Bill Clinton was spotted on Tuesday hanging out with two sugar baron billionaire brothers, one of whom was once friends with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The former president, 75, was pictured with influential political donors Alfonso 'Alfy' and Jose 'Pepe' Fanjul disembarking their yacht in the tony town of Sag Harbor, New York.
The brothers, whose Florida sugar and real estate empire is worth $8.2billion, have been close to the Clinton family for decades, with Alfonso co-chairing Clinton's Florida campaign in 1992.
A special prosecutor's report into Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky infamously noted how the president even interrupted his breakup conversation with her to take a 22-minute call from one of the brothers. The affair is the centerpiece of the 10-part FX series Impeachment, which debuts next Tuesday.
Both Clinton and Jose, who goes by the nickname Pepe, appear in late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's 'black book' of celebrity, wealthy and influential contacts.
Birds of a feather: Bill Clinton was spotted rubbing elbows with old friends and sugar tycoons Alfonso 'Alfy' (pictured) and Jose 'Pepe' Fanjul in Sag Harbor on Tuesday
Exclusive photos obtained by DailyMail.com show the former president hanging out with the Florida sugar baron brothers after spending time on Alfy's (pictured) yacht
The Cuban-born brothers, whose sugar and real estate empire is worth $8.2billion, have been close to the Clinton family for decades, with Alfonso co-chairing Clinton's Florida campaign in 1992. Pepe is pictured center in sunglasses
Clinton was seen talking with Alfy on a boat dock on Tuesday afternoon while Pepe (second from left) 77, stood nearby
The younger Fanjul brother was pictured with the billionaire pedophile and his associate Leon Black at a 2005 screening of the movie Capote in New York.
A spokesman for Fanjul's company Florida Crystals told the Palm Beach Daily News in 2019 that Pepe and Epstein 'obviously knew each other and had some contact in the past. But there isn't any ongoing business or social relationship with Mr. Epstein.'
Clinton has also been scrutinized for his relationship with the late pedophile billionaire, after appearing on flight manifests for Epstein's jet, dubbed the 'Lolita Express' over allegations Epstein molested underage girls on the plane.
In photographs exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, Clinton was seen talking with Alfonso and taking a white paper Sag Harbor Books bag from ayacht crew member, while Pepe, 77, stood nearby.
Alfonso's boat, Crili, is 95 feet long and named after his daughters Crista and Lillian. The brothers also own a Gulfstream G-IV private jet.
The Fanjuls have used some of their wealth to cultivate close political contacts from both parties - with Alfonso courting Democrats and Pepe pursuing Republicans
Clinton at one point was seen taking a white paper Sag Harbor Books bag from one of the yacht crew as he stepped off the 93-ft vessel
The pair are seen stepping off Alfonso's boat, Crili, named after his daughters Crista and Lillian. The brothers also own a Gulfstream G-IV private jet
Elder Fanjul brother, Alfonso, 84, has donated to the Clinton Foundation for years, and acted as co-chair of Bill Clinton's Florida campaign in 1992
The Fanjuls were born into pre-revolution Cuba's aristocracy, entertaining the upper crust at their mansion in Havana paid for by their father's sugar business on the Caribbean island - including throwing parties for the abdicated British King Edward VIII and his wife Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor.
The brothers are believed to have inspired the fictional Rojo brothers, the wealthy sugar tycoons in Carl Hiassen's 1993 crime novel Strip Tease - which was later made into a 1996 movie starring Demi Moore.
The family fled when Fidel Castro took power and their properties were seized. But they managed to rebuild their empire in Florida, buying up 187,000 acres of farmland in Palm Beach County and importing thousands of mostly Jamaican laborers.
Their companies, which include Domino Sugar, Florida Crystals and ASR Group, now give the Fanjuls an estimated wealth of $8.2 billion according to Bloomberg, and reportedly comprise 40% of the sugar refining industry in the state.
However, their operations have been deeply controversial for decades.
Some of their firms have been fined multiple times for endangering workers.
The Fanjuls faced four class action lawsuits in the 1980s and 1990s representing 20,000 workers who accused them of 'modern slavery' from backbreaking work in their cane fields, cheating on wages, and long days with 15-minute lunch breaks.
Both Clinton and Jose, who goes by the nickname Pepe, appear in late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's 'black book' of celebrity, wealthy and influential contacts. Pepe is pictured with Epstein's alleged procurer Ghislaine Maxwell in 2006
Clinton has also been scrutinized for his relationship with the late pedophile billionaire, after appearing on flight manifests for Epstein's jet, dubbed the 'Lolita Express.' He is pictured speaking with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at the White House in 1993
Lawsuits filed in 1989 by attorney Edward Tuddenham demanded $51 million for years of alleged wage cheating.
In 1992, a Florida judge granted the full award and ruled that the Fanjuls' firms and others had dramatically underpaid guest workers.
But the laborers have struggled against the vast influence of the billionaire brothers.
