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Huge Kazakh deal follows financier's trip with Clinton, precedes donation
By Jo Becker and Don Van Natta Jr.
The New York Times
updated 1:11 a.m. CT, Thurs., Jan. 31, 2008
Late on Sept. 6, 2005, a private plane carrying the Canadian mining
financier Frank Giustra touched down in Almaty, a ruggedly picturesque city
in southeast Kazakhstan. Several hundred miles to the west a fortune
awaited: highly coveted deposits of uranium that could fuel nuclear reactors
around the world. And Mr. Giustra was in hot pursuit of an exclusive deal to
tap them.
Unlike more established competitors, Mr. Giustra was a newcomer to uranium
mining in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. But what his fledgling
company lacked in experience, it made up for in connections. Accompanying
Mr. Giustra on his luxuriously appointed MD-87 jet that day was a former
president of the United States, Bill Clinton.
Upon landing on the first stop of a three-country philanthropic tour, the
two men were whisked off to share a sumptuous midnight banquet with
Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, whose 19-year stranglehold
on the country has all but quashed political dissent.
Mr. Nazarbayev walked away from the table with a propaganda coup, after Mr.
Clinton expressed enthusiastic support for the Kazakh leader's bid to head
an international organization that monitors elections and supports
democracy. Mr. Clinton's public declaration undercut both American foreign
policy and sharp criticism of Kazakhstan's poor human rights record by,
among others, Mr. Clinton's wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New
York.
Within two days, corporate records show that Mr. Giustra also came up a
winner when his company signed preliminary agreements giving it the right to
buy into three uranium projects controlled by Kazakhstan's state-owned
uranium agency, Kazatomprom.
Deal stunned the mining industry
The monster deal stunned the mining industry, turning an unknown shell
company into one of the world's largest uranium producers in a transaction
ultimately worth tens of millions of dollars to Mr. Giustra, analysts said.
Just months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr. Clinton's charitable
foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr.
Giustra that had remained a secret until he acknowledged it last month. The
gift, combined with Mr. Giustra's more recent and public pledge to give the
William J. Clinton Foundation an additional $100 million, secured Mr.
Giustra a place in Mr. Clinton's inner circle, an exclusive club of wealthy
entrepreneurs in which friendship with the former president has its
privileges.
Mr. Giustra was invited to accompany the former president to Almaty just as
the financier was trying to seal a deal he had been negotiating for months.
In separate written responses, both men said Mr. Giustra traveled with Mr.
Clinton to Kazakhstan, India and China to see first-hand the philanthropic
work done by his foundation.
A spokesman for Mr. Clinton said the former president knew that Mr. Giustra
had mining interests in Kazakhstan but was unaware of "any particular
efforts" and did nothing to help. Mr. Giustra said he was there as an
"observer only" and there was "no discussion" of the deal with Mr.
Nazarbayev or Mr. Clinton.
But Moukhtar Dzhakishev, president of Kazatomprom, said in an interview that
Mr. Giustra did discuss it, directly with the Kazakh president, and that his
friendship with Mr. Clinton "of course made an impression." Mr. Dzhakishev
added that Kazatomprom chose to form a partnership with Mr. Giustra's
company based solely on the merits of its offer.
After The Times told Mr. Giustra that others said he had discussed the deal
with Mr. Nazarbayev, Mr. Giustra responded that he "may well have mentioned
my general interest in the Kazakhstan mining business to him, but I did not
discuss the ongoing" efforts.
As Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign has intensified, Mr. Clinton has
begun severing financial ties with Ronald W. Burkle, the supermarket
magnate, and Vinod Gupta, the chairman of InfoUSA, to avoid any conflicts of
interest. Those two men have harnessed the former president's clout to
expand their businesses while making the Clintons rich through partnership
and consulting arrangements.
Mr. Clinton has vowed to continue raising money for his foundation if Mrs.
Clinton is elected president, maintaining his connections with a wide
network of philanthropic partners.
Mr. Giustra said that while his friendship with the former president "may
have elevated my profile in the news media, it has not directly affected any
of my business transactions."
Mining colleagues and analysts agree it has not hurt. Neil MacDonald, the
chief executive of a Canadian merchant bank that specializes in mining
deals, said Mr. Giustra's financial success was partly due to a "fantastic
network" crowned by Mr. Clinton. "That's a very solid relationship for him,"
Mr. MacDonald said. "I'm sure it's very much a two-way relationship because
that's the way Frank operates."
