nominal director in a hundred organizations. Latvian journalists participating in the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), found Banger.^[12] He was listed as the head of several firms related to the "Magnitsky case".

TASS reported "the US authorities tried to exert pressure on Mikerin and persuade him to secretly cooperate against Russia." Mikerin's arrest was scheduled for early summer, but later in August the decision was overturned by prosecutors Rod Rosenstein and Adam Aik. The appeal, signed by Rosenstein and Aik, urged Judge William Connelly to cancel Mikerin's arrest order since the DOJ and FBI were hoping that Mikerin would secretly cooperate with US law enforcement against high level Rosatom officials. In a statement to the press the Rosenstein's office commented, "This is a sealed document, I'm not sure how it found its way into the proceedings," in an attempt to object to the defense discussing the motion publicly. Defense attorney Dan Hurson remarked "In my 40 years [of legal practice] I haven't seen anything like that."^[13]

On October 17, 2017 The Hill reported that

the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews.

Federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FBI and court documents show.

They also obtained an eyewitness account — backed by documents — indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton's charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow, sources told The Hill.

The racketeering scheme was conducted “with the consent of higher level officials” in Russia who “shared the proceeds” from the kickbacks, one agent declared in an affidavit years later.

Rather than bring immediate charges in 2010, however, the Department of Justice (DOJ) continued investigating the matter for nearly four more years, essentially leaving the American public and Congress in the dark about Russian nuclear corruption on U.S. soil during a period when the Obama administration made two major decisions benefiting Putin’s commercial nuclear ambitions...

Attorney General Eric Holder was among the Obama administration officials joining Hillary Clinton on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States at the time the Uranium One deal was approved. Multiple current and former government officials told The Hill they did not know whether the FBI or DOJ ever alerted committee members to the criminal activity they uncovered.^[14]

On October 18, 2017 calls for Special Counsel Robert Mueller's resignation in the Trump-Russia collusion hoax mounted over evidence tampering in the Uranium One bribery scandal and the Clinton Foundation.^[15] The New York Post reported on Obama FBI and DOJ cover up of Russian crimes.^[16] Attn. Gen. Loretta Lynch blocked an Campbell, the FBI informant, from testifying to Congress about his information that the Russian's wanted access to Bill and Hillary Clinton to influence the decision on the purchase of Uranium One.^[17] The next day Newsweek reported

Before the [Uranium One] deal was brokered in 2009, the FBI under Robert Mueller—who is now special counsel in the Russia investigation into potential collusion with the Trump campaign—had begun an investigation into corruption and extortion by senior managers of a company owned by the Russian government’s nuclear company, Rosatom. According to court filings revealed by The Hill Tuesday, in 2009 the FBI found enough evidence to suggest Vadim Mikerin, who headed the Rosatom subsidiary Tenex, was corrupt and high-level officials at Rosatom knew about his bribery scheme. In 2014, he pled guilty in a U.S. court case to orchestrating more than $2 million in bribe payments through shadowy accounts in Cyprus, Latvia, and Switzerland.^[18]

The House Oversight Committee began an investigation into Obama administration criminal activity involving Mueller, Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, et al in relation to the bribery scam and national security breach that occurred when they approved the purchase of US uranium reserves by Russian oligarchs who were under criminal investigation by the FBI for extortion and money laundering.^[19]

Andrew McCabe[edit]

Andrew McCabe was the investigating agent assigned to the case.^[20]

Rod Rosenstein[edit]

Mueller's investigation was centered in Maryland, Tenam's home base. There, the U.S. attorney was Obama appointee Rod Rosenstein — now deputy attorney general, and the man who appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate President Trump.

The Maryland District Court indictment of Mikerin and three others said that the FBI paid attention to suspicious financial transactions after a tip from a "confidential source" (in the indictment, he is called CS-1). Two friends of Mikerin and a person close to Rosatom believe that this is an employee of the American consulting company Sigma Transnational.^[21] CS-1 is now represented by prominent Washington DC attorney Victoria Toensing. Toensing said the FBI informed her client President Obama was briefed on the matter while the investigation was ongoing.^[22] In November 2017 CS-1 was identified as William J. Campbell.

Sigma's website says its expertise in business and political consulting is based on 90 years of experience. The firm manages projects in a variety of fields, including energy and biotechnology, works with the US Department of Defense and provides advisory services to businesses related to nuclear materials and import-export operations. The Sigma website mentions that it provided services to Tenex and assisted Tenex in approving and completing contracts for $1.2 billion with 13 US companies.

