Because Senator Chuck Grassley is a Republican and Hillary Clinton is a Democrat, it would be easy to dismiss the underlying issues as merely political gamesmanship.
However, if that is your reaction to this recent letter from Senator Grassley to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch (and others) it would be unfortunate because the underlying issues go to the glaring double standard that has frequently been highlighted on FCPA Professor.
The double standard being how business interactions with “foreign officials” seem to be subject to different standards than business interactions with U.S. officials.
Senator Grassley’s letter concerns allegations first raised in this New York Times article (see also here) concerning the “Clinton Foundation’s tie to a number of investors involved in a business transactions that resulted in the acquisition of Uranium One, owner of U.S. based Uranium assets, by a subsidiary of Rosatom, a Russian government owned company.
As stated in Senator Grassley’s letter:
“[D]uring critical stages of the acquisition approval, interested parties made large donations – some in the millions of dollars – to the Clinton Foundation while Ms. Hillary Clinton held the position of Secretary of State. When millions of dollars flow to decision makers who have substantial discretion to provide support for or against approval of controversial transactions, public confidence in the integrity of the process requires a commitment to transparency and responsiveness to oversight inquiries.”
The Uranium One deal is merely one of several criticisms or concerns of financial ties between the Clinton Foundation and various business interests. See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. In fact, new revelations and findings are so numerous it is hard to keep up.
In this recent Breitbart news article I stated as follows.
“When asked if the donations to the Clinton Foundation by defense contractors including Boeing (which subsequently received State Department approval of sales of their products to foreign governments) constituted a violation of domestic bribery statues, Law School Professor and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) expert Michael Koehler tells Breitbart News, “I’ll answer that question by quoting a former law professor who was fond of saying ‘if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck chances are it is a duck’”
I was an intern in the Clinton White House and I generally admired the Clintons. However, with each new revelation or finding, it is hard not to see several potential double standards.
After all, several FCPA enforcement actions have been based on donations to charities or foundations favored by “foreign officials” and/or things of value provided to family members of “foreign officials.”
Recently, I was contacted by an individual who has a brother in federal prison for violating the FCPA. The individual asked why is my brother in federal prison while Hillary Clinton is running for President?