Foreseeing opportunities
Mr. Giustra made his fortune in mining ventures as a broker on the Vancouver
Stock Exchange, raising billions of dollars and developing a loyal following
of investors. Just as the mining sector collapsed, Mr. Giustra, a lifelong
film buff, founded the Lion's Gate Entertainment Corporation in 1997. But he
sold the studio in 2003 and returned to mining.
Mr. Giustra foresaw a bull market in gold and began investing in mines in
Argentina, Australia and Mexico. He turned a $20 million shell company into
a powerhouse that, after a $2.4 billion merger with Goldcorp Inc., became
Canada's second-largest gold company.
With a net worth estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Mr.
Giustra began looking for ways to put his wealth to good use. Meeting Mr.
Clinton, and learning about the work his foundation was doing on issues like
AIDS treatment in poor countries, "changed my life," Mr. Giustra told The
Vancouver Sun.
The two men were introduced in June 2005 at a fund-raiser for tsunami
victims at Mr. Giustra's Vancouver home and hit it off right away. They
share a love of history, geopolitics and music - Mr. Giustra plays the
trumpet to Mr. Clinton's saxophone. Soon the dapper Canadian was a regular
at Mr. Clinton's side, as they flew around the world aboard Mr. Giustra's
plane.
Philanthropy may have become his passion, but Mr. Giustra, now 50, was still
hunting for ways to make money.
Exploding demand for energy had helped revitalize the nuclear power
industry, and uranium, the raw material for reactor fuel, was about to
become a hot commodity. In late 2004, Mr. Giustra began talking to
investors, and put together a company that would eventually be called UrAsia
Energy Ltd.
About a fifth of world uranium reserves
Kazakhstan, which has about one-fifth of the world's uranium reserves, was
the place to be. But with plenty of suitors, Kazatomprom could be picky
about its partners.
"Everyone was asking Kazatomprom to the dance," said Fadi Shadid, a senior
stock analyst covering the uranium industry for Friedman Billings Ramsey, an
investment bank. "A second-tier junior player like UrAsia - you'd need all
the help you could get."
The Cameco Corporation, the world's largest uranium producer, was already a
partner of Kazatomprom. But when Cameco expressed interest in the properties
Mr. Giustra was already eyeing, the government's response was lukewarm. "The
signals we were getting was, you've got your hands full," said Gerald W.
Grandey, Cameco president.
For Cameco, it took five years to "build the right connections" in
Kazakhstan, Mr. Grandey said. UrAsia did not have that luxury. Profitability
depended on striking before the price of uranium soared.
"Timing was everything," said Sergey Kurzin, a Russian-born businessman
whose London-based company was brought into the deal by UrAsia because of
his connections in Kazakhstan. Even with those connections, Mr. Kurzin said,
it took four months to arrange a meeting with Kazatomprom.
In August 2005, records show, the company sent an engineering consultant to
Kazakhstan to assess the uranium properties. Less than four weeks later, Mr.
Giustra arrived with Mr. Clinton.
Reportedly discussed deal with president
Mr. Dzhakishev, the Kazatomprom chief, said an aide to Mr. Nazarbayev
informed him that Mr. Giustra talked with Mr. Nazarbayev about the deal
during the visit. "And when our president asked Giustra, 'What do you do?'
he said, 'I'm trying to do business with Kazatomprom,' " Mr. Dzhakishev
said. He added that Mr. Nazarbayev replied, "Very good, go to it."
Mr. Clinton's Kazakhstan visit, the only one of his post-presidency, appears
to have been arranged hastily. The United States Embassy got last-minute
notice that the president would be making "a private visit," said a State
Department official, who said he was not authorized to speak on the record.
The publicly stated reason for the visit was to announce a Clinton
Foundation agreement that enabled the government to buy discounted AIDS
drugs. But during a news conference, Mr. Clinton wandered into delicate
territory by commending Mr. Nazarbayev for "opening up the social and
political life of your country."
In a statement Kazakhstan would highlight in news releases, Mr. Clinton
declared that he hoped it would achieve a top objective: leading the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which would confer
legitimacy on Mr. Nazarbayev's government.
"I think it's time for that to happen, it's an important step, and I'm glad
you're willing to undertake it," Mr. Clinton said.
