A year after New York-based real estate company Delos Living committed $250,000 to a signature initiative of Hillary Clinton’s State Department, the Clinton Global Initiative partnered with Delos on a $5 million project to build a “world-class” soccer stadium in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, documents show.

Working the players at both ends were two old Clinton hands — Virginia Gov. Terry McAulliffe, who at the time served on Delos’ board, and Washington lobbyist Jonathan Mantz, who lobbied for Delos Living that year. And Delos, like several other Mantz clients, has been a donor to the Clinton Foundation.

Mantz’ name appears in a State Department email about the 2010 Shanghai Expo as officials working for then-Secretary Clinton scrambled to find funding for the U.S. pavilion at the event. In the email, sent by State Department official Kris Balderston to Clinton’s private email address, Balderston listed several corporate financiers of the pavilion and made a note that Delos was “a Mantz client.” “Good work,” Clinton replied. The email was among thousands released late Monday by the State Department.

By raising private funds for the American pavilion, Clinton helped avoid an embarrassing U.S. absence at the Expo; by September 2010, more than six million people had visited the structure.

One year later, Delos Living announced its plans for “Phoenix Stadium” in Haiti, to be built in one of Port Au Prince’s most impoverished neighborhoods with the help of the Clinton Global Initiative. The stadium, according to a press release dated Sept. 21, 2011, would seat 12,000 people and become home to a Haitian soccer league — and schools, a youth soccer academy and infrastructure projects were included in the deal.

In the release, company board member McAulliffe called the venture “one of the most exciting projects that I have seen presented at [Clinton Global Initiative.]” And as it gained positive coverage, Delos gained a valuable cheerleader for the company’s trademarked idea of “Wellness Real Estate” that focused on environmentally- and health-conscious development: former President Bill Clinton. McAuliffe co-chaired Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign and Hillary Clinton’s first bid for the White House in 2008 and has long been extremely close to the powerful pair.

Meanwhile, Mantz’ firm, BGR Group, was on track to pull in $280,000 from Delos Living for his work in 2011 — not to lobby Congress or any federal agency, but to “provide strategic counsel regarding developments in real estate,” according to lobbying filings. And the previous year, when Delos Living committed funds to the U.S. pavilion, BGR was paid $430,000 by the company.

Mantz declined to comment, citing a policy of not discussing clients.

There’s no evidence that the interactions were illegal. But they do present a classic picture of how Washington relationships play out as individuals move in and out of government, politics and the private sector, keeping their hand in all three.

“The problem with this virtuous circle is that it is a game only the very well-off can play. Hiring insiders like Mantz who has strong ties to Clinton doesn’t come cheap,” Meredith McGehee, policy director for the Campaign Legal Center who reviewed the Clinton email, said.

“It’s almost like [Mantz] gets credit for getting his client to cough up $250,000,” said Ken Boehm, president of the conservative Washington-based National Legal and Policy Center and an expert on government ethics.

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Like McAulliffe, Mantz made his name as a Democratic fundraiser, starting in 1997 as the finance director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. From there he made stops at the PodestaMatoon (now Podesta Group) lobbying firm and New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine’s campaign en route to his role as national finance director for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Now, in addition to being a principal at BGR, he is senior adviser for finance for Priorities USA, the super PAC backing Clinton in the 2016 race.

The Clinton campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

By Feb. 25, 2015, four of Mantz’ clients had made donations to the Clinton Foundation that total somewhere between $550,250 and $1.1 million (the Clinton Foundation discloses ranges, not exact figures) — including Delos Living, which gave between $500,000 and $1 million, and two other clients with questionable dealings in their pasts.

Mantz used his connections for those clients at least one other time on record, emailing Cinton aide Cheryl Mills about aid efforts in Haiti by Claudio Osorio, the founder of a company that paid BGR $300,000 between 2009 and 2010. “I wanted you and Secretary Clinton to know what Claudio and Amarilis Osorio are doing on behalf of Haiti reconstruction. Hope you’re well,” Mantz wrote, attaching a document. Haiti was a primary focus of both the Clinton State Department and the Clinton Foundation. Mills forwarded the email on to Clinton’s private address.

But what Osorio was really doing was hardly helping Haiti. At the time Mantz sent his email, Osorio was deep in a scam, telling investors his company was worth millions and using their seed money to pay the mortgage on a Star Island, Miami home. Charged by both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department, Osorio was convicted in 2013, found guilty of bilking $40 million from 10 investors and $10 million from a federal government program — a program to help rebuild Haitian homes after the 2010 earthquake, according to the Miami Herald. He was sentenced to twelve-and-a-half years in prison.

Osorio was a prolific political donor and “hobnobbed” with the Clintons, according to the Herald. He contributed between $10,000 and $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation.

Another Mantz client, Gonzalo Tirado — a Venezuelan banker charged in that country with crimes related to an international Ponzi scheme — sought guidance on the asylum process in the United States. He gave between $5,000 and $10,000 to the Clinton Foundation (it’s unclear when; the Foundation doesn’t disclose dates of donations) and paid Mantz’ firm $350,000 in one year, 2011, to have two of BGR’s lobbyists, including Mantz, advise him on asylum and lobby just one federal agency: the State Department. Tirado now resides in Miami; it’s unclear whether he was granted asylum.

As for the soccer stadium in Haiti, maybe Mantz’ lobbying efforts weren’t enough. The project “is not moving forward due to local reasons,” a spokeswoman for Delos Living said Wednesday.

Update, Sept. 4: A spokeswoman for Delos Living said on Thursday that the company ultimately did not support the Expo. She declined to comment on the State Department email.



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