The Clinton Foundation on Sunday offered its first response to an allegation that it failed to report $2.35 million in donations from a Canadian foundation run by the chairman of a uranium company who was seeking U.S. approval to sell his firm to the Russian nuclear agency.
In a statement, Clinton Foundation acting chief executive Maura Pally said the donations went to a separate Clinton charity, the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership-Canada.
The donations came between 2008 and 2012 from the Fernwood Foundation, a family charity of Ian Telfer, chairman of the Canadian company Uranium One at the time of its 2009 sale. The company owned one of the largest uranium mines in the U.S. and therefore required approval of its sale from a U.S. committee consisting of the State Department and eight other departments. The panel let the deal proceed, and the company is now owned by Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear agency.
A spokesman for Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, said she had no involvement in the matter and didn’t discuss it with the department official designated to decide the issue. The campaign issued a statement from the official saying he never heard from Mrs. Clinton on the matter.
The Fernwood donation went to the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership-Canada, which is named for former president Bill Clinton and longtime supporter Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining executive who also has been a business partner and is a friend of Mr. Telfer’s. The Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership-Canada, a charity, in turn, provided funding to the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, a program.
The Clinton Foundation does all of the work of Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, Ms. Pally said.
“CGEP (Canada) provides funding on a project-by-project basis and this money goes exclusively to CGEP projects, not to the Foundation’s general operating fund,” Ms. Pally said in a statement Sunday.
The Wall Street Journal reported online Wednesday that the Fernwood Foundation’s $2.35 million in donations were documented in an obscure filing with the Canadian tax authority and not previously made public by the Clinton Foundation.
The Journal learned of the missing disclosure when it got an early copy of “Clinton Cash,” a book to be published next month by conservative author Peter Schweizer, who said he discovered the donations in a Canadian Revenue Agency record.
“The Clinton Foundation has jumped through hoops to justify its failure to disclose donations,” said Allison Moore, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, in a statement. “The fact of the matter is by accepting millions in undisclosed donations from foreign sources, it violated both the letter and spirit of the agreement it signed with the Obama administration.”
Write to Siobhan Hughes at siobhan.hughes@wsj.com
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