By Dan Eggen,Washington Post
We are supposed to forget about the connection because Obama donates Hassan Nemazee’s crooked money to charity.
President Obama and the Democratic National Committee will donate to charity more than $60,000 that came from a prominent financier arrested this week on bank fraud charges,officials said Thursday.
New York investment banker Hassan Nemazee,who acted as a major fundraiser for Obama,Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Democrats,was charged in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday with lying about his assets in order to secure a $74 million loan from Citibank. Nemazee is under house arrest after posting a $25 million bond.
Prosecutors have not alleged any connection between Nemazee’s alleged fraud and his political fundraising,but Democrats have been scrambling to distance themselves from the case by either returning contributions or donating them to charity in recent days.
Under the plans announced today by the DNC,the party committee will give away $7,100 contributed by Nemazee in 2008 and 2009 and the Obama for America campaign will donate to charity another $4,600. The Presidential Inaugural Committee,which organized activities celebrating Obama’s swearing-in in January,will also donate $50,000 to charity that Nemazee gave to the organization,officials said.