O'Brien arranged speeches in Ireland, as well as a speech in Jamaica. Bill's October 9, 2013, speech at the Conrad Hotel in Dublin was his third in three years, “and was mostly facilitated by billionaire Irish tycoon Denis O'Brien," noted Irish Central. “(In 2011) he was flown over to Ireland on O'Brien's private jet to deliver a speech at the Global Irish Economic Forum in Dublin Castle."
In October 2010, Clinton gave a speech in Jamaica for $225,000 on "Our Common Humanity." The speech was sponsored by Whisky Productions, in partnership with O'Brien's Digicel.
The link is here.
The timing of these paid speeches is also notable. The Haitian Mobile Money Initiative (HMMI) was announced in June 2010. Three months later, on September 29, Bill gave a speech at Dublin castle sponsored by O'Brien.
The next day, Digicel filed notice of its intent to compete for HMMI contracts. In January of the following year, Digicel became the first company to be awarded funds for participation in HMMI.
On October 8, 2011, Bill gave a speech for the Global Irish Economic Forum, again facilitated by O'Brien. The following day, Digicel was awarded $100,000 through HMMI, which it was to split with fellow cell provider Voila.
On December 2 of the same year, USAID paid the first installment of what would eventually be more than $2 million of taxpayer money into O'Brien's Digicel Foundation, based in Jamaica.
According to government databases, Digicel had never received taxpayer money before. The interlay of money and favors also included the use of O'Brien's jet.
When Frank Giustra's jetliner was not available, Clinton used O'Brien's, a modest Gulfstream 550 that seats twenty. In addition to forking over these immense speaking fees, O'Brien was also a major contributor to the Clinton Foundation, pouring between $1 million and $5 million into the Clintons' legacy project sometime in 2010 or 2011.
The Clintons lavished praise on O'Brien for his generosity and business acumen. In 2012 Bill named O'Brien a Clinton Global Citizen, an annual award offered by CGI.
O’Brien received his award before a cheering crowd as Bill praised him for his visionary leadership ability. Bill also praised him in an article he penned for Time magazine titled "The Case for Optimism."
The link is here.
Ironically, Bill was conferring this award after an Irish government tribunal issued a scathing report concerning how O'Brien had made his fortune in the early days of the Irish wireless industry. The tribunal found that in the 1990s O'Brien had purchased properties for a government official named Michael Lowry, who was responsible for Irish telecom policy.
The properties included land in Mansfield, England, and a home in Cheadle, England, that were purchased with funds from O'Brien's Credit Suisse account in London.
In exchange, the tribunal found, "Lowry went to considerable effort to assist Denis O'Brien in securing the mobile phone license" that would end up making him a very rich man.
For his part, O'Brien denies ever giving money to government officials and he was never formally charged by authorities.
But it wasn't just connected businessmen who were benefiting from the rebuilding of Haiti. Clinton family members did, too. Bill and Hillary had been looking for investors to come to Haiti. But it was a risky prospect, given the infrastructure problems, social and political instability, and endemic corruption.
One possible bright spot was mining. Haiti is rich in natural resources-there is an estimated $20 billion in gold, silver, and other precious minerals under the rocky Haitian soil.
In 2012 the Haitian government decided to do something it had not done in more than half a century: grant permits for open-pit gold mining.
One of two recipients was a small North Carolina start-up called VCS Mining. The company had little track record of mining operations in Haiti, or anywhere else for that matter.
But its leadership would later boast a board member with a familiar last name: Tony Rodham, Hillary's youngest brother. Rodham would join the board of advisors less than a year after VCS was granted the mining permit. VCS Chairman Angelo Viard would admit he met Rodham at a CGI event.
Another member of the board: former Haitian prime minister (and IHRC cochairman with Bill) Jean-Max Bellerive. The Haitian government gave VCS a “gold mining exploitation permit" (in the company's words) for a project in Morne Bossa, which could be generously renewed for up to twenty-five years. "This is one of two permits issued today, the first permit of their kind issued in over five decades," the company proudly noted.
Rodham had no background in mining. More than half of his bio on the VCS Mining website concerned his ties to his sister and her husband. Not surprisingly, the deal provoked outrage in the Haitian senate.
The link is here.
The mining concession was a sweetheart deal. For one thing, the royalties to be paid to the Haitian government were only 2.5 percent, which mining experts noted at the time was "really low."
The link is here.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/12/bill-clinton-wellness-health-matters-conference/4441947/
"Anything under five percent is just really ludicrous for a country like Haiti," said mining royalties expert Claire Kumar. “You shouldn't even consider it." The episode resulted in a resolution by the Haitian parliament challenging the secrecy of the process and calling for a moratorium on new mining permits.
The resolution passed the Haitian senate unanimously. VCS Mining is continuing to build on its mining concessions in Haiti.