A speedy process
Mr. Clinton's praise was odd, given that the United States did not support
Mr. Nazarbayev's bid. (Late last year, Kazakhstan finally won the chance to
lead the security organization for one year, despite concerns raised by the
Bush administration.) Moreover, Mr. Clinton's wife, who sits on a
Congressional commission with oversight of such matters, had also voiced
skepticism.
Eleven months before Mr. Clinton's statement, Mrs. Clinton co-signed a
commission letter to the State Department that sounded "alarm bells" about
the prospect that Kazakhstan might head the group. The letter stated that
Kazakhstan's bid "would not be acceptable," citing "serious corruption,"
canceled elections and government control of the news media.
In a written statement to The Times, Mr. Clinton's spokesman said the former
president saw "no contradiction" between his statements in Kazakhstan and
the position of Mrs. Clinton, who said through a spokeswoman, "Senator
Clinton's position on Kazakhstan remains unchanged."
Noting that the former president also met with opposition leaders in Almaty,
Mr. Clinton's spokesman said he was only "seeking to suggest that a
commitment to political openness and to fair elections would reflect well on
Kazakhstan's efforts to chair the O.S.C.E."
But Robert Herman, who worked for the State Department in the Clinton
administration and is now at Freedom House, a human rights group, said the
former president's statement amounted to an endorsement of Kazakhstan's
readiness to lead the group, a position he called "patently absurd."
"He was either going off his brief or he was sadly mistaken," Mr. Herman
said. "There was nothing in the record to suggest that they really wanted to
move forward on democratic reform."
Indeed, in December 2005, Mr. Nazarbayev won another election, which the
security organization itself said was marred by an "atmosphere of
intimidation" and "ballot-box stuffing."
Congratulations from Clinton
After Mr. Nazarbayev won with 91 percent of the vote, Mr. Clinton sent his
congratulations. "Recognizing that your work has received an excellent grade
is one of the most important rewards in life," Mr. Clinton wrote in a letter
released by the Kazakh embassy. Last September, just weeks after Kazakhstan
held an election that once again failed to meet international standards, Mr.
Clinton honored Mr. Nazarbayev by inviting him to his annual philanthropic
conference.
Within 48 hours of Mr. Clinton's departure from Almaty on Sept. 7, Mr.
Giustra got his deal. UrAsia signed two memorandums of understanding that
paved the way for the company to become partners with Kazatomprom in three
mines.
The cost to UrAsia was more than $450 million, money the company did not
have in hand and had only weeks to come up with. The transaction was
finalized in November, after UrAsia raised the money through the largest
initial public offering in the history of Canada's Venture Exchange.
Mr. Giustra challenged the notion that UrAsia needed to court Kazatomprom's
favor to seal the deal, contending that the government agency's approval was
not required.
But Mr. Dzhakishev, analysts and Mr. Kurzin, one of Mr. Giustra's own
investors, said that approval was necessary. Mr. Dzhakishev, who said that
the deal was almost done when Mr. Clinton arrived, said that Kazatomprom was
impressed with the sum Mr. Giustra was willing to pay and his record of
attracting investors. He said Mr. Nazarbayev himself ultimately signed off
on the transaction.
Longtime market watchers were confounded. Kazatomprom's choice of UrAsia was
a "mystery," said Gene Clark, the chief executive of Trade Tech, a uranium
industry newsletter.
"UrAsia was able to jump-start the whole process somehow," Mr. Clark said.
The company became a "major uranium producer when it didn't even exist
before."
A profitable sale
Records show that Mr. Giustra donated the $31.3 million to the Clinton
Foundation in the months that followed in 2006, but neither he nor a
spokesman for Mr. Clinton would say exactly when.
In September 2006, Mr. Giustra co-produced a gala 60th birthday for Mr.
Clinton that featured stars like Jon Bon Jovi and raised about $21 million
for the Clinton Foundation.
In February 2007, a company called Uranium One agreed to pay $3.1 billion to
acquire UrAsia. Mr. Giustra, a director and major shareholder in UrAsia,
would be paid $7.05 per share for a company that just two years earlier was
trading at 10 cents per share.
That same month, Mr. Dzhakishev, the Kazatomprom chief, said he traveled to
Chappaqua, N.Y., to meet with Mr. Clinton at his home. Mr. Dzhakishev said
Mr. Giustra arranged the three-hour meeting. Mr. Dzhakishev said he wanted
to discuss Kazakhstan's intention - not publicly known at the time - to buy
a 10 percent stake in Westinghouse, a United States supplier of nuclear
technology.
