Chapter 28
An Evening With Bill The call came out of the blue and at first I thought it must surely be a scam. Why the hell would President Bill Clinton want to meet me? And how did he even get my name and telephone number? Months later I would learn the Clinton team employed over fifty full time people in their “call center”, but for now I was almost speechless. When I told my assistant Marie that the President was coming to Miami in two weeks and wanted to meet me, she couldn’t help but smile and remind me it was not April 1st . The Chinese have been trained from birth not to openly poke fun at others so they will not lose “face”, so Marie’s showed her sense of humor and disbelief in a safe and innocuous way – The Chinese way. The caller’s name was Michelle and although she claimed she was calling from the White House the caller id on my telephone showed a 202 number but not with the 456 prefix assigned to the White House. I was told that President Clinton was made aware of my volunteer work as an AIDS counselor and he supposedly wanted to thank me personally. In two weeks he would be having a dinner at the Bal Harbour Sheraton Hotel and I was asked if I could spare 15 minutes to “meet with the President”. This was still coming across as suspicious to me, but, I would play along there was a slight possibility it could be true. I was getting some recent publicity for appearing on a two local TV and radio talk shows and a recent article in the local press about my efforts to provide anonymous AIDS testing. I also went on a TV talk show at WPLG Channel 10 and basically accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of the CDC of deliberately downplaying and underreporting the true AIDS cases in America (as I explained in a previous chapter). So maybe it was possible that Bill Clinton had a genuine interest in the AIDS dilemma. What the hell, I thought, I never met a President before, so if the call was real, I would follow It through. I called back the number to confirm I would attend and they asked me if I was bringing a guest. My wife was in Ecuador visiting her family so I decided to take my young Chinese assistant as a treat, assuming it was not a joke nor a scam. 562
Two days later a pair of tickets arrived by courier from Washington, D.C. so we agreed this call and invitation was kosher. In a few more days we’d be having dinner with President Bill Clinton. Marie was so excited, like a 5 year old kid at Christmas. I was curious and wondered what will be discussed at the dinner table and how many other people would be attending. I had dined with Governors, and Mayors in Puerto Rico and other U.S. officials before including a Congressman and Senator, but never a President. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit excited about meeting Bill Clinton. I had always admired the guy and felt he was doing a good job managing the nation at the time. The day of the Presidential banquet finally arrived and Marie and I grabbed a taxi and arrived 20 minutes early. The Secret Service was asking everyone to walk through a metal detector and to register with identification. When I went to sign in the book I scanned the list and saw about 100 names in total and two of them I recognized as friends of mine, but I did not see them in the crowd. I also saw Ron Book’s name the lobbyist and Jeff Soffer’s name, the owner of Turnberry Golf Course and condominium complex who I met a few times at the marina when he needed help or maintenance for his 33 foot Skater, which was probably the fastest boat in Miami. As I was about to sign, a young girl behind the desk asked me “which fund are you representing?” I was taken off guard and replied I was invited by Michelle and gave her my business card. At this point she went to a computer and typed in my name and came back with a smile “We have you registered as the President of the Globus Fund, is that correct?” Actually it was not, although they almost had the right name. My company was called the Globus Group but we did not manage any funds yet. There was no mention of the American AIDS Alert Association, the volunteer group I founded, nor and related chat about any awards or commendation that Michelle had mentioned to me. Not wanting to hold up the line I followed her instructions to sign in and then another girl asked me for $5.000 which also caught me off-guard. She said it was to support the Dade County DNC office and was a mandatory contribution to join “The Presidents Club” which I never heard of-until now. Not wanting to argue, I wrote a check for $5,000 and then ended up writing another one for Marie as well. The whole affair was 563
