Frank Giustra – key power broker and close colleague of former President Bill Clinton – has taken a seat on the Board of Directors of U.S. Oil Sands, anĀ Alberta-based company aiming to develop tar sandsĀ deposits in Utah’s Uintah Basin. **UPDATE: Although he was named a prospective appointee to the Board, Mr. Giustra ultimately declined the position, citing āother commitments.ā**
U.S. Oil Sands – in naming several new members to its Board – also announced it has receivedĀ $80 million in āstrategic financingā from Blue Pacific Investments Group Ltd., Anchorage Capital Group, L.L.C. and Spitfire Ventures, LLC.
The funding will helpĀ get the ball rolling on ātar sands south,ā a miniature but increasingly controversial version of its big brother to the north, the Alberta tar sands. Giustra will likely help in opening the right doors for tar sands industry interests in the UnitedĀ States.Ā
Giusta is best known for his work in the worlds ofĀ uranium miningĀ andĀ minerals mining, though he has dabbled in the Alberta tar sands finance world once before, lending upwards of $20 million in capital to Excelsior Energy. He serves as CEO and President ofĀ Fiore FinancialĀ Corporation.Ā
Founder and Director of the Radcliffe Foundation and Co-Director of theĀ Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership (formerly known as theĀ Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative), Frank Giustra has maintained close ties with Bill Clinton since 2005.
The Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative is an arm of the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton FoundationĀ (the Clinton Foundation). Giustra sits on the Clinton Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
Clinton Family; Photo Credit:Ā WikimediaĀ Commons
Giustra alsoĀ sits on the Board of Directors of Petromanas Energy Inc.,Ā anĀ oil and gas company with assets includingĀ 1.1 million acres in Albania, 170,000 acres in France and 1.6 million acres inĀ Australia.
Clinton and Giustra have been instrumental in forging a major oil deal in ColombiaĀ and aĀ major nuclear uranium mining deal in Kazakhstan, among other things.
Opening Doors inĀ Colombia
In a February 2008Ā article,Ā āClinton Used Giustra’s Plane, Opened Doors for Deals,āĀ BloombergĀ mapped out the close relationship between Clinton and Giustra that began inĀ 2005.Ā
āClinton was borrowing [Giustra’s private jet] to begin a four-day speaking tour of Latin America that would pay him $800,000,ā BloombergĀ detailed. āFrank Giustraā¦was forming a friendship that would make him part of the former president’s inner circle and gain him introductions to presidents of Kazakhstan andĀ Colombia.ā
Clinton’s effort to connect Giustra to former Colombian PresidentĀ Alvaro Uribe was related to oilĀ developments.Ā
Alvaro Uribe; Photo Credit: WikimediaĀ Commons
āPacific Rubiales Energy Corp., spent more than $250 million to purchase control of a company that operated Colombian oil fields in conjunction with Ecopetrol S.A., the national oil company,ā explained The Wall Street Journal.Ā āPacific Rubiales has also signed a pipeline deal with Ecopetrol and been invited by the Colombian national petroleum agency to do further oil-development work in theĀ country.ā
Giustra’s Endeavor Financial Corporation provided the money for the Pacific RubialesĀ buyout, where he served as Chairman from 2001-2007. Giustra’s Fiore Financial Corporation maintains an āexclusive strategic allianceā withĀ Endeavor Financial, which āprovide[s] Endeavour with unique deal making and investmentĀ capabilities.ā
Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership lists Pacific Rubiales, the Colombian government and Endeavor Mining (the mining wing of Endeavor Financial Corporation) among its current Partners.Ā The Wall Street Journal explained thatĀ Pacific Rubiales gave overĀ $3 million to the Partnership, and Giustra put over $100 million of his own cash into the pot.
From Kazakhstani Uranium Shell Company to Clinton FoundationĀ Trustee
Giustra’s self-serving philantrophy also took him and Clinton to Kazakhstan in September 2007, as documented in a January 2008Ā New York Times investigation.Ā
Paralleling their Colombia activities, Clinton played the role of ādoorman,ā opening doors for Giustra to meet key leaders in the giant Central AsianĀ state.
Map of Kazakhstan; Image Credit: WikimediaĀ Commons
āWithin two days [of the beginning of the trip], corporate records show that Mr. Giustra also came up a winner when his company [UrAsia Energy Ltd.] signed preliminary agreements giving it the right to buy into three uranium projects controlled by Kazakhstanās state-owned uranium agency, Kazatomprom,ā wroteĀ The Times.
āThe monster deal stunned the mining industry, turning an unknown shell company into one of the worldās largest uranium producers in a transaction ultimately worth tens of millions of dollars to Mr.Ā Giustra.ā
Like in Colombia, the deal was a win-win for Clinton andĀ Giustra.
āJust months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr. Clintonās charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr. Giustra,āĀ The Times further explained.
āThe gift, combined with Mr. Giustraās more recent and public pledge to give the William J. Clinton Foundation an additional $100 million, secured Mr. Giustra a place in Mr. Clintonās inner circleā¦Giustra [also] co-produced a gala 60th birthday for Mr. Clinton that featured stars like Jon Bon Jovi and raised about $21 million for the ClintonĀ Foundation.ā
Jon Bon Jovi; Photo Credit: WikimediaĀ Commons
Within a year and a half, Giustra sold off his stake in the Kazatomprom joint venture for $3.1 billion, which he had originally purchased for $450Ā million.
Giustra, Clinton Opening Doors for US Tar SandsĀ Development?
With their history of partnering up on business deals worldwide, front-line Utah environmental activists fear the Uintah Basin could be next on the list for Frank Giustra and BillĀ Clinton.
āThere have been efforts to squeeze oil from the tar sands and oil shale along the Colorado Plateau for decades, and ultimately these projects fail due to their experimental, energy intensive, and risky nature,ā Jessica Lee, an activist withĀ Peaceful UprisingĀ andĀ Utah Tar Sands Resistance said in an interview with DeSmogBlog.Ā
Giustra’s presence on the Board, Lee believes, may give U.S. tar sands the credibility they currently lack in the eyes of capitalĀ investors.
āThe real risk here is that investors will view Giustra and the other board members involvement as attractive, and will throw their own money away into a speculative investment,ā she said. āFrank Giustra will not stay behind to clean up the mess U.S. Oil Sands leaves, pocketing whatever money he can and leaving Utah with aĀ wasteland.āĀ
Photo Credit: Dominion News CooperativeĀ
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