October 23, 2003 – The sordid history of Australia’s deals to ‘facilitate’ the Clinton Foundation’s access to Asia

23 October 2003 The Clinton Foundation announced that it had negotiated price reductions for the supply of HIV/Aids drugs with the following companies:

• Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd., of Johannesburg, South Africa;
• Cipla Ltd., of Mumbai, India;
• Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., of Delhi, India; and
• Matrix Laboratories Ltd., of Hyderabad, India.
• Indian pharma executive and conman Nimmagad PRASAD on the right behind Clinton. Prior to the Clinton deal PRASAD bought a rundown Indian pharmaceutical company and renamed it Matrix Laboratories.

The agreement covered antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) for delivery to African countries and the Caribbean through the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative. Business for those pharma companies went through the roof.

That’s Indian pharma executive and conman Nimmagad PRASAD on the right behind Clinton.   Prior to the Clinton deal PRASAD bought a rundown Indian pharmaceutical company and renamed it Matrix Laboraties.

The deal with Clinton was very good for him.

He sold most of Matrix to the US pharma company Mylan and by 2006 had taken his initial investment of Indian Rs. 30Million ($500K AUD) to 5.7Billion ($110M AUD).

In 2012 he was charged with corruption and jailed for 17 months.

Ranbaxy’s history is worse.  By 2004 Ranbaxy was on notice of a formal investigation by the World Health Organisation over the sale by Ranbaxy of adulterated and worthless drugs labelled as the genuine article. In May 2013 Ranbaxy paid a record fine of USD $5ooM to settle the US Department of Justice criminal complaints.  As the final US DoJ details settling the long running and very public case against Ranbaxy were completed, Bill Clinton jetted off to India to give what he thought was a private paid speech praising Ranbaxy and its executives.

Australia is implicated in the Ranbaxy scandal.  On 23 March 2013 a DFAT official wrote to me:

“Prior to 2013, a small amount of Australian aid money was expended on Ranbaxy pharmaceutical products in Papua New Guinea to support the PNG Government’s health programs.”

Kind regards

Media Liaison Officer

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

At least $100M of taxpayer funded Australian aid money has been used in the purchase of pharmaceuticals under a relationship established between the Clinton Foundation and the Australian Government in February 2006.   That is in addition to amounts donated directly to the Clinton Foundation.

Prior to his jailing, the pharmaceutical purchases were explained by Matrix Laboratories Mr Prasad, speaking here to DNA India in 2009.” (Read much more: Michael Smith News, 8/15/2016)

November 20-22, 2003 – Secret Service docs reveal Bill Clinton’s trip with Ghislaine Maxwell to India

“Judicial Watch announced today that it received 4 pages of records from the Secret Service that reveal that Bill Clinton took a trip with Ghislaine Maxwell to India. Maxwell, a longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, is now on trial for sex trafficking and other charges.

The documents were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Secret Service asking for information about any trips Bill Clinton took with Ghislaine Maxwell.

The records include exchanges between Secret Service officers about a trip that Maxwell went on with President Clinton. In a November 20, 2003, email exchange titled ‘requested info’, a Secret Service official advises a colleague, “The LA lead is [redacted]. Manifest to Osaka and LA (has not been confirmed but this should not deviate too much). FPOTUS Clinton [redacted] Ghislaine Maxwell [redacted]. Crew [redacted].” 

The colleague replied, “Thanks [redacted] info helps. I’ll have the prelim sent to my office by this evening so the twx [teletype] can go out tomorrow [redacted].”

On November 22, 2003, a Secret Service agent responded to the same chain, writing, “[Redacted] I have just received an updated manifest for the trip to LA. The additional names are [redacted]. Hope this doesn’t create too many issues for you. I’ve attached the passport list. Thanks [redacted]; Agra, India to Los Angeles, CA (via Japan for fuel stop)”. 

An official replies, “Thanks [redacted] I met with the [redacted] today and they had given me that info along with [redacted] (another addition), so we have 4 crew members and 12 staff and [redacted] USSS [redacted] total. Not sure if they are feeding our [redacted] USSS, so I’ll have food and drinks waiting for them. Cheers”. 

Another agent responded, “as far as crew and usss are concerned then that is correct – staff/guest list could change – as you see [redacted] but I don’t think drastically. I just heard about [redacted] from my saic [Special Agent-in-Charge]. If you are able to get my guys food then it is greatly appreciated – evn [sic] an attempt. All you guys in Honolulu have made my job much less difficult. Thank you for all your help.” 

Finally, an agent wrote “[Redacted] no problem. We’re here to help and happy to do so. I know your guys have been run through the ringer and I think everyone wants to see this trip get over, so if I can help make their trip a little nicer, that’s the least we can do. I heard that when they flew from Oslo to Hong Kong via Russia fuel stop, they had nothing to eat that entire trip, so I don’t want that to happen again.”

“This new information raises more questions about the extent and nature of the relationship between Bill Clinton, Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Judicial Watch previously sued the Secret Service for records about any Bill Clinton trips to Epstein’s private island. (Judicial Watch, 12/01/2021)  (Archive)