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, anย Alberta-based company aiming to develop tar sandsย deposits in Utah’s Uintah Basin. **UPDATE: Although he was named a prospective appointee to the Board, Mr. Giustra ultimately declined the position, citing โother commitments.โ**
U.S. Oil Sands – in naming several new members to its Board – also announced it has receivedย $80 million in โstrategic financingโ from Blue Pacific Investments Group Ltd., Anchorage Capital Group, L.L.C. and Spitfire Ventures, LLC.
The funding will helpย get the ball rolling on โtar sands south,โ 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 Unitedย States.ย
Giusta is best known for his work in the worlds ofย uranium miningย andย 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 ofย Fiore Financialย Corporation.ย
Founder and Director of the Radcliffe Foundation and Co-Director of theย Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership (formerly known as theย 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 Foundationย (the Clinton Foundation). Giustra sits on the Clinton Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
Clinton Family; Photo Credit:ย Wikimediaย Commons
Giustra alsoย sits on the Board of Directors of Petromanas Energy Inc.,ย anย oil and gas company with assets includingย 1.1 million acres in Albania, 170,000 acres in France and 1.6 million acres inย Australia.
Clinton and Giustra have been instrumental in forging a major oil deal in Colombiaย and aย major nuclear uranium mining deal in Kazakhstan, among other things.
Opening Doors inย Colombia
In a February 2008ย article,ย โClinton Used Giustra’s Plane, Opened Doors for Deals,โย Bloombergย mapped out the close relationship between Clinton and Giustra that began inย 2005.ย
โClinton was borrowing [Giustra’s private jet] to begin a four-day speaking tour of Latin America that would pay him $800,000,โ Bloombergย detailed. โFrank Giustraโฆwas forming a friendship that would make him part of the former president’s inner circle and gain him introductions to presidents of Kazakhstan andย Colombia.โ
Clinton’s effort to connect Giustra to former Colombian Presidentย Alvaro Uribe was related to oilย developments.ย
Alvaro Uribe; Photo Credit: Wikimediaย Commons
โPacific 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,โ explained The Wall Street Journal.ย โPacific 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 theย country.โ
Giustra’s Endeavor Financial Corporation provided the money for the Pacific Rubialesย buyout, where he served as Chairman from 2001-2007. Giustra’s Fiore Financial Corporation maintains an โexclusive strategic allianceโ withย Endeavor Financial, which โprovide[s] Endeavour with unique deal making and investmentย capabilities.โ
Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership lists Pacific Rubiales, the Colombian government and Endeavor Mining (the mining wing of Endeavor Financial Corporation) among its current Partners.ย The Wall Street Journal explained thatย Pacific Rubiales gave overย $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 Foundationย Trustee
Giustra’s self-serving philantrophy also took him and Clinton to Kazakhstan in September 2007, as documented in a January 2008ย New York Times investigation.ย
Paralleling their Colombia activities, Clinton played the role of โdoorman,โ opening doors for Giustra to meet key leaders in the giant Central Asianย state.
Map of Kazakhstan; Image Credit: Wikimediaย Commons
โWithin 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 Kazakhstanโs state-owned uranium agency, Kazatomprom,โ wroteย The Times.
โThe monster deal stunned the mining industry, turning an unknown shell company into one of the worldโs largest uranium producers in a transaction ultimately worth tens of millions of dollars to Mr.ย Giustra.โ
Like in Colombia, the deal was a win-win for Clinton andย Giustra.
โJust months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr. Clintonโs charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr. Giustra,โย The Times further explained.
โThe gift, combined with Mr. Giustraโs more recent and public pledge to give the William J. Clinton Foundation an additional $100 million, secured Mr. Giustra a place in Mr. Clintonโs inner circleโฆGiustra [also] co-produced a gala 60th birthday for Mr. Clinton that featured stars like Jon Bon Jovi and raised about $21 million for the Clintonย Foundation.โ
Jon Bon Jovi; Photo Credit: Wikimediaย 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 $450ย million.
Giustra, Clinton Opening Doors for US Tar Sandsย 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 Billย Clinton.
โThere 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,โ Jessica Lee, an activist withย Peaceful Uprisingย andย Utah Tar Sands Resistance said in an interview with DeSmogBlog.ย
Giustra’s presence on the Board, Lee believes, may give U.S. tar sands the credibility they currently lack in the eyes of capitalย investors.
โThe 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,โ she said. โFrank Giustra will not stay behind to clean up the mess U.S. Oil Sands leaves, pocketing whatever money he can and leaving Utah with aย wasteland.โย
Photo Credit: Dominion News Cooperativeย
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