Is there no end?
Clintons Have 3 Cayman Island Accounts
From Bloomberg:
By Timothy J. Burger and Ryan J. Donmoyer
Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) — Former President Bill Clinton’s decision to reconsider a business relationship with California billionaire Ron Burkle reflects concern those financial dealings may embarrass his wife’s presidential candidacy.
Securities and Exchange Commission documents and financial- disclosure forms filed by Hillary Clinton show that Bill Clinton, 61, has a financial stake in three investment entities registered in the Cayman Islands by Burkle’s Yucaipa Cos. LLC.
In 2004, Hillary Clinton, a New York senator, said she wanted to close the “loopholes” for “people who create a mailbox, or a drop, or send one person to sit on the beach in some island paradise and claim that it is their offshore headquarters.”
The former president’s possible decision to move away from Burkle “is all tied up with the laws of appearance and the politics of perception,” said Linda Fowler, professor of government at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. “The world being what it is, people are attracted to the spouse of somebody with political power. The level of potential conflict is just that much higher with a former president and a senator who would be president.”
Moreover, added Fowler, “with this particular couple, somehow, the whole story doesn’t come out except in dribs and drabs.”
Bloomberg News last month submitted a list of questions to the Clinton campaign regarding the former president’s involvement in the three Caymans-based funds. The campaign didn’t respond to the queries until Dec. 13, after the New York Times reported that Clinton plans to dissolve his five-year partnership with Burkle, a longtime friend and important fund-raiser for both Clintons…
Jay Carson, a Clinton spokesman, said that while the former president hasn’t “severed ties” with Yucaipa, he “is taking steps to ensure” that “there will be an appropriate transition for those relationships” if his wife receives the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination…
The disclosures that Hillary Clinton, 60, is required to make as a lawmaker and candidate show that her husband has holdings in three Burkle-controlled funds — YGOF GP Ltd., Yucaipa Global Holdings and Yucaipa Global Partnership Fund LP — all listed at Yucaipa’s Los Angeles address. An October filing with the SEC by Burkle, Yucaipa’s lead partner, names YGOF as a Cayman Islands corporation and the latter two as Cayman Islands partnerships.
The amounts disclosed by Hillary Clinton are minimal, though a person familiar with the matter confirmed a report last year in The New York Times that Bill Clinton stands to make tens of millions of dollars with little risk if the Yucaipa funds he is involved in profit beyond a certain level…
Paul Roth, an attorney with Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP in New York, said companies that organize outside the U.S. often do so because “it’s more attractive” to foreign investors, who can “make sure they’re not subject to U.S. taxation.” Foreign registration may also make it easier for U.S. tax-exempt entities such as pension funds to invest “in certain strategies,” he said.
These tax benefits — which are legal and common practice for many investment firms, particularly hedge funds — have drawn attention from lawmakers and candidates.
In a Dec. 13 debate, Hillary Clinton’s chief rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, said that as president he would crack down on corporate loopholes and tax savings, particularly those involving offshore transactions.
“There’s a building in the Cayman Islands that houses, supposedly, 12,000 U.S.-based corporations,” Obama said. “That’s either the biggest building in the world or the biggest tax scam in the world. And I think we know which one it is.”
Roth said U.S. law makes it difficult for Americans to avoid taxes on payments from offshore, though some hedge-fund managers use such entities to defer U.S. taxes on their compensation. A measure passed last week by the House would ban this practice. Obama, 46, was a Senate co-sponsor of the provision when it was introduced in February.
Carson said Bill Clinton’s payments from Yucaipa aren’t deferred and the former president pays tax on that income in the year in which it is earned… |
