Hillary Clinton’s calls to end “dark money” in politics and among the economic elite seem at odds with her family’s Byzantine financial arrangements, which involved a series of private companies and charities through which she and her husband routed income.
While most of the Clintons’ charitable donations were funneled through a family nonprofit that is totally separate from the Clinton Foundation, their earnings from speeches and book deals passed through at least two different consulting firms that further obscure their sprawling finances, tax forms released late Friday reveal.
Clinton’s campaign message has included a steady attack on the wealthiest Americans, including those that made their fortunes at the same Wall Street firms that heavily support the Clinton Foundation.
Her personal riches, revealed in great detail last week, have provided additional fodder to critics who accuse the Democratic candidate of applying double standards to her family and those outside her circle.
Clinton’s campaign, by contrast, touted the financial disclosure as a step toward proactive transparency. The campaign released a medical disclosure alongside the tax forms Friday.
But against the backdrop of the State Department’s release of another batch of private emails Friday — many of which were rendered unintelligible by redactions — the campaign’s efforts to embrace transparency were met with little praise.
The State Department fell far short of a court-ordered benchmark that was supposed to dictate the number of emails it published by the end of July. Agency officials have blamed the shortfall on the tedious process of screening each email for sensitive material.
Bill and Hillary Clinton’s tax forms, which stretched from 2007 to 2014, indicate the former first family raked in millions every year from speeches, book deals and vague consulting arrangements.
Their combined income last year of nearly $28 million, for example, places them in the very economic bracket Hillary Clinton has decried on the campaign trail.
Bill Clinton spent more than $375,000 on travel related to his speaking engagements last year alone, the tax filings show.
But he spent much more on travel during the years his wife was secretary of state, underscoring allegations that he profited off foreign entities that might have wanted to curry favor with the nation’s chief diplomat.
In 2012, for example, he spent $1.13 million on speech-related travel. The previous year, he spent roughly $650,000.
In 2008, the year before his wife became secretary of state, Bill Clinton spent just $11,000 on travel for speaking engagements.
Hillary Clinton’s speaking engagements raked in nearly $10.5 million last year. The profits appear to have passed through an LLC called ZFS Holdings.
Hillary Clinton spent more than $800,000 on travel related to her speaking engagements last year.
Records indicate ZFS Holdings was incorporated in early 2013, within weeks of Hillary Clinton’s departure from the State Department. She was prohibited from making paid speeches as secretary of state.
Most of the Clintons’ charitable contributions were routed through their own charities. Bill and Hillary Clinton have both touted the fact that some of their speaking fees are accepted as direct contributions to the Clinton Foundation.
The Clintons have poured money into the Clinton Foundation through a separate nonprofit, the Clinton Family Foundation, which then distributes donations to a variety of philanthropic causes.
Tax forms for the Clinton Family Foundation show the Clintons gave $1.4 million to the family charity in 2011, the year Bill Clinton reportedly made $13.4 million for speeches alone.
He also made more than $6 million from consulting through his private company, WJC, LLC, in 2014.
Gems Education and Laureate Education each seemingly paid Bill Clinton millions through his consulting LLC last year. Gems paid the former president $2.1 million in 2014, while Laureate gave him nearly $4.3 million.
Bill Clinton came under fire for his involvement with Laureate — a major Clinton Foundation donor — after his contract with the education firm was highlighted in Peter Schweizer’s Clinton Cash.
According to research in the book, Laureate began receiving generous State Department grants under a “global partnership” program in 2010, shortly after Bill Clinton assumed his role at the company.
The former president reportedly severed his ties with Laureate earlier this year, with critics claiming the move as a result of scrutiny and supporters noting Bill Clinton simply stepped down at the end of a five-year contract.
He earned more than $16 million from Laureate between 2010 and 2014.
Gems Education, a United Arab Emirates-based company, is another top donor to the Clinton Foundation. Bill Clinton earned more than $5.5 million from his arrangement with Gems.
The financial disclosures also allude to the fact that the Clintons owned a great deal of “computer equipment,” raising further questions about the private server Hillary Clinton used to shield her government communications while in office.
Tax forms from 2013 indicate the Clintons wrote off $19,600 in depreciation related to their computers and computer equipment, meaning they estimated their computer systems lost $19,600 in value that year alone as a result of normal age and wear and tear.
The high estimate of depreciation suggests the Clintons maintained a valuable collection of computer-related equipment, which could have included the private server. The computers were under Bill Clinton’s name.
Hillary Clinton has declined to elaborate on how the server was maintained and who financed its operation.
