Hillary helped 'crook' get $10 million for Haiti scam

Port-au-Prince, Haiti, homes destroyed by the January 2010 earthquake in which 222,570 people were killed, 300,000 injured and 1.3 million displaced. An estimated 97,924 houses were destroyed and 188,383 damaged in Port-au-Prince (Photo: NOAA.gov)

Claudio Osorio, a Clinton Foundation donor and fundraiser for the Clintons and Obama

Meet convicted felon Claudio Osorio, the Miami man serving a 12-year prison sentence who scammed American taxpayers out of $10 million and Haiti earthquake victims out of 500 homes – all with the help of the Clintons.

Osorio, 54, a pal of Bill and Hillary Clinton and President Obama, is a Clinton Foundation donor. He even hosted fundraisers for them at his waterfront home in Florida.

After the catastrophic 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Osorio collected millions from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a federal agency that operates under the U.S. State Department.

Claudio Osorio's former waterfront home in Florida

And the Clinton State Department helped him get the $10 million for his phony project because he was a donor to the foundation. In fact, the Associated Press reported Tuesday that at least 85 Clinton Foundation donors met with Hillary at the State Department.

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Osorio's case was particularly egregious because the scam defrauded taxpayers and hundreds of homeless earthquake victims.

When 3 million people were impacted by the 7.0 magnitude quake in the Caribbean nation, Osorio launched a "Haiti project" that was supposed to build 500 homes for families devastated by the massive tremors, according to Washington watchdog Judicial Watch.

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Osorio's Haiti plan was pushed along by federal officials who recommended its funding.

Claudio Osorio with Bill Clinton and Obamas

According to a document posted online by the Washington Free Beacon, an OPIC official said Osorio’s company had "U.S. persons of political influence that are able to assist in advancing the company's plans."

The document continued: "For instance, former President Bill Clinton is personally in contact with the Company to organize its logistical and support needs. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made available State Department resources to assist with logistical arrangements."

Furthermore, the Clinton Global Initiative "indicated that it would be willing to contract to purchase 6,500 homes in Haiti from InnoVida within the next year."

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Within 24 hours of the OPIC recommendation, Osorio received approval for his plans.

But the Haiti project never happened.

The 500 families would never live in their new homes.

And taxpayers would never recoup the $10 million.

Instead, Osorio used the funds to live an extravagant lifestyle and pay for illegal business schemes.

He stole millions from people who invested in his sham international company, Innovida, which had locations in the U.S., United Arab Emirates, Germany, Angola and Tanzania.

And Osorio used some of the Haiti money to repay his investors.

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One of those investors who contributed money to his phony company was a professional basketball star.

"Osorio offered and sold shareholder interests and joint-venture partnerships in Innovida to select individuals and groups, raising more than $40,000,000 from approximately ten (10) investors and investment groups in the United States and abroad," a DOJ statement said. "Osorio solicited and recruited investors by making materially false representations and concealing and omitting material facts regarding, among other things, the profitability of the company, the rates of return on investment funds, the use of investors’ funds and the existence of a pending lucrative contract with a third-party entity. Osorio received moneys from investors based on these misrepresentations. Osorio used investor monies for his and his co-conspirators' personal benefit and to maintain and further the fraud scheme."

Osorio ultimately pleaded guilty to three conspiracies of wire fraud and money laundering. A judge sentenced him to 12 and a half years in prison.

"Not one [home] was ever built," Judicial Watch reported, "and no one has been held accountable for giving the crooked businessman millions of taxpayer dollars."

Hillary Clinton as secretary of state

As the AP reported Monday, half of all the people outside of the government who met with Hillary Clinton during her time at the State Department had donated money to the Clinton Foundation. According to the report, 85 donors gave as much as $156 million. At least 40 people contributed more than $100,000 each. Another 20 donated at least $1 million each.

"Donors who were granted time with Clinton included an internationally known economist who asked her for help as the Bangladesh government pressured him to resign from a nonprofit bank he ran; a Wall Street executive who sought Clinton's help with a visa problem and Estee Lauder executives who were listed as meeting with Clinton while her department worked with the firm's corporate charity to counter gender-based violence in South Africa," the AP reported.

The news agency continued: "The meetings between the Democratic presidential nominee and foundation donors do not appear to violate legal agreements Clinton and former president Bill Clinton signed before she joined the State Department in 2009. But the frequency of the overlaps shows the intermingling of access and donations, and fuels perceptions that giving the foundation money was a price of admission for face time with Clinton. Her calendars and emails released as recently as this week describe scores of contacts she and her top aides had with foundation donors."