Ken Silverstein in the New York Observer adds important new information to the case of Clinton Foundation donor Gonzalo Tirado, which was first exposed by NLPC. Tirado headed Ponzi-schemer R. Allen Stanford’s bank in Venezuela, but now lives openly in Miami.
After the Stanford flame out, the Venezuelan Tirado sought political asylum in the United States. Although never charged with a crime stateside, Tirado was an extremely dubious candidate for asylum. It is unclear whether he was actually granted it, but Tirado now resides safely in Miami, even as Stanford victims still struggle to recover a portion of their investments.
Tirado’s ability to stay in the United States almost certainly has something to do with paying Hillary insider Jonathan Mantz $350,000 to lobby the State Department on his behalf, on top of donations to the Clinton Foundation.
Moreover, the Justice Department indicted a decorated former DEA agent named Tom Raffanello, who had tried to blow the whistle on Tirado. The case against Raffanello was so weak, and so obviously political, that the judge unilaterally acquitted him even before the jury reached a verdict. Until now, Raffanello has refrained from public comment but he spoke to Silverstein and had plenty to say.
The Tirado case is one of three uncovered by NLPC involving the State Department and the Clinton Foundation. Reportedly, the FBI in investigating whether State Department favor seekers were steered to Clinton Foundation to make donations.
Last July, we exposed how Bill and Hillary Clinton pressured the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) to make a $10 million loan to fraudster Claudio Osorio, another Mantz client. The Clintons’ push for the OPIC loan was uncovered by NLPC’s Ken Boehm and Tom Anderson, who spent many hours at both the state and federal courthouses in Miami going through documents related to the Osorio criminal case.
Osorio now sits in federal prison convicted of fraud. The loan was to build homes in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, but Osorio spent it on himself. The Clintons’ efforts on his behalf were first reported by Alana Goodman in the Washington Free Beacon, based on information provided by NLPC.