A major Clinton Foundation donor who stood to profit immensely from the highly scrutinized takeover of Uranium One by the Russian government struggled to explain his involvement with the charity under questioning Tuesday.
Frank Holmes, one of several investors cited in a New York Times article about the deal, attempted to dismiss allegations that he had donated to the Clinton Foundation in an effort to secure Hillary Clinton’s approval for the 2010 transaction during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Several of his claims directly contradicted statements that flashed on the screen while he was speaking.
A fact box on the screen indicated U.S. Global Investors, of which Holmes is CEO, held $4.7 million in shares of Uranium during the first quarter of 2011.
But Holmes said his company was “long gone before 2008.”
“We sold, and before it became with Kazakhstan that the government got involved, et cetera, and all that drama’s taken place in 2010, whatever these other dates are, we were long gone by 2008,” Holmes said during the interview.
Much of the controversy surrounding the Uranium One deal has focused on the origins of its stake in Kazakh uranium mines. In his book Clinton Cash, author Peter Schweizer suggested both Clintons had helped their friend Frank Giustra, also a foundation donor, snap up the stakes from the Kazakh government in 2005.
An official who was closely involved with the transaction, Mukhtar Dzhakishev, wound up behind bars for his role in the deal several years later.
Uranium One ultimately inherited Giustra’s Kazakh assets when it acquired his company in 2007.
“I give to a lot of companies. And in particular, orphanages,” Holmes said as he defended his donation of $250,000 to $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
He pointed to CNBC’s own attendance of Clinton Global Initiative events as evidence that his generosity was not driven by an ulterior motive.
“I’ve shown up to the annual meeting of CGI, and I’ve seen CNBC there. And Becky has been there. I’ve seen them in the hallways of those events,” he said.
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, CNBC’s chief international correspondent, pressed Holmes on his ties to the Clinton Foundation.
“The suggestion is that you donated money to a foundation that was connected with the possibility of approval of a deal that you may have benefitted from. Is that incorrect?,” Caruso-Cabrera said.
“That’s a lot of disinformation. I think that’s a really harsh story, especially against Frank Giustra,” Holmes said, blaming the controversy on a “political battle.”
After Holmes claimed he had “no idea” of any link between his checks to the charity and Hillary Clinton’s approval of the Uranium One deal, Caruso-Cabrera criticized his handling of the questions.
“When people finish watching this interview, they’re going to say it wasn’t unequivocal on your part, and that there wasn’t a lot of clarity,” she said.
As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton sat on a cabinet-level committee tasked with reviewing commercial transactions with foreign entities that may have affected national security.
Because Uranium One, then a Canada-based firm, owned a significant portion of uranium deposits in the U.S., its transfer to a state-owned Russian atomic agency placed the deal before the committee in 2010.
Hillary Clinton’s State Department was among the agencies that signed off on the controversial takeover amid a policy “reset” with Russia.
Ian Telfer, Uranium One’s chairman during the acquisition, funneled $2.35 million into the Clinton Foundation between 2009 and 2013. The charity never disclosed those contributions despite an agreement with the White House to name its foreign donors.
Paul Reynolds, who helped navigate the merger of Giustra’s company with Uranium One in 2007, gave between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton’s family philanthropy. Reynolds also drummed up $260 million in investments for the company, and was named alongside Holmes as a Clinton Foundation donor who gave generously while he stood to benefit from a business deal on Hillary Clinton’s desk.
