Apr 13, 2008

All in the Family: Hillary brothers’ profit from Bill’s pardons

A Boston Globe article, at the first link below, says

Hillary Rodham Clinton's brothers, Hugh and Tony, have received payments from four people who obtained pardons or commutations from President Bill Clinton.

Carlos Vignali Jr. (Commutation of sentence)

1995 Convicted in Minneapolis for moving 800 pounds of cocaine.

2001 Commutation granted for time served with a special condition of drug testing during supervised release.

Almon Glenn Braswell (Pardon)

1983 Convicted of mail fraud and perjury about a baldness treatment.

2001 Pardoned.

Hugh Rodham (pictured below with Bill Clinton) returned the $400,000 he received from Vignali and Braswell, after being asked to do so by his family.

Edgar and Vonna Jo Gregory (Pardons)

1982 Bank fraud convictions. Reversed by an appeals court in 1984, largely on technical grounds, and then both pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and misapplication of bank funds. Both received probationary sentences.

2000 Pardoned.

Tony Rodham allegedly received $107,000 in loans as compensation for securing the pardons.

An ABC article, at the second link below, wonders if the Clinton’s repaid these amounts on behalf of the Rodham brothers. Then, instead of calling them gifts, the amounts were set up as interest free loans.

That would solve the puzzle of the interest income shown as paid to the Clinton’s by family members on their recently released income tax returns.

The article explains how the IRS imputes interest on such loans that the lender must include on the tax return.

This information probably would have been ignored while the Clinton’s were still in favor with the media. The Clinton’s get no favors from the press now that Barack Obama is the current media ‘super star.’

Link to the Boston Globe article here.

The ABC News article is here.