It’s Bill Clinton’s 70th birthday today, and by way of celebration the London office of Heat Street has been leafing through the financial records of the William J. Clinton Foundation UK looking for a good news story with which to toast him.
The trouble is, there isn’t one.
The ex-president’s UK charity is a directly controlled offshoot of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
The noble aims of this outfit, launched in 2007, are described somewhat dramatically by its trustees as:
“ADVANCE OF HEALTH OR THE SAVING OF LIVES IN GENERAL, THE RELIEF OF POVERTY, THE RESOLUTION OF CONFLICTS IN ALL FORMS AND IN PARTICULAR BUT WITHOUT LIMITING THE GENERAL SCOPE OF THIS CLAUSE, THE RESOLUTION OF ETHNIC OR RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS, AND THE ADVANCEMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION OR IMPROVEMENT.”
Did anyone tell Clinton that the UK is not a war zone?
Anyway, according to the latest set of accounts, filed with Companies House and the Charity Commission a year ago, Clinton’s foundation has not raised any funds or received any cash since 2013, when its total incoming resources were £27,662.
It was essentially dormant in 2014 and the accounts, signed off by Clinton Foundation chief financial officer Andrew Kessel, also state that the UK arm had no plans to be active in the calendar year 2015.
In other words, it looks very much like President Clinton has quietly pulled the plug on his UK operation.
So what did it actually do?
In previous years combined total income of about £1.5 million has flowed through the London-registered Clinton Foundation UK. It seems that most of this cash has been spent tackling climate change, an issue in which the foundation has apparently taken a “business-oriented approach”.
However, tangible results are scarce.
The latest available accounts state it now has a mere £10,641 to its name.
The Clinton Foundation’s New York office did not respond to requests for comment.
Happy Birthday, Bill.
