--- title: Bill Clinton, Inc. Memo Reveals Tangled Business Ties description: Aide secured $116 million in paid and pledged income to Bill Clinton canonical: https://time.com/4546768/bill-clinton-inc-memo-reveals-tangled-business-charitable-ties/ author: Massimo Calabresi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-26T21:04:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:55:00.845Z article:section: Politics og:title: Bill Clinton, Inc. Memo Reveals Tangled Business Ties og:description: Aide secured $116 million in paid and pledged income to Bill Clinton og:url: https://time.com/4546768/bill-clinton-inc-memo-reveals-tangled-business-charitable-ties/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ce01dc00bb44649/6988abd3524fc0fbe1dfa03e/bill-clinton-memo-reveals-tangled-business.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Candidates Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Hold Second Presidential Debate At Washington University og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bill Clinton, Inc. Memo Reveals Tangled Business Ties twitter:description: Aide secured $116 million in paid and pledged income to Bill Clinton twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ce01dc00bb44649/6988abd3524fc0fbe1dfa03e/bill-clinton-memo-reveals-tangled-business.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Bill Clinton, Inc.' Memo Reveals Tangled Business, Charitable Ties > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME In the Loop: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition In the Loop is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential insights into the unfolding AI revolution. In the Loop makes sense of the ideas and technologies transforming how organizations operate, compete and communicate, with essential reporting, analysis, scoops and exclusive conversations. 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It publishes Tuesdays and Fridays and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes TIME's In the Loop? Harry Booth, a tech reporter at TIME, writes In the Loop. #### Is In the Loop free? Yes. In the Loop is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-loop-2026q3/newsletters?i=94b9a445-055d-41e3-8a41-2c5c680d52d9&cr=time-nl-loop-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Clinton Defends Emails At Reporters Conference [Watch (HLS stream): Clinton Defends Emails At Reporters Conference](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vaXqxaLe.m3u8) (1:43)  _Published 2016-08-05. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton spoke at a convention of black and Hispanic journalists in Washington Friday, answering several questions afterward._  by [Massimo Calabresi](https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/)  ## Massimo Calabresi Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief. Oct 26, 2016 9:04 PM UTC  Bill Clinton looks on during the second presidential debate with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, on Oct. 9, 2016. Bill Clinton looks on during the second presidential debate with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, on Oct. 9, 2016. Justin Sullivan—Getty Images  by [Massimo Calabresi](https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/)  ## Massimo Calabresi Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief. Oct 26, 2016 9:04 PM UTC A 2011 [memo](https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/32240) made public Wednesday by Wikileaks revealed new details of how former President Bill Clinton made tens of millions of dollars for himself and his wife, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, through an opaque, ethically messy amalgam of philanthropic, business and personal activities. The memo was written by Bill Clinton’s longtime aide, Doug Band, and is among tens of thousands of emails apparently stolen from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief, John Podesta, in what U.S. officials believe is part of a massive Russian-backed attempt to disrupt the U.S. election. The Band memo came in response to an [investigation](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0ahUKEwjUq4mvkvnPAhWCFj4KHc79Do8QFggqMAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.clintonfoundation.org%2Ffiles%2Fpublished%5Fresults%5Ffrom%5Fcorporate%5Freview.pdf&usg=AFQjCNEFTKrGCRJlq3tlhEAa1fB2QMTJeg&sig2=s%5FFh14hAU4ZzuSkBDryxXg&bvm=bv.136593572,d.cWw) undertaken by a law firm, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, into the activities of the Clinton Foundation at the behest of its board. The board was concerned that some of the activities undertaken by Band and others on behalf of the President could threaten the Foundation’s IRS status as a charity, according to Band’s memo. Chelsea Clinton had also [reported](https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/30938) concerns to Podesta and other Clinton advisors that Band and his recently-launched consulting firm, Teneo, were using her father’s name without his knowledge to contact British lawmakers for clients, including Dow Chemical. In the 12-page memo, Band describes how he and several colleagues spent much of the years after Bill Clinton’s presidency working to fund the [Clinton Foundation](https://www.clintonfoundation.org/), which has raised nearly $2 billion from individuals, corporations and governments for charities focusing on climate change, economic development, health, women and girls issues and other causes. Band claims in the memo that from 2006 to 2011, he and a colleague, Justin Cooper, raised $46 million for the Foundation through the Clinton Global Initiative, an annual networking conference that is one of the Foundation’s big sources of income. But the Foundation work was just a part of what Bill Clinton did during his wife’s time as a Senator and Secretary