If they let me to sit on the head table, the same question was asked to me by the prime minister of Mauritius—which country are you heading? I said I belong to Uttar Pradesh and am a humble political worker. They were also astonished. . . . So, I don’t know what it is. [Bill] Clinton is the best person to answer this question why he gave me that kind of honor.32
Following the Clinton confab, Singh had a private dinner with the Clintons at their home in New York. When asked, Singh refused to say who else was at the dinner. During the visit Singh said he cultivated his relationship with Hillary Clinton. “I met Madame Clinton and in spite of her busy schedule, she was kind enough to give me considerable amount of time on one-on-one meeting,” said Singh.33 (Apparently he came bearing gifts; he gave the senator from New York perfume oils in a Taj Mahal presentation case.) Singh’s relationship with the Clintons also drew the interest of the Indian media, which was well aware of his antics, and noted that he “seems to dote on the Clintons.”34
In 2006 a bill was introduced in Congress called the Henry J. Hyde United States–India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006. Its purpose: to finalize an agreement that would gradually lift restrictions on nuclear trade with India. Hillary was both a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a cochair of the Senate’s India Caucus, which a group of senators formed to work together with Indian government officials to improve US-India ties. But she showed no immediate favor for the Hyde Act as it started to make its way through Congress. The Times of India noted in 2006 that “India could be looking at the possibility of a Democrat presidency, Hillary Clinton, Obama, or anyone else—friends of India doubtless, but perhaps opponents of the nuclear deal.”35
Hillary supported a series of amendments that would impose stricter terms on the Indian government. These included three amendments offered by Senators Barbara Boxer, Byron Dorgan, and Russell Feingold. One was a “killer amendment” that would have effectively gutted the bill by capping India’s fissile production. But that amendment failed. The initial legislation passed, but there would be additional legislation that would need to be signed, and Hillary’s role was central in getting that approved. Hillary was still a reluctant and questionable supporter of the bill, prompting a headline in the Indian American media that the community was “upset” with her stance on the issue.36 As the New York Times reported, it was Hillary “whose support is viewed by Indian-American leaders as crucial to winning broader Democratic backing for the plan.”37
Up to this point the Clinton Foundation had experienced only limited public success in securing contributions from Indians. But now, those with a keen interest in seeing the nuclear deal approved began steering money to the Clintons.
Indian industrialists and elites, who could not contribute to Hillary’s political campaigns, much less vote for her, started making highly publicized appearances at Clinton campaign fundraising events. In June 2007 Chatwal put together a dinner for Clinton featuring Indian billionaires Srichand Hinduja and Lakshmi Mittal. The fundraisers targeted Indians who were now American citizens or who had permanent status. “They [Hinduja and Mittal] can’t give money,” noted Chatwal. “It’s to bring a little attraction.” The attraction of course was for Indians in the United States who could donate, and who might want to do business with these industrialists.38 These introductions are worth a great deal to those in a position to exploit them.
Hinduja and Mittal couldn’t donate to Hillary’s presidential campaign, but they could and did write large checks to the Clinton Foundation. (Mittal contributed between $1 million and $5 million.) Indeed, India quickly became a rich vein of Clinton Foundation support. In Washington, the Confederation of Indian Industry hired lobbyists to push for a nuclear deal; at the same time, they sent the Clinton Foundation a check for between $1 million and $5 million.39 (These donations were revealed only after Hillary’s nomination as secretary of state, and while the foundation is no longer required to disclose donors since she left office, once the nuclear deal was sealed such donors appeared to cease their generosity.) The Hindustan Construction chairman and managing partner, Ajit Gulabchand, donated money while in New York in late September 2007.40 Today Hindustan Construction is involved in several nuclear-power construction projects in India. And there were mysterious donations never really accounted for—as we will see.
