Prominent American oligarch Hillary Clinton is travelling to Mexico on Friday to attend an annual summit hosted by Carlos Slim, the world’s richest oligarch. Slim, whose portfolio includes a significant stake in the New York Times, is a major donor to the Clinton Foundation. His net worth—around $72 billion—is roughly equivalent to the combined fortunes of Charles and David Koch.
Clinton may take the opportunity to complain about the Times’ unfair coverage of her "book tour," as some of her closest aides did recently in a secret meeting with the paper’s Washington bureau. Slim, who owns a nearly 20 percent stake in the Times, helped the paper survive the 2009 financial crisis by offering a $250 million loan in exchange for stock options.
Most of Slim’s wealth is based on his ownership of the Mexican telecom giant América Móvil. The company’s U.S.-based subsidiary, TracFone, is a primary beneficiary of the so-called "Obamaphone" program, through which the government provides free cell phones to low-income individuals. The benefit is routinely abused, and TracFone is facing millions of dollars in fines from the Federal Communications Commission for improperly signing up individuals to the program, which is financed by U.S. wireless customers via a "Universal Service" fee.
Slim is one of several oligarch the Clintons are known to pal around with.