of State, and it wasn’t always clear where the former president’s non-profit activities ended and his for-profit ones began. Five months before he wrote the memo, Band joined forces with a recently retired State Department envoy, Declan Kelly, to form Teneo, which Band said provided merchant and investment banking services, corporate restructuring, public relations and communications services and strategic advising services to 20 clients, including Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, UBS, Barclays and BHP Billiton, among others. Over that period, Band says in the memo, Teneo raised $8 million for the Clinton Foundation. And Band was also organizing personal income directly for Clinton. Under the heading, “For-Profit Activity of President Clinton (i.e. Bill Clinton, Inc.),” Band wrote, “We have dedicated our selves to helping the President secure and engage in for-profit activities—including speeches, books, and advisory service engagements… In support of the President’s for-profit activity, we also have solicited and obtained, as appropriate, in-kind services for the President and his family—for personal travel, hospitality, vacation and the like. Neither Justin nor I are separately compensated for these activities (e.g., we do not receive a fee for, or percentage of, the more than $50 million in for-profit activity we have personally helped to secure for President Clinton to date or the $66 million in future contracts, should he choose to continue with those engagements).” Band mentions four such “arrangements” without naming them. Bill Clinton [was paid](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-bill-clintons-nearly-18-million-job-as-honorary-chancellor-of-a-for-profit-college/2016/09/05/8496db42-655b-11e6-be4e-23fc4d4d12b4%5Fstory.html) nearly $18 million to be “honorary chancellor” of a for-profit college, Laureate International Universities, according to reports and the family’s tax returns. A Dubai-based firm, GEMS Education, paid Bill Clinton more than $560,000 in 2015, according to the [tax returns](https://www.hillaryclinton.com/page/tax-returns/). Band also lists a variety of speaking fees, previously disclosed by the Clintons, including hundreds of thousands of dollars each from UBS, Ericsson, BHP and Barclays. In 2011 alone, according to the Clinton’s tax returns, Bill Clinton earned $13,454,000 in speaking fees. No evidence has been found to support allegations of a quid pro quo of official acts by Hillary Clinton as senator or Secretary of State in exchange for the money received by the Clintons or the Clinton Foundation. However the messiness and opacity of the relationship between Clinton’s personal, business and philanthropic undertakings detailed in the memo raises new questions about Bill Clinton’s activity. In the email to which Band’s draft memo was attached, Band tells Podesta he has removed the “lasry section all together.” Marc Lasry is a hedge fund manager and Clinton donor who funded an unsuccessful investment vehicle launched by Chelsea Clinton’s husband Marc Mezvinsky. Other questions arise in the penultimate paragraph of the memo, entitled “Other Matters.” Without providing details, Band writes that since the end of Bill Clinton’s presidency he and Cooper had served as the primary contact and point of management for President Clinton’s activities, including political, business and Foundation matters, speeches, books, and family/personal needs, including “securing in-kind private airplane travel, in-kind vacation stays, and supporting family business and personal needs.” Calls and emails to Band, Teneo and the Clinton Foundation were not immediately returned. The Hillary Clinton campaign declined to confirm that the memo, or other emails released by Wikileaks, are in fact undoctored documents stolen from Podesta’s personal email account. However a campaign spokesperson, Glen Caplin, tweeted on Wednesday that Wikileaks was advancing a “clear political agenda” by “dribbling out” Podesta’s emails. “If Podesta dump was about high-minded transparency @wikileaks would release all at once,” Carlin tweeted. Podesta has said he is cooperating with the FBI in an investigation of the hack. The Clinton Foundation has said it will stop accepting foreign and corporate donations if Hillary Clinton is elected president. ## Transcript I never sent or received anything that was marked classified. Now, if in retrospect which is what is behind 100 number, if in retrospect, some different agency said, but it should have been although it wasn't, it should have been. That's what the debate is about. But Director Comey said there was absolutely no intention on my part to either ignore or in anyway dismissed the importance of those documents. Because Marked classified. If any of you have ever served in the government, a classified document has a big heading on the top. Which, makes very clear what the classification is. And in questioning, director Comey made The point that the three emails out of the 30, 000 did not have the appropriate markings. And it was therefore reasonable to conclude that anyone including myself would have Not suspected that they were classified. So they have short circuited it, and for that, I will try to clarify, because I think Chris Wallace and I were probably talking past each other. Because of course, he could only talk to what I had told the FBI and I appreciated that. Now, I have acknowledged repeatedly that using two email accounts was a mistake and I take responsibility for that. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4546768/bill-clinton-inc-memo-reveals-tangled-business-charitable-ties/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4546768/bill-clinton-inc-memo-reveals-tangled-business-charitable-ties/"},"headline":"'Bill Clinton, Inc.' 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