YUCAIPA COMPANIES: “POSTER CHILD FOR THE ILLS OF POLITICAL DONATIONS AND BUSINESS” Yucaipa is a holding company that invests across a wide range of industries—from groceries to logistics to magazine distribution. Ronald Burkle, chairman of Yucaipa, has been a multi-million fundraiser and donor for Bill and Hillary Clinton and in Bill Clinton’s post-presidency, Burkle has emerged as a close friend and rain- maker for the Clintons – and the friendship has been prosperous for both.
“The mainstream business press beats up on [Burkle], essentially for buying access and influence among politicians and leaders of the pension funds that invest with him (FORBES included). ‘I basically became the poster child for the ills of political donations and business. It’s preposterous!’ Burkle protests.” [Forbes, 12/11/06]
BILL CLINTON AND YUCAIPA
2006: Bill Clinton Has Guaranteed Payments “Over $1,000” From Yucaipa And Has Invested In Several Yucaipa Funds. Hillary’s financial disclosure report indicates that Bill Clinton has “over $1,000” in guaranteed payments from Yucaipa Global Holdings. Because the Clintons are not required to report the actual amount or any range of income that is more specific than “over $1,000” we do not know how much Bill has been compen- sated. Through WJC International Investments GP, Bill Clinton invests in Yucaipa Global Holdings and Yu- caipa Global Partnership. The Yucaipa Global Partnership Fund “invests in securities of corporations that con- duct significant operations in foreign countries.” Clinton reported interest income between $201-$1,000 from Yucaipa Global Holdings and between $1,001-$2,500 from Yucaipa Global Partnership Fund. [2006 Sen. Clinton Senate Financial Disclosure Report; 6, 8]
2005: Bill Clinton Has Guaranteed Payments “Over $1,000” From Yucaipa And Has Invested In Several Yucaipa Funds. Hillary Clinton’s Senate annual financial-disclosure statement for 2005 show Bill Clinton re- ceiving ‘guaranteed’ partnership payments from the Yucaipa Global Opportunities Fund I LLC of ‘over $1,000.’ A spokesman for Bill Clinton said he owns a one-third share of that fund. The two other Yucaipa funds involving the former president the Yucaipa American Fund and the Yucaipa Corporate Initiative Fund aren’t listed on Hillary Clinton’s disclosure form. Bill Clinton’s spokesman said he would only receive remu- neration from those two funds if they meet certain investment benchmarks. Since he hasn’t received any mon- ies from them, no disclosure is required, the spokesman said.” [Wall Street Journal, 5/2/07]
∞ WSJ: Bill Clinton May Receive Millions From Yucaipa. “After leaving the White House, Bill Clinton became a senior adviser to Yucaipa and involved in three of its investment funds. When Clinton joined Yucaipa in 2002, the company said he would ‘provide counsel’ and ‘participate in events related to the funds and provide advice in the development of potential investments.’ Neither Yucaipa nor Mr. Clinton has released full details about the former president’s compensation. Some observers have estimated he could make millions of dollars or more from his Yucaipa connection. [Wall Street Journal, 5/2/07]
YUCAIPA BUSINESS DEALS
TRUCKING DEAL: BILL CLINTON HOOKS BURKLE UP WITH HOFFA, TEAMSTERS
Bill Clinton Assisted Billionaire Hillary Clinton Bundler Ron Burkle In A Controversial Effort To Take Over The Car Hauling Business. Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle has stirred up controversy with his ef- fort to take control of a big chunk of the nation’s car-hauling business, with some help from Bill Clinton. In 2006 two investment funds in Burkle’s Yucaipa Cos. bought big holdings of Allied Holdings Inc. debt, making Yucaipa the largest unsecured creditor of the company, which sought bankruptcy-court protection in 2005. Ear- lier this year, Yucaipa gained control of Performance Transportation Services, another big car hauler. Allied and Performance together account for an estimated 50 percent of the new vehicles hauled by truck in the U.S. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters agreed to back a 15 percent wage cut for those workers. By bringing Burkle together with teamsters boss James Hoffa, Bill Clinton helped to pave the way for the two sides to work together in the effort to reorganize Allied and bring it out of bankruptcy proceedings. [Wall Street Journal, 5/2/07]
∞ Lawsuit Says Yucaipa Interfered With Teamsters To Push Own Reorganization Plan. Now, a fed- eral lawsuit filed in Atlanta by some union members, three Allied directors and several outside investors alleges Yucaipa interfered in Allied’s talks with the Teamsters as a way to push through its own reor- ganization plan. They also say that as an owner of a major Allied competitor, Yucaipa has a conflict of interest and is looking to gain an improper amount of market power in the car-hauling business. In the Allied matter, Burkle has credited President Clinton with persuading Hoffa to work with Yucaipa as a un- ion-friendly employer a feat that Burkle said he couldn’t have pulled off on his own. Teamster and Yu- caipa officials say that in 2003 Clinton suggested to Hoffa that he look to Yucaipa if any companies em- ploying Teamsters got into financial trouble.” [Wall Street Journal, 5/2/07]
