Annals of Clinton corruption

The new batch of emails showing that the State Department gave special access to top Clinton Foundation donors while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State inspired Judicial Watch to recount the facts surrounding Claudio Osorio. He’s a Clinton Foundation donor who leveraged his “generosity” to get $10 million from the government with help from the Clinton State Department. Osorio is now serving a 12-year prison sentence after scamming the government out of millions and cheating his investsors.

Judicial Watch explains:

Osorio got the money from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a federal agency that operates under the guidance of the State Department, to build houses in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. . . .

Osorio’s “Haiti project” was supposed to build 500 homes for displaced families in the aftermath of the earthquake. The project never broke ground and Osorio used the money to finance his lavish lifestyle and fund his illicit business ventures.

He also ran a fraudulent international company. . .that stole millions from investors. Some of the OPIC Haiti money was used to repay investors of his fraudulent company (InnoVida), according to federal prosecutors.

(Emphasis added)

How did Osorio get the $10 million? According to Judicial Watch, which relies on reporting by Alana Goodman of the Washington Free Beacon, he got it at least in part because Hillary Clinton was willing to steer resources to his project (or so Osorio said).

Earlier this year, Goodman reported:

An official at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a federal agency under the guidance of the State Department, wrote a memo on Jan. 26, 2010 to her superiors recommending funding for a construction project in Haiti.

According to the proposal, Miami businessman Claudio Osorio and his company InnoVida would build homes on the island using low-cost proprietary panels. Lynn Tabernacki, OPIC’s renewable energy director, noted in the report that InnoVida had “U.S. persons of political influence that are able to assist in advancing the company’s plans.”

“For instance, former President Bill Clinton is personally in contact with the Company to organize its logistical and support needs,” wrote Tabernacki. “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made available State Department resources to assist with logistical arrangements.”

Additionally, the Clinton Global Initiative had “indicated that it would be willing to contract to purchase 6,500 homes in Haiti from InnoVida within the next year.”

Why might Hillary Clinton be willing to steer resources to this crook’s project? For one thing, Osorio had hosted a fundraiser for Hillary at his Star Island mansion.

For another, Osorio was a Clinton Foundation donor, contributing between $10,000 and $50,000 to the organization, according to Goodman. In addition, he had hired Clinton’s 2008 finance director Jonathan Mantz to lobby OPIC for the loan request.

Less than 24 hours after Tabernacki, the OPIC official, wrote her memo citing Osorio’s Clinton connections, OPIC approved a $10 million loan. It approved the loan just two weeks after the company proposed the project. Officials told Goodman that the process usually takes months or years.

But not when you have friends in very high places.

The loan was approved even though OPIC was aware, as reflected in the Tabernacki memo, that Osorio had previously run a major tech company that went bankrupt after it was sued by shareholders for manipulating its stock prices through accounting fraud. What’s a little fraud if you’re a Hillary Clinton fundraiser and Clinton Foundation donor? A signal to the Clintons that there’s money to be made, I suspect.

Not surprisingly, the homes in Haiti were never built. By the following year, Osorio’s company had declared bankruptcy and Osorio was in hot water with Securities and Exchange Commission and the FBI.

Just another crooked Clinton crony who, by virtue of his generosity to Hillary, received special treatment from the Clinton State Department

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