starting to smell a bit fishy to me now but I was already there and was determined to see what this was all about. We were ushered into a huge VIP Hall where people were mingling and served wine, champagne, and some finger food snacks. I was approached by a CPA from Coral Gables I had met at Arnaldo Velez’s office (one of my lawyers) but I could not recall his name. He asked me if I was going on “the Panama junket,” or going to the White House banquet”. I had no clue what he was talking about but I did not want to appear so disconnected and just replied. “I’m not really sure yet, maybe both, but my schedule was booked.” Now I realized there was a lot more going on here tonight than just a “thank you from the President” as Michelle had explained to me. I honestly felt I was attending some MLM activity as I overheard people talking about how much money they were making with “Bill’s people” and I wondered to myself if they were speaking the truth or paid shills used to lure in in more “participants”. But what was the game they were playing? How were they making money, and what was the real purpose of this meeting? Within a half an hour we were all led into a dining hall that was lavishly decorated in gold with red white and blue bunting and flags in every corner and miniature ones in the flower arrangements on every table. Marie and I took our seats and we found ourselves seated next to an old Jewish woman who said she was formerly a Florida State judge and recently retired to do “consulting work” for the Clintons and we were having a pleasant conversation about Miami Beach politics and Alex Doud who she claimed we was one of her very best friends. Just as we started talking Middle East politics and the plight of the Palestinians, it was announced the President had arrived and moment later he entered the room with a huge smile and short wave as he walked up to a podium. He received a standing ovation and not haven spoken a word yet, I was wondering why. As the President said a few words about Florida and made a quick joke about the state being the world’s favorite retirement haven, for both Americans and Cubans, I scanned the room and saw in all there were about 150-200 people and wondered to myself if they were all called in the same manner I was with the message the President personally wants to meet and thank you, or was there some of recruiting drive going on – just like
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Amway, PrimeAmerica, and Mary Kay MLMs do on a weekly basis? I would soon get my answer. Bill’s welcome message was only about 15 minutes long and as always, was interesting and well received. Nobody can deny that Bill Clinton is a great orator and entertainer. Marie commented on how handsome he was, and frankly I had to agree with her. It was hard for me to imagine that this Rhodes Scholar now impressing us all with his overview of the problems in the world hailed from Arkansas. Upon concluding his brief comments he was rewarded with another round of applause and he took his seat at a table of DNC leaders and servers began serving us a rather delightful and tasty dinner combination of beef, chicken, and shrimp. After about twenty minutes there was an announcement that anyone wanting to enjoy an after-dinner cigar with the President should follow him to the cigar room. I detest smoking but I was curious to see what would take place. I joined about 30 men and a handful of young women including a lawyer I had met when I thought might need one to enforce a FOIA I made to obtain statistics and files from the CDC. In the lounge Bill stayed only long enough to light up and take no more than a dozen puffs and thank everyone for their support and he made a promise to bring more “International opportunities” to South Florida and was making plans to spend more time to golf in Florida and invited anyone who wanted to play a few round with him to speak with a young man in the lounge, whose name I seem to recall was Allen or Alberto. I had just learn to golf two years ago and could play well enough not to embarrass myself so I decided I would accept that invitation and joined about a dozen others who went and gave our biz cards to the young man who said he’d be in touch with us once he had a firm schedule. Clinton snuck out of the room claiming to have to take an important call. That was my cue to also escape the smokey lounge in search of fresh air. I rejoined Marie who was standing in a que of about 100 people behind red velvet ropes. I joked with her that the Sheraton should have more than one ladies room, and she said people were waiting to meet the President individually and have their photo taken with them. It was then that I suddenly realized how different and beautiful my assistant was in heels, an elegant dress, and make-up. I had never seen her as more than an office work horse before. It was clear 565
she was thrilled with this evening and although she previously worked for the Hong Kong Development Council, she had never really had the chance to meet high ranking officials. I joined her in the que and we were soon told by an aide that each of us would only have three minutes alone with the President so please limit our conversations accordingly. We were all handed a card with a number on it which we were told was to make sure we got the right photographs. But these numbers would also serve another purpose.