By the summer of 2008 Hillary’s presidential bid had failed and the United States Nuclear Cooperation Approval Nonproliferation Enhancement Act (H.R. 7081)—a bill finalizing the export of nuclear technologies to India—required action in the US Senate. Hillary had endured a bruising presidential nomination fight against Senate colleague Barack Obama, who would now become the Democratic standard-bearer. But when it came to the nuclear deal, Indian officials still looked to Hillary. According to Professor Vijay Prashad of Trinity College in Connecticut, “Obama’s caution about the deal put the fear of failure through elite circles in New Delhi, and so pressure mounted to get Washington to act. Senator Hillary Clinton’s nod was considered to be essential.”41
Notably enough, the most important Clinton advisers on nuclear proliferation matters issued blistering criticisms of the nuclear deal. Strobe Talbott, a longtime friend of both Bill and Hillary who had served in the State Department during Bill’s presidency, wrote scathingly that with the terms of the agreement, “the [Bush] administration granted India almost all the privileges of an NPT member, especially with regard to helping India develop its civilian nuclear power industry. . . . In return, the United States (and the world) received nothing in the form of concrete Indian steps toward nuclear restraint in its military programs.” The deal was “really a step toward a breakdown in the international nonproliferation regime.”42
Robert Einhorn, Hillary’s adviser on nuclear proliferation during the 2008 presidential bid, was also withering in his criticisms of the deal, which he strongly opposed. Einhorn had also served in the State Department during Bill’s presidency, and Hillary would tap him in 2009 to handle proliferation issues during her tenure as secretary of state. Einhorn called the deal “a radical departure from longstanding legal obligations and policies that precluded nuclear cooperation with states not party to the Nonproliferation Treaty.”43
In short, the agreement severely threatened the NPT that Bill and Hillary themselves had strongly supported. As the Times of India put it, “Why is this deal important? Because for the first time, someone has decided to let India have its cake and eat it too. You stay out of the NPT, keep your weapons, refuse full scope safeguards, and yet get to conduct nuclear commerce in a system that is dead against such a formulation. That’s the bottom line of this deal.”44
It was for this reason that additional longtime Clinton friends and allies, like Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, also opposed the 2008 nuclear deal. In an apocalyptic New York Times op-ed piece, Tauscher warned that “the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty—for 50 years, the bulwark against the spread of nuclear weapons—would be shredded and India’s yearly nuclear weapons production capability would likely increase from 7 bombs to 40 or 50.” She continued: “The Indian nuclear deal threatens international security not only by undermining our nuclear rules, but also by expanding India’s nuclear weapons program. That’s because every pound of uranium that India is allowed to import for its power reactors frees up a pound of uranium for its bomb program.”45
A few months after her piece, Tauscher was tapped by Hillary to serve as her under secretary of state for arms control and international security at the State Department.46
Back in 2008 Bill was paid $150,000 to give a satellite video address to the India Today Group, a media conglomerate whose chairman, Aroon Purie, was strongly in favor of the nuclear deal.47 According to the Clintons’ financial disclosures, required by Senate ethics rules, Bill had not given a paid speech in India for more than five years. But as the Indian nuclear deal vote loomed, he sat down in his Harlem office and made comments about world events to a live audience of Indian co
rporate and government officials gathered at the Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi.48
Clinton discussed several subjects, including the looming US-Indian nuclear deal, and reassured the audience that while “some Democrats have some questions about the agreement . . . the new government tends to honor agreements of the previous one.” In other words, if the deal was approved in Congress in March 2008, the next president, whether Republican or Democrat, would likely honor the agreement.