Mickey Kaus: Clinton-Burkle-Hoffa Deal Has Implications If Hillary Is President. Kaus wrote, “Yucaipa arranged for Clinton to make a speech at a Teamsters conference in 2003, and later Clinton urged Teamsters President James Hoffa Jr. to trust Burkle and present him with possible deals. Result: This spring Yucaipa paid $100 million to buy a controlling stake in Allied Holdings, a trucking outfit in bankruptcy proceedings. ‘Clinton got it to the point where Hoffa actually helped us with that deal, something I couldn’t have gotten on my own,’ Burkle says. So Hoffa helps Clinton with a deal that makes Clinton and Burkle money. And if Hoffa needs something in a few years from President Hillary Clinton’s White House ...” [Mickey Kaus, Slate, 12/28/06]
INVESTMENTS IN ASTROLOGICAL SOFTWARE AND DISTRIBTION OF PLAYBOY
Recent Yucaipa Investments Have Included Alliance Entertainment Corp. And Source Interlink. Accord- ing to the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Alliance Entertainment Corp., Florida, is a music and magazine distributor. Yucaipa paid an estimated $130 million for the company in 1999, and traded the firm for stock worth more than $300 million in 2005 to Source Interlink Cos., leaving Yucaipa as Source Interlink’s largest shareholder.” [Phila- delphia Inquirer, 3/26/06]
MATRIX SOFTWARE
Matrix Software, Part Of Alliance Entertainment, Is The Leading Astrological Software Provider. “Ma- trix Software is the leading developer and publisher of specialty astrological software for use on personal PC’s. Founded in 1977 Matrix is one of the oldest continuously operating PC software companies in existence today. Matrix Software became a part of Alliance Entertainment in 1995 when it was purchased with its sister com- pany All Media Guide (AMG). Today Matrix catalog of more than sixty programs are used by astrologers, and the astrologically curious in over 119 countries. The Matrix Oracle online is one of the most visited astrology sites on the web.” [Alliance Entertainment website, accessed 5/23/07]
SOURCE INTERLINK
Source Interlink Renewed Full Distribution And Marketing Agreements With Playboy. A Source Interlink press release included, under the heading “Recent Business Highlights”: “The Company renewed full distribu- tion and marketing services agreements with Playboy Enterprises International, Inc. and Scientific American, Inc. for the international marketplace. [PR Newswier, 4/17/06]
Source Interlink Secured Exclusive Distribution Of All Magazines To And Borders Stores… In a May 2007 Source Interlink press release, Michael Duckworth, chairman of Source Interlink, commented “We are very pleased to have been selected by Borders Group as its exclusive supplier of magazines and we consider this to be an outstanding opportunity to help expand the category. We look forward to working with the com- pany and our publisher partners to enhance the customer experience at newsstands.” [Source interlink press release, 11/04/05, accessed 5/23/07; Source interlink press release, 5/7/07, accessed 5/23/07]
…And Penthouse Sales Grew At Borders. Mediaweek wrote, “Penthouse has stopped taking ads with strong sexual content, resulting in a 4.1 percent drop in ad pages year to date, according to the Mediaweek Magazine Monitor. But circulation has increased. The title is back at many more Borders and Barnes & Noble outlets, and paid and verified circ was up 2.9 percent, to 366,024, in the six months ended June 30, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.” [Mediaweek, 10/9/06]
DEAL WITH CALIFORNIA PUBLIC RETIREMENT SYSTEM
2006: Calpers: We Chose To Invest In Yucaipa Funds Because Of Their Track Record, Commitment To Disadvantaged Communities. The New York Times wrote, “The California Public Employees Retirement System, often called Calpers, is a major investor in the two domestic funds of Yucaipa, committing $400 mil- lion since 2002 with an option to invest another $275 million, according to public records. Calpers officials said they chose to invest with Yucaipa because it has a stellar track record and it invests in communities that have trouble attracting other investment capital.” [New York Times, 4/23/06]
2002: Experts: Bill Clinton Is Worth $5 Million A Year To Raise Investment Funds From Unions. The New York Post wrote, “Bill Clinton has landed a real job. And if the ex-president rakes in enough cash for the coffers of Yucaipa Cos., a group of investment funds based in Los Angeles, his pay could top $5 million a year, experts estimated. ‘He can get that [$5 million] and more,’ said one. ‘He’s worth it.’ The fund managers want Clinton to help raise $1.5 billion, mainly from the nation’s $400 billion in union pension funds.” [New York Post, 4/12/02]