Nearly a year earlier, Mr. Clinton had advised Dubai on how to handle the
political furor after one of that nation's companies attempted to take over
several American ports. Mrs. Clinton was among those on Capitol Hill who
raised the national security concerns that helped kill the deal.
Mr. Dzhakishev said he was worried the proposed Westinghouse investment
could face similar objections. Mr. Clinton told him that he would not lobby
for him, but Mr. Dzhakishev came away pleased by the chance to promote his
nation's proposal to a former president.
Mr. Clinton "said this was very important for America," said Mr. Dzhakishev,
who added that Mr. Giustra was present at Mr. Clinton's home.
Denials, then acknowledgment
Both Mr. Clinton and Mr. Giustra at first denied that any such meeting
occurred. Mr. Giustra also denied ever arranging for Kazakh officials to
meet with Mr. Clinton. Wednesday, after The Times told them that others said
a meeting, in Mr. Clinton's home, had in fact taken place, both men
acknowledged it.
"You are correct that I asked the president to meet with the head of
Kazatomprom," Mr. Giustra said. "Mr. Dzhakishev asked me in February 2007 to
set up a meeting with former President Clinton to discuss the future of the
nuclear energy industry." Mr. Giustra said the meeting "escaped my memory
until you raised it."
Wednesday, Mr. Clinton's spokesman, Ben Yarrow, issued what he called a
"correction," saying: "Today, Mr. Giustra told our office that in February
2007, he brought Mr. Dzhakishev from Kazatomprom to meet with President
Clinton to discuss the future of nuclear energy."
Mr. Yarrow said his earlier denial was based on the former president's
records, which he said "show a Feb. 27 meeting with Mr. Giustra; no other
attendees are listed."
Mr. Dzhakishev said he had a vivid memory of his Chappaqua visit, and a
souvenir to prove it: a photograph of himself with the former president.
"I hung up the photograph of us and people ask me if I met with Clinton and
I say, Yes, I met with Clinton," he said, smiling proudly.
David L. Stern and Margot Williams contributed reporting.
Copyright
Huge Kazakh deal follows financier's trip with Clinton, precedes donation
By Jo Becker and Don Van Natta Jr.
The New York Times
updated 1:11 a.m. CT, Thurs., Jan. 31, 2008
Late on Sept. 6, 2005, a private plane carrying the Canadian mining
financier Frank Giustra touched down in Almaty, a ruggedly picturesque city
in southeast Kazakhstan. Several hundred miles to the west a fortune
awaited: highly coveted deposits of uranium that could fuel nuclear reactors
around the world. And Mr. Giustra was in hot pursuit of an exclusive deal to
tap them.
Unlike more established competitors, Mr. Giustra was a newcomer to uranium
mining in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. But what his fledgling
company lacked in experience, it made up for in connections. Accompanying
Mr. Giustra on his luxuriously appointed MD-87 jet that day was a former
president of the United States, Bill Clinton.
Upon landing on the first stop of a three-country philanthropic tour, the
two men were whisked off to share a sumptuous midnight banquet with
Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, whose 19-year stranglehold
on the country has all but quashed political dissent.
Mr. Nazarbayev walked away from the table with a propaganda coup, after Mr.
Clinton expressed enthusiastic support for the Kazakh leader's bid to head
an international organization that monitors elections and supports
democracy. Mr. Clinton's public declaration undercut both American foreign
policy and sharp criticism of Kazakhstan's poor human rights record by,
among others, Mr. Clinton's wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New
York.
Within two days, corporate records show that Mr. Giustra also came up a
winner when his company signed preliminary agreements giving it the right to
buy into three uranium projects controlled by Kazakhstan's state-owned
uranium agency, Kazatomprom.
Deal stunned the mining industry
The monster deal stunned the mining industry, turning an unknown shell
company into one of the world's largest uranium producers in a transaction
ultimately worth tens of millions of dollars to Mr. Giustra, analysts said.
Just months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr. Clinton's charitable
foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr.
Giustra that had remained a secret until he acknowledged it last month. The
gift, combined with Mr. Giustra's more recent and public pledge to give the
William J. Clinton Foundation an additional $100 million, secured Mr.