The "confidential source" told the FBI that he had a longtime acquaintance with Mikerin which was revived in 2003 thanks to a man from Florida, whose name is not disclosed. But the source believes that this man from Florida is associated with Russian and Eurasian "organized crime", the indictment says.

In 2009, according to the prosecution, Mikerin askd CS-1 for kickbacks for the right to sign a contract with Tenex for lobbying and consulting services, as well as assistance in public relations for the Russian nuclear industry. These payments, according to CS-1, Mikerin called the "system" or "window". CS-1 was worried about this agreement and went to the FBI, where he was asked to continue to participate in the kickback scheme, giving the bureau all the information. He told everything in detail.

According to CS-1's testimony the consulting company paid $460,000 as kickbacks. Moreover, the appetite of the recipients grew. For implementation of the first contract in 2009, Tenex was supposed to pay the consulting company $150,000 for three months, and Mikerin wanted a third of this sum as a kickback. Payments under the second contract were $550,000 for 11 months, and Mikerin required about half as a kickback.

In 2011, Mikerin allegedly extended the contract for 11 months in the interests of Tenex.

Mikerin was arrested on a complaint describing a racketeering scheme that stretched back to 2004 and included extortion, fraud, and money laundering. Money-laundering carries a penalty of up to 20 years’ imprisonment — not only for conspiracy but for each act of money laundering (at section 1956 of the penal code). But Mikerin was permitted to plead guilty to an offense charged under the catch-all federal conspiracy provision (section 371) that criminalizes agreements to commit any crime against the United States. Section 371 prescribes a sentence of zero to five years’ imprisonment.

Andrew Weissmann[edit]

The plea agreement shows that the Obama DOJ's Fraud Section was then run by Andrew Weissmann, who is now one of the top prosecutors in Robert Mueller's special-counsel Trump-Russia investigation.

The Justice Department instructs prosecutors that when Congress has given a federal offense its own conspiracy provision with a heightened punishment (as it has for money laundering, racketeering, narcotics trafficking, and other serious crimes), they may not charge a section 371 conspiracy. Section 371 is for less serious conspiracy cases. Using it for money laundering — which caps the sentence below Congress's intent for that behavior — subverts federal law and signals to the court that the prosecutor does not regard the offense as major.

Yet, that is exactly what Rosenstein's office did, in a plea agreement his prosecutors co-signed with attorneys from the Justice Department's Fraud Section. (See in The Hill’s report, the third document embedded at the bottom, titled “Mikerin Plea Deal.”) No RICO, no extortion, no fraud — and the plea agreement does not to mention any of the extortions in 2009 and 2010, before Committee on Foreign Investment in the US approved Rosatom's acquisition of Uranium One. Mikerin just plead guilty to a nominal “money laundering” conspiracy charge, insulating him from a longer sentence. Thus, he got a term of only four years’ for a major national security crime.

Clinton Foundation[edit]

Between 2008 and 2010, Uranium One and Former Ur-Asia investors donated $8.65 million to the Clinton Foundation. During this period of time, Uranium One's legal hold on the Kazakhstan-based uranium deposits was in doubt. Allegedly, Uranium One executives contacted U.S. Embassy officials in Kazakhstan to help ensure the validity of their mining licenses. According to the New York Times, the State Department cable explaining the circumstances was copied to Secretary Clinton, among other individuals. In 2009, when the validity of the mining licenses was at issue, the Chairman of Uranium One, Mr. Ian Telfer, donated $1 million to the Clinton Foundation via his family charity called the Fernwood Foundation. In the same year, ARMZ acquired a 17% state in Uranium One and the parties sought an initial CFIUS review. In June 2010, Rosatom, via ARMZ, sought majority ownership in Uranium One. According to news reports, Mr. Telfer donated $250,000 to the Clinton Foundation during this crucial time. In total, Mr. Telfer donated over $2 million through 2013.

