A major Clinton supporter for years, Vinod Gupta of infoUSA has given the former President over $3 million in consulting contracts and paid nearly $1 million to fly Bill and Hillary to political and other events since 2002. Now stockholders are crying foul and filing suit, according to the Associated Press:
The suit, filed by infoUSA shareholders last year, claims those expenses as well as millions of others unrelated to the Clintons were a "serial misuse of corporate assets and resources." The Clintons are not a party to the suit.
Details of the suit were first reported in February by The Deal, a business publication. Accounts also appeared in Saturday's New York Times and Washington Post.The suit names only a "former high-ranking official" and his wife. But campaign aides and company officials confirmed for the publications that the reference is to the Clintons.
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"All flights were reimbursed and disclosed in accordance with the prevailing FEC (Federal Election Commission) and Senate ethics rules," said Phil Singer, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
Read the whole story at the link above. No one is accusing the Clintons of doing anything illegal here, and they are not named as parties to the suit. The allegation is that Gupta wasted company funds supporting his personal politics in ways that offered no benefits to the stockholders.
The impact of this story will be to give John Edwards and Barack Obama some cover against attacks for their financial dealings, which will now be difficult for Hillary to pursue with credibility.
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Filed under:
2008 Presidential Race, Democrats, General politics, Hillary
Tags: campaign contributions, Democrat, Hillary Clinton, presidential campaign