The line moved along quite smoothly and in about 30 minutes I was ushered into meet President Bill Clinton alone standing between the Presidential and American, and off flags in a room with professional lighting set up and two secret service agents stood in opposite corners about twenty feet from the President and off course the photographer. But there was also an attractive lady in her mid-thirties who took my number before I entered the room and she spent a few minutes at a computer and printed out a single page which she took to the President. He scanned the entire page in about a minute and then nodded to 566
her as he folded the paper and put it in his suit pocket. Up close, I realized Bill Clinton was much taller than he looked on TV. Of course, being 5’6” myself, most people I talk to in life are taller than me. Our brief encounter went almost exactly like this once we greeted and shook hands. “Welcome to Florida Mr. President.” “Thank you for joining us this evening Tony, did you enjoy the food?” I noticed he quickly set the stage for an informal conversation by calling me by my first name, a rule taught to all professional sales people and one I used myself when I sold yachts at Champion Marine. “Yes, I did, thank you.” “Great, I hope you will be joining us in Panama or Washington to join our International trade commission for Latin America?” Which he posed as a question. Although I still did not have the details of what he was talking about I said I would try, but the White House banquet would be more convenient for me.” Just about then he noticed Marie standing at the door and remarked, “You have a beautiful wife my friend”. I replied that my wife was even more beautiful than Marie but she was in Ecuador. I made the mistake of telling him that Marie was my executive assistant. As I noticed him almost staring at her shapely figure usually well-hidden in the office. He then asked me how many clients I had and what our AUM (Assets Under Management) was? Someone must have misinformed him about what my company did, but he mentioned my trip to Zurich which told me someone also did some serious homework on me. I replied that I only had sixty clients but that they kept me busy. I never gave him a dollar figure about his AUM question, and I could see that he was still focused on Marie standing next in line. He asked me if I had any questions I wanted to ask him. I guess my subconscious took over and asked him “So are your getting enough?” and he was just as amused as he was surprised by my question. I then felt a bit embarrassed and tried to salvage myself, with a follow-up…”I mean all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy – right”. Now Bill cracked a big grin and replied “Don’t worry about me Tony, I get more than I need” as he patted me on the shoulder with a laugh. Then finally he did actually mention the American Aids Alert Association and just said, “Thank for all your volunteer work counseling Florida AIDS patients, I reckon that is not a pleasant task” I replied that it “was an emotional job, that someone had to do with empathy 567
and conviction, and was at times quite difficult”. He nodded and replied “I imagine so”. He extended his hand for a good bye hand shake as just as a soft chime was heard to remind him that my 3 minutes were up. As we shook hands the photographer’s flash went off a few times. The President held my hand longer than expected and asked me one last question. “Does your assistant have a nick name?” Clearly he was looking forward to meeting her, and I replied. “No, I just call her by her name… Marie”. As I left the room, I was handed two polaroid shots of our meeting and was told the high quality photos would be sent to me in about a week by courier. Then I was escorted into a private room by an older woman who asked me if I wanted to go Panama and join “Bill’s Trade team in Latin America.” “Why not I replied, still being a little naïve and skeptical”. The lady whose name was either Gloria, Gwen, or Grace, then smiled and gave me a card with bank wiring instructions to an HSBC bank account in Panama and told me the event would take place over a weekend and I should wire $100,000 to the account on the card. Rather then express my shock, I just asked, what shall I write in the memo slot. When she told me “disaster relief donation” I realized something corrupt was going on. She then reminded me that my “donation” was tax deductible and that I would have a seat on the official trade commission for one year and “would meet world leaders from at least a dozen countries”. I just smiled, bit my lip and got up to go. She asked me for the best telephone number to reach me and I told her to use my 785 mobile number on my card. As I left the room I noticed Marie was not asked to sit down with the older lady privately and the smile on her face was gone. “Can we go now?” she asked me. Her mood had completely changed and I sensed something was wrong. I asked what had happened, and she just replied “I have a migraine headache and just want to go home and lie down”. So not wanting to probe further in that public environment, I asked her if she wanted to go talk a walk on South Beach and find a place to have a quiet talk, she just bluntly repeated herself. :”I want to go home.” I guess whatever happened was not something she wanted to talk about. We went to valet area to take a cab and on the way, a secret service agent tapped my shoulder and asked if he could have a word with me. I agreed and we stepped off to the side about thirty feet from the concierge desk where nobody could possibly hear what he 568