Frank Giustra[edit]

Bill Clinton helped his Canadian billionaire friend, Frank Giustra, obtain uranium-mining rights from Kazakhstan's dictator, Nursultan Nazarbayev. On September 6, 2005 the two flew aboard Giustra's private jet to Almaty, Kazakhstan, where they dined Nazarbayev. Clinton expressed support for Nazarbayev's bid to head the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) - an international elections monitoring group and supports democracy that would confer legitimacy on Nazarbayev corrupt regime.^[23] Joseph Mifsud served as an election watcher. Clinton's public endorsement undercut Bush administration policy critical of Kazakhstan's poor human rights record. Even then Sen. Hillary Clinton was publicly critical of Nazarbayev's poor human rights record.^[24] As of 2015, Kazakhstan has never held an election meeting international standards. Mifsud however certified that the elections met all the norms and standards of the European Union.^[25]

Within two days, Giustra's company, UrAsia Energy, signed a deal giving it stakes in three uranium mines controlled by the Kazakhstan's state-run uranium agency, Kazatomprom. The deal stunned the mining industry, turning an unknown shell company formed in Vancouver in late 2004 into one of the world's largest uranium producers in a transaction ultimately worth tens of millions of dollars to Giustra. Giustra and his partners thereafter contributed tens of millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation.^[26]

The cost of acquiring the Kazakh mines from Kazatomprom, which was responsible for 20% of world production, was more than $450 million, money UrAsia did not have in hand and had only weeks to come up with. The transaction was finalized in November 2005, after UrAsia raised the money through the largest initial public offering in the history of Canada's Venture Exchange. Other companies showed interest in the Kazakh mines for years but Kazatomprom's choice of UrAsia confounded lngtime market watchers.^[27] The company became a major uranium producer didn't even exist two years earlier.

Giustra personally given over $25 million to the Clinton Foundation.^[28]

Uranium One[edit]

In February 2007, a company called Uranium One agreed to pay $3.1 billion to acquire UrAsia. Giustra would be paid $7.05 per share for a company that just two years earlier was trading at 10 cents per share.^[29] The new company, which kept the Uranium One name, was controlled by UrAsia investors with Giustra becoming a major shareholder.^[30] Besides acquiring the Kazakh reserves, Uranium One also controlled about one fifth of the uranium reserves in the United States. In April 2007, Uranium One announced the purchase of a uranium mill in Utah and more than 38,000 acres of uranium-exploration properties in four Western states, followed quickly by the acquisition of Energy Metals and its uranium holdings in Wyoming, Texas and Utah.

Vladimir Putin also wanted the Kazakh uranium and leaned on the Kazakhstan's dictator Nazarbayev, who promptly arrested Kazatomprom President Moukhtar Dzhakishev, the official responsible for selling the uranium mining rights to Giustra's company. This put Uranium One's stake in jeopardy of being seized by the Kazakh government. By June 2009, Uranium One's stock fell 40 percent.

Uranium One's panicked executives turned to the US State Department, where Hillary Clinton was now in charge. The State Dept. convened emergency meetings with the Kazakh regime on June 10 and 11. Three days later, a subsidiary of Rosatom completed a deal for 17 percent of Uranium One. The threat of seizure of the Kazakh reserves disappeared, and Giustra's investment was safe. Within a year, the Russian government substantially upped the ante, with a generous offer to shareholders that would give it a 51 percent controlling stake. But first, Uranium One had to get the U.S. government to sign off on the deal.^[31]

Hillary Clinton[edit]

Before Hillary Clinton could assume her post as Secretary of State in 2009, the White House demanded that she sign a memorandum of understanding placing limits on Bill Clinton's foundation activities. To avoid the perception of conflicts of interest, beyond the ban on foreign government donations, the foundation was required to publicly disclose all contributors. None of the Uranium One shareholders donations were disclosed after the Rosatom approval. These donations to the Clinton Foundation totaled some $130 million.^[32]

Under Canadian law the identity of donors to a non-profit entity are allowed anonymity. Giustra formed with Bill Clinton the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership as part of the Clinton Foundation, which could receive anonymous donations.^[33] After the transfer of Uranium One to Rosatom, Giustra and others donated over $130 million to the Clinton Foundation.

According to the New York Times,

Canadian records show, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One’s chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors. Other people with ties to the company made donations as well.

And shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One, Mr. Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech ... The $500,000 fee — among Mr. Clinton’s highest — was paid by Renaissance Capital, a Russian investment bank with ties to the Kremlin ...Renaissance Capital analysts talked up Uranium One’s stock, assigning it a “buy” rating and saying in a July 2010 research report that it was “the best play” in the uranium markets.... Putin personally thanked Mr. Clinton for speaking.^[34]

Evidence suggests the 33,000 emails Hillary Clinton admitted to destroying are related to the Uranium One bribery scandal.^[35]

Podesta Group[edit]

After Russia took control of the Uranium, the Podesta Group received $180,000 to lobby for Uranium One during the same period that the Clinton Foundation was receiving millions from U1 interests, and after Russia took majority ownership in the “20 percent” deal (source – you have to add up the years).^[36][37] The uranium company states on its web site it is a “wholly owned subsidiary” of RUSANO, the Russian State Corporation for Nuclear Energy, a Rosatom entity.