As the drive to get the Clintons on board mounted, Sant Chatwal helped organize one of Bill’s biggest public speaking paydays, arranging for him to receive $450,000 to speak at a London charity event. The speech, noted the Chicago Tribune, brought him $170,000 more than he “charged for ordinary overseas for-profit appearances.”49
Apparently the father of the hostess was surprised by how much Bill was paid. “If we had been charged less, we could have given a bit more” to charity, he said. Bill’s fee accounted for 30 percent of the $1.5 million raised at the event for global relief efforts.50
In late September 2008, with the fate of H.R. 7081 still very much in question, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh arrived in New York and met with a core group to discuss the fate of the nuclear cooperation deal. Huddled together in the Kennedy Rooms at the Palace Hotel, Manmohan Singh plotted strategy with Chatwal, Amar Singh, and others.51
Hillary had not been a supporter of the bill; indeed, her closest aides were all publicly opposed to it. But in September 2008, as the bill’s fate hung in the balance, Amar Singh sat down for a two-hour dinner in Washington with Hillary. Opposition to the bill had come primarily from Democrats. Hillary had supported the “killer amendment” two years earlier. It was even possible that the Senate might not vote on the bill. Yet in the days following, Singh expressed confidence based on what he heard from Hillary that the deal would go through.52
Having grown accustomed to the deal-making and influence-buying ways of the Indian parliament, Singh was open with the Indian media about what transpired in New York. Hillary Clinton probably considered herself fortunate that his comments were not reported in the American media. According to Singh, Hillary reassured him that Democrats would not hinder the passage of the India-US civil nuclear agreement through the US Congress.53 When Indian journalist Aziz Haniffa asked if Senator Clinton “has promised and pledged to give all the support and try to pass [the deal] through in the Congress,” he said yes, adding, “because of the Clintons I am close to the Democrats.”54
Five Democratic senators opposed to the bill—Robert Byrd, Jeff Bingaman, Daniel Akaka, Russ Feingold, and Tom Harkin—blocked a vote. Amendments like those introduced in 2006, which Hillary had voted for, were reintroduced. This time, however, according to Indian activists who wanted to force a vote, Hillary’s office was “working closely” with them.55
The vote was called, and the bill was passed. “The passage by the United States Senate was the last step in securing this historic accord,” as one of the leaders in the effort to secure the deal put it. He even called it “the greatest moment in Indian-American political history.”56
In the end, Hillary pushed for the passage of the Indian nuclear deal, despite the public opposition of her closest advisers and the fact that it was a clear reversal of her previous policy positions. As secretary of state, she would talk about her commitment to creating a “21st century version of the NPT,” while also insisting that “the NPT will neither be altered nor replaced.” But that is precisely what her efforts on behalf of the Indian nuclear deal had done.
Weeks after the vote, Hillary was nominated to be secretary of state by the newly elected Barack Obama. Part of the agreement struck with the Obama transition team was a requirement that the Clinton Foundation reveal the names of those who had donated money to the Foundation in the past and going forward.
One of those listed was Amar Singh, the Indian politician who had risen so quickly in Clinton World. The mention of his name got scant attention in US media, but those in India who tracked politics took immediate notice. The Clinton Foundation revealed that Singh had given between $1 million and $5 million. But there was a slight problem: based on Indian government financial disclosures, Singh’s net worth was approximately $5 million. If true, that meant Singh had given between 20 and 100 percent of his entire net worth to the Clinton Foundation!
When the Times of India asked Singh about the huge donation, he shrugged it off. “I have nothing to say,” he told them. “I won’t deny anything.” Pressed further, Singh responded cryptically that “the payment could have been made by someone else on his behalf.”57
The payment or contribution was revealed smack in the middle of a session of the Indian parliament. Members of the opposition parties were up in arms. They mocked Singh’s alleged generosity. “He would be a saint or a mahatma to make such a gesture,” said political observer Vishwanath Chaturvendi.58 A core group of senior government ministers, concerned about the appearance of the payment or contribution, called Singh in to explain. Singh apparently told them he had not given the money “and no cheque could be traced to him.” When asked why he was listed as a donor, he said “maybe” it was because he had facilitated the payment and therefore it “erroneously” appeared in the records. Singh never explained where the money came from. Government ministers were reportedly concerned that the whole episode might result in a criminal inquiry because of the “insinuation that Amar could have swung the Democrats’ support for the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal as a quid pro quo.”59
Members of Singh’s political party denied that the money came from them. “The party has not donated any such money,” declared Mohan Singh, a member of parliament (and no relation).60
In New York, the Clintons were stone quiet. Hillary was preparing for the confirmation hearings and Bill hadn’t said anything. Amar Singh refused to give more interviews about the matter.