said next “The President asked me to get Marie’s telephone number from you.” Well it wasn’t hard to figure this one out, but I was not going to betray my own assistant who clearly did not enjoy whatever happened in her brief meeting with the President. But not want to appear uncooperative, I gave him a number of a mobile guest phone that I let visiting clients from overseas use when they came to Florida and it was programmed to go to voicemail. Then the agent blew me away with what he said next. The President arranged for two VIP suites for you and Marie to spend the night and join him for breakfast. I just declined and told him we had to attend a late night meeting with some visiting Hong Kong clients and had to catch an early morning flight. It was a lie but I was sure it would work. Instead the agent pulled out a small roll of $100 bills and asked, “Can you change your plans for $3,000?” I replied that I could not and asked that he thank Mr. Clinton for his gracious offer.” 4 It was then that I decided to stop payment on my $5,000 checks I wrote earlier to get into the event. I was pissed not only about the Marie thing, but how the older lady tried to hustle me for $100,000 for a trip to Panama that would not cost more than $5,000. If they want or needed campaign money, they did not have to me so sneaky about it and would probably get all they needed if they were more direct. I would later learn that someone in the Clinton group mistook my Globus Group for another Globus Group connected with the Russian mob in New York which was eventually busted by the FBI. (See the ABC News archives I linked in Chapter 32 related to the Peter Jennings on-air retraction). The following week a friend of mine came to visit from Costa Rica and I offered him the guest phone. He declined saying that he already just bought a phone and a condominium in Coconut Grove since he planned to stay in Miami at least 6 months of the year. But I noticed the Voicemail indicator was flashing and decided to check the messages. There were three robo-call sales messages, one for my last guest and two from Bill Clinton asking for Marie to call him back to discuss working as a White House intern. I did not mention the messages to Marie and from the investigative training I learned while working for Uncle Sam, I decided to try a different approach and just casually ask her one day while we were having lunch, what happened with Bill Clinton that upset her so much. She just looked at me directly, and said, “I don’t want to talk about it.” 569
It would be a year before she finally confided that he tried posing with her in a position that he let his hand fall down her back to her but and he gently squeezed one of her cheeks and made some suggestion that they meet for drinks later that evening. Marie being a loyal wife with a new baby was not prepared for that incident and she was both embarrassed and shocked. But being Chinese she down-played the whole thing as best as she could, even suggesting that maybe the President was drinking too much that evening. We never spoke about that evening again. Almost two weeks after the Sheraton dinner, I received a call from a man named Brian who reminded me that I wanted to join the White House banquet group and that if I wanted to confirm my reservation, I would have to wire $25,000 to yet another account at Morgan & Morgan Trust in Panama and I was told that the donation would also allow me to spend an evening in a “historic White House bedroom” once used by Teddy Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln. At first I was shocked by the offer but afterward I had to laugh and give them credit for being so creative in their fund raising efforts. A year later I would see in the news the allegation of some businessman in the Midwest who was also offered a similar White House B-N-B deal and $25,000 was apparently the starting price. Since I did not accept the offer I cannot provide more details other than to say that Brian had instructed me to contact the White House travel office with a code and to state if I was bringing or needing a guest. I never really said “no” to Brian but when he called a second time to say my funds were not received, I told him my schedule would not allow time for the White House banquet. I never heard from that crowd again but in retrospect I once calculated how many bedrooms the White House had and if they were running this racket on a full time basis, they were not only raking in a few million dollars a year, but building a great political network for future fund raising needs. I am not a lawyer but I don’t think their marketing methods were technically illegal, just more than a bit unethical. Having worked for American Financial Group for two years (See Chapters 24 & 25) I was amused to see Morgan and Morgan’s name in other high level circles from both Republican and Democratic circles, and I remembered how Juan David Morgan boasted at our Fisher Island meeting with the Colombians, Canadians, how “If over 300 world leaders trust us with their private off-shore banking needs, so can you.” 570