Giustra a place in Mr. Clinton's inner circle, an exclusive club of wealthy
entrepreneurs in which friendship with the former president has its
privileges.
Mr. Giustra was invited to accompany the former president to Almaty just as
the financier was trying to seal a deal he had been negotiating for months.
In separate written responses, both men said Mr. Giustra traveled with Mr.
Clinton to Kazakhstan, India and China to see first-hand the philanthropic
work done by his foundation.
A spokesman for Mr. Clinton said the former president knew that Mr. Giustra
had mining interests in Kazakhstan but was unaware of "any particular
efforts" and did nothing to help. Mr. Giustra said he was there as an
"observer only" and there was "no discussion" of the deal with Mr.
Nazarbayev or Mr. Clinton.
But Moukhtar Dzhakishev, president of Kazatomprom, said in an interview that
Mr. Giustra did discuss it, directly with the Kazakh president, and that his
friendship with Mr. Clinton "of course made an impression." Mr. Dzhakishev
added that Kazatomprom chose to form a partnership with Mr. Giustra's
company based solely on the merits of its offer.
After The Times told Mr. Giustra that others said he had discussed the deal
with Mr. Nazarbayev, Mr. Giustra responded that he "may well have mentioned
my general interest in the Kazakhstan mining business to him, but I did not
discuss the ongoing" efforts.
As Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign has intensified, Mr. Clinton has
begun severing financial ties with Ronald W. Burkle, the supermarket
magnate, and Vinod Gupta, the chairman of InfoUSA, to avoid any conflicts of
interest. Those two men have harnessed the former president's clout to
expand their businesses while making the Clintons rich through partnership
and consulting arrangements.
Mr. Clinton has vowed to continue raising money for his foundation if Mrs.
Clinton is elected president, maintaining his connections with a wide
network of philanthropic partners.
Mr. Giustra said that while his friendship with the former president "may
have elevated my profile in the news media, it has not directly affected any
of my business transactions."
Mining colleagues and analysts agree it has not hurt. Neil MacDonald, the
chief executive of a Canadian merchant bank that specializes in mining
deals, said Mr. Giustra's financial success was partly due to a "fantastic
network" crowned by Mr. Clinton. "That's a very solid relationship for him,"
Mr. MacDonald said. "I'm sure it's very much a two-way relationship because
that's the way Frank operates."
Foreseeing opportunities
Mr. Giustra made his fortune in mining ventures as a broker on the Vancouver
Stock Exchange, raising billions of dollars and developing a loyal following
of investors. Just as the mining sector collapsed, Mr. Giustra, a lifelong
film buff, founded the Lion's Gate Entertainment Corporation in 1997. But he
sold the studio in 2003 and returned to mining.
Mr. Giustra foresaw a bull market in gold and began investing in mines in
Argentina, Australia and Mexico. He turned a $20 million shell company into
a powerhouse that, after a $2.4 billion merger with Goldcorp Inc., became
Canada's second-largest gold company.
With a net worth estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Mr.
Giustra began looking for ways to put his wealth to good use. Meeting Mr.
Clinton, and learning about the work his foundation was doing on issues like
AIDS treatment in poor countries, "changed my life," Mr. Giustra told The
Vancouver Sun.
The two men were introduced in June 2005 at a fund-raiser for tsunami
victims at Mr. Giustra's Vancouver home and hit it off right away. They
share a love of history, geopolitics and music - Mr. Giustra plays the
trumpet to Mr. Clinton's saxophone. Soon the dapper Canadian was a regular
at Mr. Clinton's side, as they flew around the world aboard Mr. Giustra's
plane.
Philanthropy may have become his passion, but Mr. Giustra, now 50, was still
hunting for ways to make money.
Exploding demand for energy had helped revitalize the nuclear power
industry, and uranium, the raw material for reactor fuel, was about to
become a hot commodity. In late 2004, Mr. Giustra began talking to
investors, and put together a company that would eventually be called UrAsia
Energy Ltd.
About a fifth of world uranium reserves
Kazakhstan, which has about one-fifth of the world's uranium reserves, was
the place to be. But with plenty of suitors, Kazatomprom could be picky
about its partners.
"Everyone was asking Kazatomprom to the dance," said Fadi Shadid, a senior
stock analyst covering the uranium industry for Friedman Billings Ramsey, an
investment bank. "A second-tier junior player like UrAsia - you'd need all
the help you could get."