One of Singh’s colleagues offered an explanation: the politician put wealthy friends in touch with the Clintons and was mistakenly given the credit: “Some of them may have mentioned Singh’s name while making contributions which found its way into the records.”61 But this seems highly unlikely. Donations to the foundation would come via wire transfer or check—presumably not in cash. So the foundation likely would have known where the funds came from. Yet the Clinton Foundation has never explained their origin. Nor has it ever been determined who precisely donated the money. While donors connected to the Russian uranium deal such as Ian Telfer’s Fernwood Foundation never had their donations revealed, in this case the donation was revealed but didn’t appear to be accurate as to the true source of the funds.
What is known is that the Indian government rewarded many of those who helped clinch the deal and got the Clintons to support it. Securing the nuclear deal was a profound victory for elements in India who saw it as an important step forward in becoming a nuclear power. When the bill passed the Senate on October 2, it was Chatwal who made the first call to the Indian prime minister with the “fantastic” news.
For his diligent work in securing passage of the bill, in early 2010 Sant Chatwal was presented by the Indian government with the Padma Bhushan Award, one of the country’s most prestigious civilian honors. “He played an important role in getting Hillary Clinton to support the nuclear deal,” said Sanjaya Baru, who was a media adviser to the Indian prime minister. “He is close to the Clintons. That is why he got the Padma [Bhushan] award.”62
Chatwal explained that he had worked hard to secure the deal. In a series of Indian media interviews, Chatwal noted that Hillary had changed her position on the issue and boasted about the role he played. At first, back in 2006, Chatwal said, “Even my close friend Hillary Clinton was not in favor of the deal then.”63 But then he began working with her: “But when I put the whole package together, she also came on board.” He continued, “In politics nothing comes free. You have to write cheques in the American political system,” Chatwal said. “I know the system. I had to work very hard. So I
did as much as I could.”64 In another interview he bluntly explained, “It took me four years and millions of dollars, which I paid out of my own pocket. I am very proud of that because I love my motherland.”65
No one appears to have asked them about these candid remarks.
In September 2011 Amar Singh was arrested under the Prevention of Corruption Act for bribing three members of parliament during a crucial 2008 vote related to the Indian nuclear deal. In July of that year the Left Party had pulled out of the ruling coalition over the nuclear deal, which it strongly opposed. The ruling coalition, which included Singh’s party, needed to prove it had enough votes to govern. On July 22, hours before the trust vote, large rolls of cash had allegedly been doled out by Singh, according to Indian authorities. Singh was later arrested and placed in Tihar Jail, one of the largest prison complexes in the world. While no trial was ever held, he was expelled from his political party and has retired from politics, at least for now.66
In April 2013 Vikram Chatwal, the Turban Cowboy, was arrested on heroin and cocaine charges. Security staff at the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, airport reportedly found half a gram of cocaine and six grams of heroin in his underwear.67
On April 17, 2014, Sant Chatwal stood in the Federal District Courthouse in Brooklyn and pleaded guilty to having “funneled more than $180,000 in illegal contributions between 2007 and 2011 to three federal candidates,” including Hillary Clinton. He also pled guilty to witness tampering.68 Prosecutors alleged that Chatwal “used his employees, business associates, and contractors who performed work on his hotels . . . to solicit campaign contributions on Chatwal’s behalf in support of various candidates for federal office and PACs, collect these contributions, and pay reimbursements for these contributions, in violation of the Election Act.”69
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