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Hillary and Bill Clinton are gearing up for a 2016 presidential run, and Tuesday's election for Virginia Governor is a preview of coming attractions.


Terry McAuliffe, Bill and Hill's longtime friend and financial impresario, is leading Republican Ken Cuccinelli despite a federal probe of one of his businesses.


For aficionados of the 1990s, the story includes the familiar cast of Clinton characters leveraging connections for political favors.


The focus is GreenTech Automotive, which was supposed to produce electric vehicles.


McAuliffe launched GreenTech in 2009, looking to burnish his business credentials in anticipation of a second Virginia run (he lost a primary in 2009).


In its hunt for cash, GreenTech turned to the federal government's EB-5 program, which provides visas to foreigners who invest at least $500,000 to create U.S. jobs.


EB-5 was created in 1990, and a federal immigration agency approves "regional centers" — often private companies — to administer the program.


This outsourcing has raised national-security alarms, while federal authorities have a growing list of investigations into, or enforcement actions against, U.S. entities that have used the program to defraud foreigners.



http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303448104579151942508574108
 
GreenTech's use of EB-5 first raised red flags in 2009 as part of its application for Virginia state incentives to build a manufacturing plant.


The state development agency refused, with one agency official writing in an email to colleagues that she couldn't view GreenTech's EB-5 program as anything other than "a visa-for-sale scheme with potential national security implications."


McAuliffe turned to Mississippi, where he landed $5 million in state incentives to build a factory on the promise of creating 350 jobs by 2014 and producing thousands of cars.


McAuliffe's business partner, GreenTech co-founder Charles Wang, got another of his companies, Gulf Coast Funds Management, certified as a regional center for EB-5 visas for Mississippi and Louisiana.


Wang installed as CEO of Gulf Coast none other than Hillary Clinton's younger brother, Anthony Rodham.


Gulf Coast's board includes several Democratic Party notables, such as former Clinton IRS Commissioner Margaret Richardson and former Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco.


While Gulf Coast exists to direct EB-5 investments to startups across its entire "region," to date its website lists one project: GreenTech.




http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303448104579151942508574108
 
McAuliffe and Co. then began leveraging political connections to accelerate the visa process. The Washington Post has reported that government documents show that McAuliffe, Rodham and others at GreenTech and Gulf Coast had a dozen email and telephone conversations with senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security, including director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Alejandro Mayorkas.


You may remember Mr. Mayorkas.


In the final days of the Clinton Administration, while working as a U.S. prosecutor in California, he called the Clinton White House to seek an early prison release for convicted cocaine trafficker Carlos Vignali.


Mayorkas called at the request of Vignali's father, a prominent Democratic donor, who had also paid Hugh Rodham (Mrs. Clinton's other brother) $200,000 to lobby for the commutation.


Clinton granted clemency on his last day in office.









http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303448104579151942508574108
 
McAuliffe met personally with Mayorkas, reached out directly to (now former) Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and contacted Napolitano's chief of staff Noah Kroloff, according to testimony and publicly released documents and emails.


He was clearly heard.


DHS Assistant Secretary Doug Smith sent a February 2013 email to Mr. Kroloff: "Any way you can kick into gear? If this doesn't get resolved by today, the plant will have to shut down and lay off 100 people on Monday."


It isn't clear what DHS did on GreenTech's behalf, but a GreenTech prospectus in March said the company had received about $46 million from EB-5 investors.


The Associated Press reported in July that the DHS inspector general has launched a preliminary investigation into whether Mayorkas improperly helped GreenTech.


Senator Chuck Grassley says he has documents showing Mayorkas bypassed normal security checks to accelerate visa approvals.


Several DHS officials have requested whistleblower status to report that DHS officials gave preferential visa treatment to companies like McAuliffe's.










http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303448104579151942508574108
 
The Washington Post reported in August that one Chinese national who applied for a visa through Gulf Coast is an executive at Huawei Technologies, the telecom company that the HouseIntelligence Committee says poses a threat to U.S. security.


The Post also reported that the SEC has subpoenaed GreenTech and Gulf Coast documents as part of a separate investigation into solicitation of foreign investors.


Meanwhile, GreenTech's Mississippi site sits largely vacant, with a mere 80 employees and nary a car produced.


DHS, GreenTech and Gulf Coast officials have all publicly denied any wrongdoing.


Obama has nominated Mayorkas for the number two post at DHS, and at his July confirmation hearing he said he did not give special treatment to GreenTech.


McAuliffe, who resigned from GreenTech last December (though he remains the largest investor), wrote in the Washington Post in August that investigators had not contacted him.


All of which will sound familiar to anyone old enough to recall the ethical follies of 1990s: the insider political deals, the dubious pardons, the stonewalling, and the denials that proved to be false after the election.


If McAuliffe wins on Tuesday, the Clinton Show will officially be back in town.








http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303448104579151942508574108
 
Authorities are investigating the man President Obama tapped to take over the second highest spot at the Department of Homeland Security for allegedly using his position and power to unfairly obtain U.S. visas for foreign investors in a company run by Hillary Clinton’s brother



http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/24/investigation-into-dhs-official-using-his-power-to-help-hillary-clinton-brother/
 
Alejandro Mayorkas, director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, was named by Homeland Security's Inspector General's Office as a target in an investigation involving the foreign investor program run by USCIS.


The investigation was opened in September 2012 following a referral from an FBI counterintelligence analyst. The probe was first reported by The Associated Press.


The investigation into Mayorkas is based on allegations he helped secure U.S. visas for Chinese businessmen after they had been denied by his own agency’s officials.


The visas had been sought by Gulf Coast Funds Management, a financing company headed by then-Secretary of State Clinton’s brother Anthony Rodham, according to an aide to Sen. Charles Grassley, who had received internal USCIS emails about the matter from a department whistle-blower.



http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/24/investigation-into-dhs-official-using-his-power-to-help-hillary-clinton-brother/
 
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