A chemical company controlled by the king of Morocco is funding a May 5-7 conference in Marrakech to be hosted by the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation’s Clinton Global Initiative but the former secretary of state and prospective 2016 Democratic presidential nominee won’t be there.
Phosphate exporter OCP is owned by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI and is providing funding of at least $1 million for the Clinton Global Initiative Middle East and Africa Meeting that is expected to attract other prominent Middle Eastern and North African officials.
Hillary Clinton announced the meeting last September but a Clinton Foundation source told Politico Wednesday that she likely won’t be present for the gathering. The reason is simple: The foundation is already in hot water for accepting millions of dollars in contributions from foreign governments, corporations and individuals and observers across the political spectrum are raising questions about conflicts of interest.
With a presidential campaign announcement said to be coming within days, Hillary Clinton’s presence at the Morocco event would only draw more attention to such questions.
Among the expected attendees at the Marrakech conference will be representatives from Coca-Cola. The Atlanta-based soft drink giant is among the clients of Teneo Consulting, a controversial boutique firm created by long-time Clinton intimates Doug Band and Declan Kelly.
Band was for years President Clinton’s post-White House personal aide and controlled access to him. Kelly also held positions in the Clinton administration and worked at the State Department under Hillary Clinton. Huma Abedin, one of Clinton’s closest aides at the State Department, received the extremely rare Special Government Employee designation that allowed her to draw both a government salary and compensation from Teneo.
The Clinton Foundation acknowledged recently having accepted a $500,000 contribution from the Algerian government while Hillary Clinton was America’s chief diplomat. The money was meant to help Haiti relief, but State Department and foundation officials have acknowledged it should not have been accepted.
Seven other foreign countries contributed substantial sums to the foundation while Hillary Clinton was at the State Department. She had agreed before being confirmed not to conduct business related to the foundation, and the foundation agreed to let State Department ethics officials review its proposed contributions.
Foundation officials recently agreed to resume observing the ethics guidelines in order to stem accusations of conflicts of interest, but Politico reported Tuesday that the Marrakech event and a similar one scheduled for later in the year appear to violate the guidelines.
“Either new restrictions on the foundation will be weaker in some respects than those in place during her State Department service, or they will have an exception for previously announced events like those in Morocco and Greece. Or those events will have to be canceled, which seems unlikely,” Politico reported.
