The Wall Street Journal reported last week the Clinton Foundation is being investigated by various FBI teams.
They may be rogue teams trying to do the right thing.
The Clinton Foundation is charity fraud.
High level FBI management and the Department of Justice are trying to stop the investigation -- they want to protect the Clintons.
Recent Podesta emails reveal a confidential memo from prominent New York lawyer Kumiki Gibson to Clinton Foundation Chairman Bruce Lindsey (and former Bill Clinton attorney).
The letter was part of an inside audit of the foundation, and confirms that the charitable organization (which it found "operates more like a political operation") was engaged in practices that broke the law.
Bruce Lindsey is Chairman of the Board for the Clinton Foundation
Kumiki Gibson's resume says she "counseled the William J. Clinton Foundation, an international not-for-profit organization, on structural, legal, and compliance issues” from May 2008 until January 2014."
She also wrote the purpose of the confidential November 10, 2008 memo, was to: "set forth the findings of my review of the Legal and Human Resources Departments of the William J. Clinton Foundation (“Foundation”) and those pertaining to other areas of the Foundation revealed during this review, and my recommendations to the Foundation based on this review."
The summary reveals the foundation "operates more like a political operation" than a "professional, strategic, and sustainable corporation committed to advancing its overall mission".
"The Foundation (as opposed to its initiatives, which I have not reviewed) operates more like a political operation focused on immediate situations, tasks, and events, as opposed to a professional, strategic, and sustainable corporation committed to advancing its overall mission."
The only thing that was keeping the enterprise going was the presence of Bill Clinton.
His role was to match donors with "uses of funds" and distribution of favors , the "pay for play" made the former president indispensable in an organization that would otherwise not survive.
Page 9 of the memo includes something the FBI may want to investigate:
The memo also notes that "the Foundation has very few procedures, processes, and systems in place, and even fewer that are consistent across the organization."
For example, it is missing several policies/procedures that are required by law (e.g., record retention policy).
"Moreover, although it has an employee manual, that manual is not comprehensive and is not distributed or followed consistently across the organization.
(1) the organization is legally liable for the acts of its offices and initiatives and those who run them;
(2) managers in key positions have no to little experience in not-for-profit management and thus do not even possess the right instincts when faced with a problem for which there is no policy or procedure; and
(3) there is no established mechanism for catching problems and mistakes.
Gibson's take: "In short, the systems deficiency subjects the Foundation to significant legal and reputational risks, results in inconsistencies and inefficiencies, and undermines its work and viability. "
The Foundation was not in compliance with the law and with standards that govern "not-for-profits."
Here is a brief sample of the findings:
"The Foundation lacks important policies and procedures and a real process to ensure compliance, resulting in increased risks, confusion, conflicting (and perhaps arbitrary) decisions, and inefficiencies.
- The Foundation does not have a record retention policy, and the procedures currently utilized in Harlem may violate the law.
- It is unclear whether lower level employees actually meet the definition of exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
- Processes and employment decisions are made on an ad hoc basis.
- Staff complained about the lack of comprehensive and/or written policies and procedures.
- Staff complained about the lack of a real complaint and/or whistleblower policy."
The review pointed to a high-ranking foundation executive who was “being paid by [President Clinton], the government and the foundation” who “allowed the foundation to host what may have been (or may have been viewed as) a political event, apparently without official pre-approval from the foundation’s legal department and without regard, before the fact, to the impact of that decision on the foundation’s tax exempt status.”
The conclusion condemns the practices and principles of operation:
It is illegal for tax-exempt non-profit foundations like the Clinton Foundation to be linked with partisan political events, as described in the review report.
The Lindsey memo was distributed just two days before the Clinton Foundation signed an agreement with Obama’s transition office Dec. 12, 2008, as part of the president-elect’s decision to appoint Hillary Clinton as the nation’s chief diplomat.
Obama wanted assurance that no conflicts of interest would arise between Clinton’s work as Secretary of State and the foundation, which had operations in numerous foreign countries.
It is clear the Clinton Foundation was not in "compliance with the law and standards that govern not-for-profits" at that time.
The corrupt Department of Justice will not permit the FBI to do its job and indict a foundation that, as a lawyer determined, was committing charity fraud.