Only after I left American Financial Group and gave their client files to the FBI did I realize that one of the Morgan & Morgan accounts we opened up through a Bahamian Trust had a beneficiary named Hugh Rodham. That name never meant anything special to me until 1998 or 1999 when I read something online about an alleged scandal of a guy with the same name. And as it would turn out, that Hugh Rodham would turn out to be Hillary Clinton’s brother. Looking back I am always bewildered that although I made the FBI very aware of the 389 Panama Bank Accounts we at AFG opened for American and Latin American officials at Morgan & Morgan with detailed account information, why not one of them were arrested nor prosecuted for tax evasion nor money laundering. Was the FBI told to simply look the other way, or were they making recommendations to prosecute that the DoJ Director was simply ignoring for political reasons? Unless some high level DoJ “Deep Throat” comes along with some leaks, we may never know the answer to these questions. One thing I have concluded however, based on my personal observations and experiences, one of the key roles and functions of the SEC is stop and prevent criminal actions against cronies of the President who may get linked to some Wall Street scandal. In such cases the SEC will move in with a “civil action” negotiate a quiet “settlement” from the cronies and keep the case from becoming a criminal referral to the FBI , much the same way I saw the IRS operate when I worked at the IRS where they had a “Special Operations Group” that saved high level political friends of the “right party” (Republicans during my time) from CID referrals, and those of the “wrong party” like Victor Posner, Bill Irwin, and Nigel Winfield were fed to the lions on the famous IRS Hit List we stumbled upon. (See chapter 13). But my night with Bill Clinton proved to me that those who want to be above the law are asked to pay a price to join the privileged club of the protected. And from what I learned from a friend who did accept the White House banquet invitation, the invitations never stop, and costs of attendance grow larger and larger. Eventually my friend attended an activity in Hawaii where he insists he was set up with a hooker who arranged to have his fun fling videotaped. He was then named in an off-shore stock fraud allegation which IMO
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was real, but at the same time he was told if he made a $5 million contribution to a certain Republican candidate in Florida, both the video and stock fraud charges would disappear. What I later had to conclude is that both Republican and Democrats play this money game and they privately try to expose the crimes and misdeed of each other, but publically follow what I call, the “Mutual Code of Ethics of the Elite” which basically, goes like this “Don’t ask nor talk about my transactions and I will not mention yours.” A perfect example of this code in play is the drug smuggling operations in Mena, Arkansas in the 80s (run by Clinton people) and the Canadian smuggling operations of the 1990s- to present (operated by Terry Nelson and Jeb Bush). The principals are always well protected from prosecution but those most at risk are the people who buy their way into the club and try to be clever by making “donations” on both sides of the fence. The next chapter explains how sacrificial lambs are chosen to keep the elite safe and untouchable, and why the directors of the FBI, SEC, and DoJ are the most important political appointments ever made in Washington – These appointments keep the Wall Street bansksters out of jail and free to continue their fund raising and money laundering using proxies like Jack Goldberg and Mark Rich. Combined with Bahamian Trusts and Panama Bank accounts these politicians can accepted millions of dollars of laundered drug monies with three layers of privacy shielding their identity. Yet IF, and I emphasize IF, the FBI had a genuine will to stop the drug smuggling, Wall Street money laundering, and massive tax evasion that exceeds $1B a month they would only need to serve subpoenas on every U.S. based courier like DHL, FEDEX, UPS, and PUROLATOR and collect client files of everyone sending “documents” (aka wiring and transfer instructions) to Morgan and Morgan Trust in Panama and their off-shore branches in The Bahamas and Cayman Islands. They then refer these 10,000+ names to the IRS CID & Audit Divisions. Within 90 days they would have over 5,000 criminal cases to prosecute and obtain more than $50 billion in evaded taxes to recover in plea agreements. But when Special Agent Maury Berthon was transferred from Miami to New Orleans within weeks of opening the American Financial Group case, I immediately knew that justice was being obstructed, and most probably at the DOJ level. The files I provided the FBI along with AFG’s phone bills provided far more than enough “probable cause” to indict at 572
least 100 officials. I now kick myself in the ass every day for not learning my lessons from my night with Bill and employment with the U.S. Treasury Department and American Financial Group. Was I too foolish to think that someone in our government is genuinely interested in stopping the overwhelming corruption and someone at the DoJ would have the integrity to start indicting? A few years later my experience with Hillary would make me wonder if she learned from Bill or vice versa? In retrospect however, I must admit that Bill is more direct and up-front about what he really wants and his wife Hillary is just so…well… I want to say “deceptive” at first, but the most appropriate word I think is one we all used as kids…”sneaky”. (See Chapter 32)
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