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Boeing Shareholder Challenges Ethics of Company's Relationship to Clintons

Boeing contributed $900,000 to Clinton Foundation, paid $250,000 for Bill Clinton speech

AP
May 13, 2015

America's largest airplane manufacturer Boeing is closely aligned with Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Boeing shareholders are now confronting company management about whether the relationship between Boeing, the Clinton Foundation, and the State Department under Hillary Clinton violated ethics rules, according to Fox News.

As secretary of state, Clinton had a beneficial relationship with Boeing. In 2009, she openly made "a shameless pitch" to a Russian airline to purchase Boeing aircrafts, leading to an eventual $3.7 billion deal for Boeing. Two months after the deal, the Clinton Foundation received a $900,000 donation from Boeing. Two years later, Boeing also paid Bill Clinton $250,000 to deliver a speech.

The chief lobbyist for Boeing, former Bill Clinton aide Tim Keating, also held a major fundraiser for Ready for Hillary Super PAC in 2014.

Fox News reports that Boeing shareholder David Almasi is challenging the company's CEO on its relationship with the Clintons.

This chain of events is raising new questions for Clinton, and Boeing, as the former secretary of state launches her 2016 presidential campaign. The Boeing deal only adds to a growing list of business deals involving Clinton Foundation donors now coming under scrutiny.

Boeing shareholder David Almasi recently confronted CEO James McNerney about the ethics of it.

"That opens the door to charges of honest services fraud, that there was a quid pro quo between the Clinton Foundation, the State Department and Boeing," Almasi said.