The Cameco Corporation, the world's largest uranium producer, was already a
partner of Kazatomprom. But when Cameco expressed interest in the properties
Mr. Giustra was already eyeing, the government's response was lukewarm. "The
signals we were getting was, you've got your hands full," said Gerald W.
Grandey, Cameco president.
For Cameco, it took five years to "build the right connections" in
Kazakhstan, Mr. Grandey said. UrAsia did not have that luxury. Profitability
depended on striking before the price of uranium soared.
"Timing was everything," said Sergey Kurzin, a Russian-born businessman
whose London-based company was brought into the deal by UrAsia because of
his connections in Kazakhstan. Even with those connections, Mr. Kurzin said,
it took four months to arrange a meeting with Kazatomprom.
In August 2005, records show, the company sent an engineering consultant to
Kazakhstan to assess the uranium properties. Less than four weeks later, Mr.
Giustra arrived with Mr. Clinton.
Reportedly discussed deal with president
Mr. Dzhakishev, the Kazatomprom chief, said an aide to Mr. Nazarbayev
informed him that Mr. Giustra talked with Mr. Nazarbayev about the deal
during the visit. "And when our president asked Giustra, 'What do you do?'
he said, 'I'm trying to do business with Kazatomprom,' " Mr. Dzhakishev
said. He added that Mr. Nazarbayev replied, "Very good, go to it."
Mr. Clinton's Kazakhstan visit, the only one of his post-presidency, appears
to have been arranged hastily. The United States Embassy got last-minute
notice that the president would be making "a private visit," said a State
Department official, who said he was not authorized to speak on the record.
The publicly stated reason for the visit was to announce a Clinton
Foundation agreement that enabled the government to buy discounted AIDS
drugs. But during a news conference, Mr. Clinton wandered into delicate
territory by commending Mr. Nazarbayev for "opening up the social and
political life of your country."
In a statement Kazakhstan would highlight in news releases, Mr. Clinton
declared that he hoped it would achieve a top objective: leading the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which would confer
legitimacy on Mr. Nazarbayev's government.
"I think it's time for that to happen, it's an important step, and I'm glad
you're willing to undertake it," Mr. Clinton said.
A speedy process
Mr. Clinton's praise was odd, given that the United States did not support
Mr. Nazarbayev's bid. (Late last year, Kazakhstan finally won the chance to
lead the security organization for one year, despite concerns raised by the
Bush administration.) Moreover, Mr. Clinton's wife, who sits on a
Congressional commission with oversight of such matters, had also voiced
skepticism.
Eleven months before Mr. Clinton's statement, Mrs. Clinton co-signed a
commission letter to the State Department that sounded "alarm bells" about
the prospect that Kazakhstan might head the group. The letter stated that
Kazakhstan's bid "would not be acceptable," citing "serious corruption,"
canceled elections and government control of the news media.
In a written statement to The Times, Mr. Clinton's spokesman said the former
president saw "no contradiction" between his statements in Kazakhstan and
the position of Mrs. Clinton, who said through a spokeswoman, "Senator
Clinton's position on Kazakhstan remains unchanged."
Noting that the former president also met with opposition leaders in Almaty,
Mr. Clinton's spokesman said he was only "seeking to suggest that a
commitment to political openness and to fair elections would reflect well on
Kazakhstan's efforts to chair the O.S.C.E."
But Robert Herman, who worked for the State Department in the Clinton
administration and is now at Freedom House, a human rights group, said the
former president's statement amounted to an endorsement of Kazakhstan's
readiness to lead the group, a position he called "patently absurd."
"He was either going off his brief or he was sadly mistaken," Mr. Herman
said. "There was nothing in the record to suggest that they really wanted to
move forward on democratic reform."
Indeed, in December 2005, Mr. Nazarbayev won another election, which the
security organization itself said was marred by an "atmosphere of
intimidation" and "ballot-box stuffing."
Congratulations from Clinton
After Mr. Nazarbayev won with 91 percent of the vote, Mr. Clinton sent his
congratulations. "Recognizing that your work has received an excellent grade
is one of the most important rewards in life," Mr. Clinton wrote in a letter
released by the Kazakh embassy. Last September, just weeks after Kazakhstan
held an election that once again failed to meet international standards, Mr.
Clinton honored Mr. Nazarbayev by inviting him to his annual philanthropic
conference.
Within 48 hours of Mr. Clinton's departure from Almaty on Sept. 7, Mr.
