- WASHINGTON - Under the
Clinton
administration, the Overseas Private Investment Corp. "gave hundreds
of millions of dollars" in loans and other government support to risky
Enron-related projects overseas, according to a Senate Finance Committee
audit released today.
-
- As WorldNetDaily first reported Jan. 22, Enron became
one of OPIC's biggest customers during the Clinton years.
-
- From fiscal year 1993 to fiscal 2000, OPIC gave at least
$544 million in loans to Enron-related projects, the agency reported in
a letter to the Senate panel. It provided another $204 million in
political-risk
insurance. OPIC listed only currently supported projects.
-
- The Export-Import Bank, another federal overseas
economic-development
agency, gave more than $650 million in loans to Enron-related projects,
confirming WorldNetDaily's earlier reporting.
-
- The Senate panel asked for data back to 1985. "It
appears the agency made no loans to Enron-related businesses from 1985
to 1992," said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking committee
member.
-
- Current outstanding balance on all the federal loans
is $965 million, according to the audit. With the insurance liability,
the federal agencies' indirect exposure to Enron-related projects totals
nearly $1.2 billion.
-
- "These loans obviously were a tremendous benefit
to Enron's operation," Grassley said, particularly since commercial
banks rarely finance such long-term projects in unstable foreign
markets.
-
- A committee investigator told WorldNetDaily that the
panel is reviewing confidential memos written or received by OPIC and Ex-Im
Bank officials regarding the Enron transactions.
-
- Former OPIC head Ruth Harkin was appointed by Clinton
after her husband, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, campaigned vigorously for
Clinton
in '92 and '96. The senator was one of the ex-president's biggest boosters
during his impeachment trial.
-
- Prior to joining the Clinton administration, Ruth Harkin
was a top corporate lawyer at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, a
Washington
firm that includes Clinton pal Vernon Jordan and Democratic power broker
Robert Strauss.
-
- Ex-Im Bank board members during the Clinton years include
Jackie Clegg, wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Maria Haley, a former
aide to Clinton in Little Rock and ex-wife of John Haley, who was convicted
in the Whitewater investigation.
-
- Dodd served as co-chairman of the Democratic National
Committee during the '96 Clinton-Gore campaign. Clinton appointed Clegg
vice chair of the Ex-Im Bank board in June 1997.
-
- Haley has ties to the crooked Riady family who operate
the Lippo Group out of Jakarta, Indonesia. The Riadys ran afoul of federal
bank regulators after they took control of the Worthen Bank in Little Rock
in the 1980s. Haley's long-time law partner, Mark Grobmyer, a Clinton
golfing
buddy, is a Lippo lobbyist.
-
- While at Ex-Im Bank, documents show Haley OK'd tens of
billions of dollars in federal loans for Indonesian projects, including
many involving Lippo and its subsidiaries.
-
- Clinton replaced her on the board with Vanessa Weaver,
who was forced by the Senate Banking Committee to recuse herself from Lippo
transactions after a 1999 Investor's Business Daily story exposed her close
ties to Lippo executive John Huang.
-
- Both Huang and James Riady have since been convicted
of fraud relating to Clinton-Gore fund-raising.
-
- Two Enron executives -- Joseph Sutton and Rebecca
McDonald
-- have served on the Ex-Im Bank's advisory committee.
-
- Enron, which usually backs Republicans, gave more than
$150,000 to Clinton's party during the 1996 election cycle.
-
- Yet another federal agency, the Trade and Development
Agency kicked in more than $1.1 million from 1992 to 2001 for foreign
projects
involving Enron or its subsidiaries. It also sponsored 11 visits to the
U.S. by foreign officials who participated in Enron-related
projects.
-
- © 2002 WorldNetDaily
-
- Paul Sperry is Washington bureau chief for
WorldNetDaily.
- http://www.worldnetdaily.com
|
