OH - the lovely Clintons - How Nemazee Used Harvard Degree Swindling Banks of $292 Million
By Kambiz Foroohar and David Glovin
March 22 (Bloomberg) -- On the evening of March 13, 2007, limousines lined up outside the Cipriani restaurant in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood.
Inside, Hassan Nemazee, surrounded by New York’s deep- pocketed donors, was orchestrating one of the year’s major fundraisers for Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid. As guests dined on steak and beet salad, Nemazee introduced the senator and her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
Harvard-educated Nemazee, a scion of one of Iran’s wealthiest families, helped raise more than $500,000 that night.
Three years later, on March 18, Nemazee stood in a federal courthouse 2 miles (3 kilometers) away and confessed to a 12- year scheme to defraud banks of $292 million, Bloomberg Markets reports in its May issue. He faces up to 19 and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to three bank fraud charges and one wire fraud charge. He must report to jail on April 30 and will be sentenced on June 30.
“He certainly has had an extremely successful fraud up to now,” U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein said during the plea.
The man whom President Clinton had nominated to be U.S. ambassador to Argentina and who’d brought in at least $2.4 million over 15 years for Democratic luminaries, including President Barack Obama and Vice President Al Gore, was remorseful and somber.
“I’m deeply ashamed of my conduct,” Nemazee, 60, told the judge.
bloomberg.com |
