OPINION:
Chelsea Clinton’s husband, Marc Mezvinsky, traded in family ties to boost his hedge fund, according to allegations made by longtime Bill Clinton staffer Doug Band in hacked emails from WikiLeaks.
Mr. Mezvinsky courted rich Clinton friends to invest in his fund, by extending invitations to them for Clinton Foundation events, according to WikiLeaks documents. The memos, written by Mr. Band, also claim Mr. Mezvinsky had his wife, Chelsea, make calls to Clinton Foundation donors on his behalf to set up meetings.
Mr. Band wrote the emails in late 2011 and early 2012, when Mr. Mezvinsky was working with two partners to raise capital to launch a hedge fund of their own called Eaglevale Partners, according to Politico, which first reported on the Mezvinsky/Band emails.
“The word among rich Clinton backers on Wall Street was that the family would look favorably on investments in Eaglevale, a major Manhattan investor told Politico.
In a January 2012 email to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and other top Clinton aides, Mr. Band wrote that Mr. Mezvinsky invited “several potential investors,” for his hedge fund “and a few current business ones” to a Clinton Foundation poker night fundraiser he was organizing.
“Marc has invited several potential investors and a few current business ones to the poker night. I assume all are contributing to the foundation, which of course isn’t the point. What is the point is that he is doing precisely what he accused me of doing as the entire plan of his has been to use this for his business which he is,” Mr. Band wrote.
He added: “His [Mezvinksy] raising money for his own fund hasn’t been going well and he has cvc [Chelsea Clinton] making some calls for him to get mtgs with some clinton people.”
And, in a November 2011 memo, Mr. Band wrote Clinton Foundation donor Marc Lasry was “assisting Marc Mezvinsky — Chelsea Clinton Mezvinsky’s husband — in raising money for his new fund.”
In large part, Mr. Mezvinsky was successful in getting Clinton Foundation donors to invest in his fund, Politico reported.
Mr. Lasry invested in Eaglevale as well as billionaire media mogul Haim Saban, Politico said. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported British investment banker Jacob Rothschild also invested with Mr. Mezvinksy.
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