∞ Success Raising Funds From Unions Motivated Creation Of The Second Domestic Fund. The New York Times wrote, “The two funds started by Yucaipa first got their start last year when the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, one of the nation’s largest and most influential pension plans, ap- proved a $475 million initiative to invest in blighted urban and rural communities throughout the state. The retirement system then picked 11 investment firms as partners with the hope it would spur develop- ment in areas ignored by venture capitalists. Yucaipa was allotted $200 million by the retirement system and set up a fund. But Mr. Burkle liked the idea enough to start another fund, the American Fund, which has raised $560 million from state and union pensions.” [New York Times, 4/11/02]
2004: Data Showed Zero Return From Yucaipa Funds. The New York Times wrote, “Mr. Scheer also said that the information would help settle longstanding questions about whether some investment partnerships were favored because they had cultivated relationships with politicians and celebrities. A family of private invest- ment partnerships created by the Yucaipa Companies, for instance, sometimes sponsors appearances by former President Bill Clinton at conferences for pension trustees. The new data show that Calpers paid fees around $8.6 million to three Yucaipa investment partnerships in 2003. The return from those partnerships was zero.” [New York Times, 12/8/04]
Burkle Won No-Auction Deals From CALPERS, Leaned On Ties To Influential Politicians. Forbes wrote, “In 2000 Burkle decided to launch a few private equity funds aimed at big no-auction deals (he has been the sole bidder in 75% of his transactions), and he brandished a well-honed talent for mixing business and politics. California’s then $165 billion state pension plan, Calpers, committed $760 million to Burkle’s funds. More scorn for Burkle: In the mid-1990s he had contributed money to the campaigns of Governor Gray Davis, San Francisco’s former mayor Willie Brown (his former lawyer) and State Treasurer Philip Angelides, and later Brown and Angelides joined the Calpers board. ‘How were we supposed to know in the mid-1990s that Willie Brown was going to be on the board of Calpers?’ he says. You would never have guessed unless maybe you knew that Willie Brown was about as well-connected as any politician in California’s history.” [Forbes, 12/11/06]
∞ CALPERS Board Drew Criticism For Awarding Investment Deal To Yucaipa Despite Ties To The Company and Burkle. “Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a consumer watchdog group in Los Angeles, said he is concerned that CalPERS board members are ‘in the position of voting to invest with people who have made campaign contributions. I think there’s a problem with that.’ […] Nine of the board’s 13 members are elected officials. Six are elected to the board directly by current and former state employees, and three more seats are held by San Francisco Mayor Brown, State Treasurer Phil Angelides and State Controller Kathleen Connell. [AP, 7/18/02]
∞ Key CalPERS Decision Makers Received Campaign Contributions. “State records show that Brown, Angelides and Connell all received campaign contributions from supermarket magnate Ron Burkle, his wife or his companies. All three later voted to invest hundreds of millions with Burkle’s Yucaipa Co…Paul Sanford at the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, D.C., a nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics, said those who had received money from Burkle should have recused them- selves. ‘That doesn’t even seem like a close call,’ he said.” [AP, 7/18/02]
CLINTON APPOINTEE STEERS BURKLE TOWARDS (BUNGLED) FEMA CONTRACT
Burkle Firm, AmeriCold Logistics, Won FEMA Contract With James Lee Witt’s Help. USA Today wrote, “A firm headed by former Federal Emergency Management Agency director James Lee Witt helped a Georgia company win federal contracts worth up to $85 million in work related to Hurricane Katrina and other major 2005 storms, interviews and government records show. James Lee Witt Associates received $40,000 in lobby- ing fees this year for representing Atlanta-based AmeriCold Logistics, one of the nation’s largest cold-storage companies, federal records show. As part of the lobbying effort, Witt’s firm arranged a meeting between FEMA officials and AmeriCold last spring, before the start of the hurricane season, Witt spokesman Barry Scanlon said.” According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, “AmeriCold Logistics, Atlanta, is the nation’s largest cold- storage company. Yucaipa paid $145 million for 21 percent of AmeriCold in 2004.” [Philadelphia Inquirer, 3/26/06; USA TODAY, 10/13/05]