Giustra got his deal. UrAsia signed two memorandums of understanding that
paved the way for the company to become partners with Kazatomprom in three
mines.
The cost to UrAsia was more than $450 million, money the company did not
have in hand and had only weeks to come up with. The transaction was
finalized in November, after UrAsia raised the money through the largest
initial public offering in the history of Canada's Venture Exchange.
Mr. Giustra challenged the notion that UrAsia needed to court Kazatomprom's
favor to seal the deal, contending that the government agency's approval was
not required.
But Mr. Dzhakishev, analysts and Mr. Kurzin, one of Mr. Giustra's own
investors, said that approval was necessary. Mr. Dzhakishev, who said that
the deal was almost done when Mr. Clinton arrived, said that Kazatomprom was
impressed with the sum Mr. Giustra was willing to pay and his record of
attracting investors. He said Mr. Nazarbayev himself ultimately signed off
on the transaction.
Longtime market watchers were confounded. Kazatomprom's choice of UrAsia was
a "mystery," said Gene Clark, the chief executive of Trade Tech, a uranium
industry newsletter.
"UrAsia was able to jump-start the whole process somehow," Mr. Clark said.
The company became a "major uranium producer when it didn't even exist
before."
A profitable sale
Records show that Mr. Giustra donated the $31.3 million to the Clinton
Foundation in the months that followed in 2006, but neither he nor a
spokesman for Mr. Clinton would say exactly when.
In September 2006, Mr. Giustra co-produced a gala 60th birthday for Mr.
Clinton that featured stars like Jon Bon Jovi and raised about $21 million
for the Clinton Foundation.
In February 2007, a company called Uranium One agreed to pay $3.1 billion to
acquire UrAsia. Mr. Giustra, a director and major shareholder in UrAsia,
would be paid $7.05 per share for a company that just two years earlier was
trading at 10 cents per share.
That same month, Mr. Dzhakishev, the Kazatomprom chief, said he traveled to
Chappaqua, N.Y., to meet with Mr. Clinton at his home. Mr. Dzhakishev said
Mr. Giustra arranged the three-hour meeting. Mr. Dzhakishev said he wanted
to discuss Kazakhstan's intention - not publicly known at the time - to buy
a 10 percent stake in Westinghouse, a United States supplier of nuclear
technology.
Nearly a year earlier, Mr. Clinton had advised Dubai on how to handle the
political furor after one of that nation's companies attempted to take over
several American ports. Mrs. Clinton was among those on Capitol Hill who
raised the national security concerns that helped kill the deal.
Mr. Dzhakishev said he was worried the proposed Westinghouse investment
could face similar objections. Mr. Clinton told him that he would not lobby
for him, but Mr. Dzhakishev came away pleased by the chance to promote his
nation's proposal to a former president.
Mr. Clinton "said this was very important for America," said Mr. Dzhakishev,
who added that Mr. Giustra was present at Mr. Clinton's home.
Denials, then acknowledgment
Both Mr. Clinton and Mr. Giustra at first denied that any such meeting
occurred. Mr. Giustra also denied ever arranging for Kazakh officials to
meet with Mr. Clinton. Wednesday, after The Times told them that others said
a meeting, in Mr. Clinton's home, had in fact taken place, both men
acknowledged it.
"You are correct that I asked the president to meet with the head of
Kazatomprom," Mr. Giustra said. "Mr. Dzhakishev asked me in February 2007 to
set up a meeting with former President Clinton to discuss the future of the
nuclear energy industry." Mr. Giustra said the meeting "escaped my memory
until you raised it."
Wednesday, Mr. Clinton's spokesman, Ben Yarrow, issued what he called a
"correction," saying: "Today, Mr. Giustra told our office that in February
2007, he brought Mr. Dzhakishev from Kazatomprom to meet with President
Clinton to discuss the future of nuclear energy."
Mr. Yarrow said his earlier denial was based on the former president's
records, which he said "show a Feb. 27 meeting with Mr. Giustra; no other
attendees are listed."
Mr. Dzhakishev said he had a vivid memory of his Chappaqua visit, and a
souvenir to prove it: a photograph of himself with the former president.
"I hung up the photograph of us and people ask me if I met with Clinton and
I say, Yes, I met with Clinton," he said, smiling proudly.
David L. Stern and Margot Williams contributed reporting.
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