Nigerian-Lebanese billionaire Gilbert Chagoury, owner of the giant Eko Hotel in Lagos and the ground breaking Atlantic City, is no longer allowed to enter the United States.
The billionaire Bill Clinton Foundation donor was banned from getting a visa on terrorism grounds for allegedly funding a political coalition, Hezbollah, which the United States deems a terrorism group.
The Los Angeles Times, which did a deep dive on Chagoury in its August 30, 2016 edition, said that Chagoury’s visa troubles likely stem from his support of a Christian Lebanese politician. The politician, Michel Aoun, is part of the same political coalition as Hezbollah, which the United States deems a terror group.
Chagoury been in the news of late because the Bill Clinton Foundation’s Doug Band wanted him to get access to a top State Department official, while the controversial US Republican Presidential candidate, Donald Trump, pointed to Band’s ask and said it was an example of the Clintons’ ‘pay-to-play’ scheme between the foundation and State.
‘’Chagoury’s name has been brought up of late, because of an ask Clinton Foundation head Doug Band made of Hillary Clinton’s State Department – he wanted to put the donor, whose parents were Lebanese, in touch with the American government’s top Lebanon person’’, the US’s daily stated.
‘’Donald Trump, among others, used the correspondence to try and show that the Clintons were running a ‘pay-for-play’ enterprise between the State Department and the family foundation, where Chagoury had been a million dollar donor.’’
Chagoury was ‘known to have funded’ Aoun, the Times reported, with a Lebanese government minister telling U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey D. Feltman in 2007 to ‘deliver to Chagoury a strong message about the possibility of financial sanctions and travel bans against those who undermine Lebanon’s legitimate institutions.’
Chagoury never received the warning, the Times wrote, as Clinton Foundation head Band pushed for the donor to get access inside of Hillary Clinton’s State Department once she took over the reins in 2009.
As Hillary Clinton runs for the White House, her family foundation has become politically problematic with Republicans suggesting she and husband Bill Clinton were running a ‘pay-to-play’ enterprise between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department.
Band’s email to the secretary of state’s top aide Huma Abedin was one of the most heavily pointed to when detractors – including Republican nominee Trump – suggested the Clinton were operating a ‘pay-for-play’ enterprise from within the State Department.
Chagoury had donated at least $1 million to the family foundation, if not more, documents show.
Source: This Day
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