Tony Podesta's lobbying firm, the Podesta Group, represented the Russian-owned company Uranium One during former President Barack Obama's administration and did not register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, The Daily Caller News Foundation has determined.^[38]

The Podesta Group lobbied on behalf of Uranium One for part of 2012 and in 2014 and 2015, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The Podesta Group was not listed as a lobbyist for Uranium One during its sale to ROSATOM in 2010. The Podesta Group did not file under FARA during any of the years when it lobbied both Congress and the executive branch.

Bill Clinton[edit]

Bill Clinton lists Arkady Dvorkovich, a top aide to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and a key Rosatom board member as one of 15 Russians he wanted to meet with. Rosatom is the parent company of Tenex, then under investigation by FBI Dir. Robert Mueller for money-laundering and extortion of American energy companies. Processing of Rosatom's request to purchase Uranium One was in the works by Hillary's State Dept. at the time.^[39] Carter Page is said to have met Dvorkovich about this time as well.^[40] Clinton met with Putin and Medvedev during the excursion to Moscow, where he received $500,000 from the bank financing the Rosatom-Uranium One purchase.

APCO Worldwide[edit]

APCO Worldwide, a global communications firm that lobbied on behalf of Rosatom and it's American subsidiary Tenex at the time of the Uranium One deal, vastly understated its support for the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). The Hill discovered APCO provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in pro-bono services and in-kind contributions which APCO reported, but CGI did not. In the fall of 2011 APCO's lists in-kind contribution at $275,000, and the annual report submitted to the United Nations Global Compact, boasted “APCO significantly increased its pro-bono support for CGI and, for the first time, our team managed the press around CGI’s America meeting, as well as its global Annual Meeting."

At the time APCO was paid $3 million by Rosatom, Russia's state-owned nuclear company. Rosatom paid APCO to lobby the State Department and other federal agencies on behalf of Tenex, which sought to increase uranium business inside federal agencies and Congress. APCO made more than 50 contacts with federal and congressional figures for Tenex, including at least 10 involving senior officials inside the Clinton State Department in 2010 and 2011. The contacts ranged from “promoting US-Russian civilian nuclear partnership” to attempts at freeing Russia from “anti-dumping” restrictions imposed on its uranium business.

APCO Executive Director Kent Jarrell claimed the company had little contact with Vadim Mikerin, director of Tenex, who pleaded guilty in 2015 to a corruption charge stemming from the FBI bribery probe. Jarrell said APCO dealt mostly with Rosatom oligarchs, who also were subjects of the FBI's extortion and money-laundering investigation. The firm promoted a U.S. visit in 2011 by former Russian Prime Minister Sergey Kirienko, who then as the top official at Rosatom.

Mikerin was tasked with forming Tenex's new American office called Tenam. APCO's lobbying records show the firm helped create a Web site for Tenam and a press release announcing the new American subsidiary. An invite list provided to the FBI by a confidential informant shows APCO executives attended the grand opening celebration of Tenam's office in suburban Washington in October 2010.

APCO officials estimate their total cash donations to CGI totaled $45,600 and their in-kind support to CGI exceeded $1 million since 2008. They also acknowledged that the firm's pro-bono work increased significantly in 2011 while it worked for Tenex. Pro-bono work involved providing free media support to CGI for various events and activities as well as to the other non-governmental organizations that made charitable commitments under the Clinton brand.

William Campbell, the FBI's confidential informant in the Uranium One scandal, informed Congress that he was told by top Russian officials that APCO was hired specifically because it had close connections to the Obama administration and the Clintons. “His Russian counterparts made clear to him they valued APCO’s connections to the Clinton Global Initiative and expected it to grow while the firm was working for Tenex,” Campbell's attorney Victoria Toensing said. “And he reported those conversations back to the FBI.”

