The Clinton Global Initiative will officially close its doors on April 15, 2017, and this will mark the end of an organization that has been plagued with accusations of being a slush fund and a pay-to-play scheme. The closing comes after WikiLeaks and others revealed details of the CGI’s alleged shady practices.

The Clinton Foundation began its Clinton Global Initiative in 2005 as a means to have a networking platform, but the aims and goals of the Clinton Global Initiative have always been somewhat vague and difficult to deduce. The Foundation’s website describes how Bill Clinton established the initiative in order to create “positive change around the world.”

“Rather than directly implementing projects, CGI facilitates action by helping members connect, collaborate, and make effective and measurable Commitments to Action—plans for addressing significant global challenges.”

On January 12, paperwork filed with the New York Department of Labor showed the official “discontinuation” of the Clinton Global Initiative, and the termination of 22 employees, as reported by the Washington Times.

Madeleine Albright and Bono during the Clinton Global Initiative at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel on September 19, 2016. [Image by Stephanie Keith/Getty Image]

The Vice President for the Manhattan Republican Party, Brian Morgenstern, explained that in his opinion, those who believed that the Clinton Global Initiative was a slush fund and a pay-to-play scheme were essentially correct as governments had stopped or drastically reduced their donations once it was accepted that Hillary Clinton would not be president.

“This group wasn’t just for charitable ends. As the initiative is closing its doors, you see foreign governments who had pledged tens-of-millions of dollars pulling their donations now that Hillary Clinton will not be the president. That shows a lot of people that this was more than just a charity. This was a way for the Clintons to network and really peddle influence due to their positions in leadership.”

The Australian government has given $88 million over a ten year period to the Clinton Global Initiative, but have now said that they will no longer be contributing. And after the results of the 2016 US presidential election, the Norwegian government have reduced their donations to the Clinton Global Initiative by 87 percent, according to the National Review.

As goes the tragedy, the Clinton Global Initiative, w no influence left to sell, begins closing its doors Tellinghttps://t.co/NC7IxttBHd — Zach Haller (@zachhaller) January 18, 2017

The alleged pay-to-play scheme of the Clinton Global Initiative was brought to light by WikiLeaks, when emails revealed that the King of Morocco agreed that he would pay the Clinton Global Initiative $12 million and also host one of their summits, but that this would be in return for Hillary Clinton’s appearance at the meeting in May 2015, according to The Atlantic.

One of Hillary Clinton’s top aides, Huma Abedin, revealed in a leaked email that Hillary’s presence was a “condition” of the deal, convincing many that the pay-to-play criticisms that had been leveled at the Clinton Global Initiative were essentially correct.

“No matter what happens, she will be in Morocco hosting CGI on May 5-7, 2015. Her presence was a condition for the Moroccans to proceed so there is no going back on this.”

The Clinton Global Initiative will close in April after allegations of it being a slush fund and pay-to-play scheme. [Image by Dennis Van Tine/AP Images]

Hillary Clinton’s aide later on described once again how the Clinton Global Initiative’s alleged pay-to-play scheme worked by explaining why Hillary couldn’t back out of her presence in Morocco.

“Just to give you some context, the condition upon which the Moroccans agreed to host the meeting was her participation. If HRC was not part if it, meeting was a non-starter. CGI also wasn’t pushing for a meeting in Morocco and it wasn’t their first choice. This was HRC’s idea, our office approached the Moroccans and they 100 percent believe they are doing this at her request. The King has personally committed approx $12 million both for the endowment and to support the meeting. It will break a lot of china to back out now when we had so many opportunities to do it in the past few months.”

Huma Abedin later wrote of her boss, Hillary Clinton, “She created this mess and she knows it.”

What do you think of the Clinton Global Initiative shutting down and do you think it was set up as essentially a pay-to-play scheme or a slush fund as emails exposed by WikiLeaks seemed to show?

[Featured Image by Sait Serkan Gurbuz/AP Images]