An unusual nexus of mining interests, relief work in Haiti, and a former U.S. first family is raising new ethics questions that could affect Hillary Clinton's presidential ambitions.

Clinton's brother, Tony Rodham, was a board member of a North Carolina mining company that enjoyed prime access to Haitian gold deposits in the wake of post-earthquake relief work organized in part by former president Bill Clinton through the Clinton Foundation.

Another board member of the firm, VCS Mining, was former Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, who co-chaired the charitable Interim Haiti Recovery Commission with Mr. Clinton.

The revelation, smacking of cronyism and back-room government dealing, is part of a forthcoming book by Government Accountability Institute founder Peter Schweizer, whose work exposing the investment 'insider trading' habits of members of Congress caused national outrage in 2011 even though the practice was legal.

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ONE-STOP SHOP: Clinton presided over the grand opening of a Haitian industrial park in October 2012, two months before VCS Mining got a lucrative gold mining permit

'Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,' his latest book, will go on sale May 5.

At the time VCS Mining's 'gold exploitation permit' was awarded, according to a press release from the company, it was one of only two firms to get one. The Haitian government hadn't issued such a permit in more than 50 years.

Tony Rodham, brother of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, sat on the board of a company that landed a gold mining deal in Haiti after Bill and Hillary Clinton directed millions into post-earthquake relief

Breitbart News first reported on the investigative nonfiction book's coming release.

The January 2010 Haiti earthquake killed more than 100,000 people and affected more than 3 million. That disaster was followed nine months later by a cholera epidemic of historic proportions.

The Clinton Foundation raised at least $36 million to help, according to its website.

The Obama administration pledged $3.6 billion. 'Much of the U.S. assistance is provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development,' a department of the State Department that Mrs. Clinton led at the time, according to the department's website.

Rodham's company got its gold mining rights in December 2012, according to the VCS press release.

Schweizer's publisher, HarperCollins, said in a press release Thursday that it 'reveals how the Clintons went from "dead broke" on leaving the White House to being millionaires, describing in detail the way in which the Clintons habitually blur the lines between politics, philanthropy, and business.'

The Clintons' family philanthropy came under fire in February for admitting it had accepted money directly from foreign governments including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Oman.

Some of those donations came while Mrs. Clinton was the U.S. secretary of state.

Breitbart reported that the terms of Rodham's gold windfall upset members of Haiti's senate: The government's royalties under the deal were pegged at just 2.5 per cent, half the customary rate. And VCS mining has an option to renew the terms for 25 years.

HarperCollins executive editor Adam Bellow, son of the famed novelist Saul Bellow, said in a statement that in Schweizer's book, he 'coins a new term to describe the unique way in which Bill and Hillary tend to mingle their political, personal and philanthropic interests.'

He calls it 'the Clinton Blur.'

'Schweizer’s exhaustively researched book raises serious questions about the sources of the Clintons' sudden wealth, their ethical judgment, and Hillary's fitness for high public office,' Bellow added.

Mrs. Clinton was America's first lady and a U.S. shuhenator before losing the Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama in 2008 and joining his administration the following year.

In addition to howls from the political right about her foundation's role in attracting donors from among countries with whom she negotiated – $500,000 of the Clinton Foundation's Haiti donations came from the Algerian government, for example – she is under fire for using a private email address run on her own server, during her years at the State Department.

She never had a 'state.gov' address. Instead she ran her professional and personal emails through her own Internet domain, 'clintonemails.com,' creating ethical and possibly legal issues because of the possibility that the State Department has not archived all her messages.

CLOSE: Clinton greeted Haitian President Michel Martelly warmly when she arrived for the indutrial ribbon cutting in 2012

Clinton got an additional black eye this week with the revelation that Scott Gration, who served as America's ambassador to Kenya for 13 months of her tenure, was ousted after he did somethign similar.

When Gration took over the Nairobi embassy, according to a 2012 inspector general report, he insisted on the installation of a private, commercial Internet connection in the bathroom attached to his office so he could communicate with the outside world beyond the reach of the State Department.

The Federal Records Act requires employees of executive branch agencies to keep their emails and make them available for permanent retention.

The law originally did not explicitly apply to electronic communications; Congress updated it after Mrs. Clinton left her job as America's top diplomat.

Stories about government higher-ups using private email addresses for government work are nothing new.

One Obama administration official, former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson, used an email address with fictitious name attached – 'Richard Windsor.'

But Clinton is widely expected to announce a run for the White House next month, putting her conduct under an unforgiving microscope.

Members of Congress typically have private email addresses, something that's not prohibited under federal law for officials in the government's legislative branch.