Hillary Clinton and staff considered at least one APCO lobbyist, former career ambassador Elizabeth Jones, for two top jobs. “At Friday's meeting, Hillary made clear Beth Jones was her first choice for Ambassador to Iraq. Since I don't know her, we agreed that I should meet with her today or tomorrow,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote Clinton confidant John Podesta in a 2009 email. Clinton's top aides successfully vetted her in 2011 to become a special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Corbiere Trust is one of APCO Worldwide's largest clients. APCO lobbied on behalf of the now-defunct Clinton Global Initiative and was involved in the Uranium One transaction as noted by the Hill:

“APCO was paid $3 million in 2010 and 2011 to work for Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear company. Rosatom paid APCO to lobby the State Department and other federal agencies on behalf of its Tenex subsidiary, which sought to increase its commercial uranium sales in the United States.”

Diane Johnstone observes, according to the Ron Paul Institute, that APCO's President and CEO, Margery Krause is “a member of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s son Pavel’s Institute of Modern Russia, devoted to ‘promoting democratic values’—in other words, to building political opposition to Vladimir Putin.”

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, along with Bill Browder, lobbied heavily for passage of the Magnitsky Act. Khodorkovsky did so through his Corbiere Trust, which handles Khodorkovsky's remaining fortune. It also lobbied for passage of Senate Resolution 322, which provided express support for Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.

Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS)[edit]

Between August 28 and September 3, 2015 an FBI agent sent notification to preserve records to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; U.S. Dept. of Treasury; Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI James Clapper); National Counter Terrorism Center; and the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE),^[41] the National Security Agency (NSA – Admiral Mike Rogers) the United States Secret Service (USSS);^[42] the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and the Department of Defense in relation to Hillary Clinton email scandal.^[43][44] All these are member agencies of the Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) necessary to approve the Uranium One deal. During these notifications on August 31 Vadim Mikerin was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge.^[45]

FBI approval[edit]

The Department of Justice's National Security Division (NSD) reviewed this transaction in consultation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and CFIUS agencies. In accordance with standard procedure, NSD evaluated the factors listed in section 721 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended, and ultimately communicated to CFIUS the Department's clearance of this transaction.^[46]

Clintons receive payment[edit]

On June 29, 2010, Bill Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech to Renaissance Capital in a pay-to-play bribery scam arranged by Sec. of State Hillary Clinton for State Dept. approval of Russian purchase of Uranium One, an American mining company. Clinton was thanked personally by Russian President Vladimir Putin after the speech.^[47] Renaissance Capital is a controlled entity of the Russian government. Bill & Hillary Clinton file joint taxes, are a joint economic unit, therefore any money received by one spouse is joint income to both spouses.

That same June Uranium One and Rosatom notified the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) of the Russian government's intent to acquire twenty percent of the United States’ uranium assets.^[48] In July Renaissance Bank of Moscow reportedly assigned Uranium One a “buy” rating, a move that would principally benefit its Russian investors. Later the Department of Justice investigation into Prevezon Holdings determined that $13 million from the crime that Sergei Magnitsky uncovered, exposed, and was killed over went to the bank accounts of Renaissance Capital in the United Kingdom.^[49]

Obama administration approval of sale[edit]

Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is composed of the leaders of 14 US government agencies involved in national security and commerce. In 2010, these included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder, whose Justice Department and lead agency, the FBI, were conducting the investigation of Rosatom's ongoing U.S. racketeering, extortion, and money-laundering scheme.^[50]

Four senior House national security experts — Peter King (R., N.Y.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.), Spencer Bachus (R., Ala.), and Howard McKeon (R. Calif.) — voiced grave concerns, pointing out that Rosatom had helped Iran build its Bushehr nuclear reactor. The members concluded that “the take-over of essential US nuclear resources by a government-owned Russian agency . . . would not advance the national security interests of the United States.” Republican senator John Barrasso objected to Kremlin control of uranium assets in his state of Wyoming, warning of Russia's “disturbing record of supporting nuclear programs in countries that are openly hostile to the United States, specifically Iran and Venezuela.”

On October 22, 2010 CFIUS certified to Congress the sale of Uranium One to Rosatom of the Russian Federation.^[51] No disclosure of Russian racketeering and strong-arm tactics was made to Congress — not by Secretary Clinton, Attorney General Holder, or President Obama.

Further reading[edit]

• FOIA request number FOIA/PA-2014-0174

See also[edit]

• FBI scandal
• Obamagate timeline 2009-2015
• Obamagate timeline 2016 election year
• Russiagate timeline 2017
• Russiagate timeline 2018
• Awan investigation
• Paul Manafort
• Senate Intelligence Committee
• Mark Warner

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Clinton Cash, Peter Scweizer.