After first winning their judgment against the giant sugar companies, Tuddenham's cases were later overturned and dragged on for over a decade, leading to unrest among former staff.
The Palm Beach Sheriff's Department have even reportedly resorted to using police dogs to break up protesting workers on a Fanjul property.
The brothers say they built their empire on American values.
'We consider ourselves the classic American success story,' Alfonso told Vanity Fair in 2001. 'We came here and worked very, very hard.'
The Fanjuls have used some of their wealth to cultivate close political contacts from local politicians to presidents from both parties – with Alfonso courting Democrats and Pepe pursuing Republicans.
The Fanjuls were born into pre-revolution Cuba's aristocracy, entertaining the upper crust at their mansion in Havana paid for by their father's sugar business on the Caribbean island. The brothers and their relatives are reported to have donated nearly $4million to federal candidates, parties, and political action committees between 2004 and 2016
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the Fanjuls and their relatives donated nearly $4million to federal candidates, parties, and political action committees between 2004 and 2016.
Last year Pepe attended a $10 million fundraiser for Donald Trump at the Peltz mansion in Palm Beach. To secure his invite the younger Fanjul would have donated more than $580,000 to the Trump campaign.
Pepe was listed as a host at a Trump fundraising event in 2016, and also hosted a Trump fundraiser with then-Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus in the Hamptons in July that year.
Pepe was on Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole's finance committee in 1996, donated to George W. Bush's presidential campaign and backed Florida Republican senator Marco Rubio – earning the Fanjul family an explicit thanks for their support in Rubio's memoir, An American Son.
Pepe has previously come under fire for his tangential connection to the Ku Klux Klan.
His executive assistant, Chloe Black, worked with the Fanjul brother for more than 35 years as a trusted member of their multi-billion dollar sugar operation.
The assistant was the ex-wife of former KKK leader David Duke and later married former KKK grand wizard Don Black, who ran white supremacist website Stormfront.
Clinton's outing in The Hamptons comes ahead of the much-anticipated premiere of American Crime Story: Impeachment, which chronicles the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Lewinsky (pictured) had a sexual relationship with then-President Clinton as a 22-year-old unpaid White House intern, and the affair led to his impeachment in 1998
Iconic: British actor Clive Owen (left) recreates the infamous moment Bill Clinton (right) addressed the nation claiming he did not have sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky in first full trailer for Impeachment: American Crime Story. Owen's costume fit Clinton down to his red tie, though he was covered with prostheses to adopt the embattled president's distinctive nose and face
Subtle transformation: Unlike her costars, Beanie Feldstein did wear noticeable prosthetics to play Monica Lewinsky. She achieved the former interns recognizable look with a wig and her business clothing
Federal court documents from 1978 list Chloe as the corporate secretary of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
When her connections to the racist organization emerged in a 2010 Southern Poverty Law Center report, Pepe's office told the New York Post he had no intention of firing her.
Alfonso, 84, has donated to the Clinton Foundation for years, and acted as co-chair of Bill Clinton's Florida campaign in 1992.
In August 2016 Hillary attended a $50,000-per-plate Miami Beach fundraiser held by the elder Fanjul.
The most storied instance of Alfonso's powerful reach was a phone call to President Clinton noted by special prosecutor Kenneth Starr in his report on the Lewinsky affair.
Lewinsky told Starr that Clinton was in the middle of breaking up with her when he took a call from Fanjul.
'The President told her that he no longer felt right about their intimate relationship, and he had to put a stop to it,' the Starr Report said. 'Ms. Lewinsky was welcome to continue coming to visit him, but only as a friend.
Family affair: The Sopranos star Edie is seen for the first time in character with a young actress playing her daughter Chelsea Clinton
Friend or foe? Sarah Paulson plays a sinister looking and sounding Linda Tripp, who exposed the affair. The role required extensive makeup and prosthetic effects for her face, and she also wore padding under her costume
'He hugged her but would not kiss her. At one point during their conversation, the President had a call from a sugar grower in Florida whose name, according to Ms. Lewinsky, was something like 'Fanuli.' In Ms. Lewinsky's recollection, the President may have taken or returned the call just as she was leaving.
'The President talked with Alfonso Fanjul of Palm Beach, Florida, from 12:42 to 1:04 p.m. Mr. Fanjul had telephoned a few minutes earlier, at 12:24 p.m.'
In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2001, Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen suggested the interrupted meeting was far more intimate than Starr portrayed.
'The most telling thing about Alfy Fanjul is that he can get the president of the United States on the telephone in the middle of a b**w job,' Hiaasen said. 'That tells you all you need to know about their influence.'
The brothers have a strong interest in maintaining their political clout, as their companies have taken hundreds of millions of dollars in controversial farming subsidies since the 1990s that have come under attack from politicians including former vice president Al Gore.
A 2014 bill that cut many farm subsidies left a lucrative sugar support program unscathed, leading political commentators to point to the Fanjul brothers' continued influence in Washington.
No comments:
Post a Comment