An ex-president, a big donor and a lucrative uranium deal
By Jo Becker and Don Van Natta Jr.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Late on Sept. 6, 2005, a private plane carrying the Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra touched down in Almaty, a ruggedly picturesque city in southeast Kazakhstan. Several hundred miles to the west a fortune awaited: highly coveted deposits of uranium that could fuel nuclear reactors around the world. And Giustra was in hot pursuit of an exclusive deal to tap it.
Unlike more established competitors, Giustra was a newcomer to uranium mining in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. But what his fledgling company lacked in experience, it made up for in connections. Accompanying Giustra on his luxuriously appointed MD-87 jet that day was a former president of the United States, Bill Clinton.
Upon landing on the first stop of a three-country philanthropic tour, the two men were whisked off to share a sumptuous midnight banquet with the president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose 19-year stranglehold on the country has all but quashed political dissent.
Nazarbayev walked away from the table with a propaganda coup, after Clinton expressed enthusiastic support for the Kazakh leader's bid to head the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which monitors elections and supports democracy. Clinton's public declaration undercut U.S. foreign policy as well as sharp criticism of Kazakhstan's poor human rights record by, among others, Clinton's wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
Robert Herman, who worked for the State Department during the Clinton administration and is now at Freedom House, a human rights group, said the former president's statement amounted to an endorsement of Kazakhstan's readiness to lead the OSCE, a position he called "patently absurd."
"He was either going off his brief or he was sadly mistaken," Herman said. "There was nothing in the record to suggest that they really wanted to move forward on democratic reform."
Within two days of the visit to Almaty, corporate records show that Giustra also came up a winner when his company signed preliminary agreements giving it the right to buy into three uranium projects controlled by Kazakhstan's state-owned uranium agency, Kazatomprom.
The monster deal stunned the mining industry, turning an unknown shell company into one of the world's largest uranium producers in a transaction ultimately worth tens of millions of dollars to Giustra, analysts said.
Just months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Clinton's charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Giustra that had remained a secret until he acknowledged it last month. The gift, combined with Giustra's more recent and public pledge to give the William J. Clinton Foundation an additional $100 million, secured Giustra a place in Clinton's inner circle, an exclusive club of wealthy entrepreneurs in which friendship with the former president has its privileges.
Giustra was invited to accompany the former president to Almaty just as the financier was trying to seal a deal he had been negotiating for months.
In separate written responses, both men said Giustra traveled with Clinton to Kazakhstan, India and China to see philanthropic work done by his foundation.
A spokesman for Clinton said the former president knew that Giustra had mining interests in Kazakhstan but was unaware of "any particular efforts" and did nothing to help him. Giustra said he was there as an "observer only" and there was "no discussion" of the deal with Nazarbayev or Clinton.
But Moukhtar Dzhakishev, president of Kazatomprom, said in an interview that Giustra did discuss the deal, directly with the Kazakh president, and that his friendship with Clinton "of course made an impression." Dzhakishev added that Kazatomprom chose to form a partnership with Giustra's company based solely on the merits of its offer.
After The New York Times told Giustra that others said he had discussed the deal with Nazarbayev, Giustra responded that he "may well have mentioned my general interest in the Kazakhstan mining business to him, but I did not discuss the ongoing" efforts.
Giustra said that while his friendship with Clinton "may have elevated my profile in the news media, it has not directly affected any of my business transactions."
Mining colleagues and analysts agree it has not hurt. Neil MacDonald, chief executive of a Canadian investment bank that specializes in mining deals, said Giustra's financial success was partly due to a "fantastic network" crowned by Clinton. "That's a very solid relationship for him," MacDonald said. "I'm sure it's very much a two-way relationship because that's the way Frank operates."
Records show that Giustra donated the $31.3 million to the Clinton Foundation in 2006, but neither he nor a spokesman for Clinton would say exactly when.
In September 2006, Giustra co-produced a gala 60th birthday for Clinton that featured stars like the rock musician Jon Bon Jovi and raised about $21 million for the Clinton Foundation.
In February 2007, a company called Uranium One agreed to pay $3.1 billion to acquire UrAsia. Giustra, a director and major shareholder in UrAsia, would be paid $7.05 a share for a company that just two years earlier was trading at 10 cents per share.
That same month, Dzhakishev, the Kazatomprom chief, said he traveled to Chappaqua, New York, to meet with Clinton at his home. Dzhakishev said Giustra had arranged the three-hour meeting with the former president. Dzhakishev said he went to discuss Kazakhstan's intention, not publicly known at the time, to buy a 10 percent stake in Westinghouse, a U.S. supplier of nuclear technology.
Nearly a year earlier, Clinton had advised Dubai on how to handle the political furor after one of the emirate's companies attempted to take over several American ports. Hillary Clinton was among those on Capitol Hill who raised the national security concerns that helped kill the deal.
Dzhakishev said he was worried the proposed Westinghouse investment could face similar objections. Clinton told him that he would not lobby for him, but Dzhakishev came away pleased by the opportunity to tout his country's proposal to a former U.S. president.
Clinton "said this was very important for America," said Dzhakishev, who added that Giustra was present at Clinton's home.
Both Clinton and Giustra at first denied that any such meeting occurred. Giustra also denied ever arranging for Kazakh officials to meet with Clinton. On Wednesday, after The New York Times told them that others said a meeting, in Clinton's home, had in fact taken place, both men acknowledged it.
"You are correct that I asked the president to meet with the head of Kazatomprom," Giustra said. "Mr. Dzhakishev asked me in February 2007 to set up a meeting with former President Clinton to discuss the future of the nuclear energy industry." Giustra said the meeting had "escaped my memory."
On Wednesday, Clinton's spokesman, Ben Yarrow, issued what he called a "correction," saying, "Today, Mr. Giustra told our office that in February 2007, he brought Mr. Dzhakishev from Kazatomprom to meet with President Clinton to discuss the future of nuclear energy."
Yarrow said his earlier denial was based on Clinton's records, which he said "show a Feb. 27 meeting with Mr. Giustra; no other attendees are listed."
Dzhakishev said he had a vivid memory of his Chappaqua visit, and even had a souvenir to prove it: a photograph of himself with the former president.
"I hung up the photograph of us, and people ask me if I met with Clinton and I say, 'Yes, I met with Clinton,' " he said, smiling proudly.
David L. Stern and Margot Williams contributed reporting.
http://tinyurl.com/3xcsvybin66 - 4. Feb, 00:09
