By Denisse Moreno, Epoch Times

It was April 2009 and Lebanese-Nigerian Billionaire Gilbert Chagoury
had an urgent request. He needed to talk to someone at the State
Department. While such a meeting might normally take days—if not weeks
or months—to set up, if at all, Chagoury knew the right people.

Aides of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received an email on April 25, 2009, without a subject line. In the email,
Doug Band, a top official with the Clinton Foundation, asked Clinton
aides Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills to connect billionaire Chagoury to
“the substance person re Lebanon.” Just over four hours later, Abedin responded:

“It’s Jeff Feltman.
I’m sure he knows him.
I’ll talk to Jeff.”

Feltman was serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern
Affairs at the time, after having served as U.S. ambassador to Lebanon
for 4 years. Impressing on Abedin the urgency of the matter he emailed her back 15 minutes later saying:

“Better if you call him.
Now preferable.
This is very important.
He’s awake I’m sure.”

Band had served in different positions in the White House while Bill
Clinton was president. In 1999, President Clinton appointed him as
“Special Assistant to the President.” Band continued to serve as
Clinton’s chief adviser from 2002 to 2012. According to the Wall Street Journal,
Band played a crucial role in negotiations with Barack Obama’s team in
2008 in convincing them to appoint Hillary Clinton as secretary of
state.

The emails, which were released as part of a freedom of information
request by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, have raised
concerns about Hillary Clinton’s connection to the Clinton Foundation
while serving as secretary of state. It has also raised questions about
her and her staff providing favors for top donors while she served in
office.

Chagoury is such a donor.

Life

Chagoury was born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1946—his parents were
originally from Lebanon. He studied at the Collège des Frères in
Lebanon. Chagoury worked selling shoes, according to his website,
and then became director of sales for a Nigerian car company. In 1969
Chagoury married Rose-Marie Chamchoum, daughter of a prominent family
from the same Lebanese village as the Chagoury family. They had four
children and are grandparents.

Friendship with Clintons

Chagoury is a friend of the Clintons, and appeared as a top Clinton Foundation donor in 2008. Foundation documents show he contributed $1 million to $5 million,
according to the Wall Street Journal, and was on the list again in
2009. The billionaire, along with his wife and three of his children,
were guests at the Clinton’s White House holiday dinner, just after
Chagoury contributed almost a half-million dollars to Vote ’96, a voter
registration committee, according to the The Washington Post. Since
Chagoury is not an American citizen, he’s not allowed to donate directly
to political candidates.

“Everyone knows I’m friends with the Clintons,” Chagoury said in a 2010 interview with Frontline.

Chagoury is known for his philanthropy, including donations to St.
Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. The billionaire met with St. Jude’s
founder, Danny Thomas, also of Lebanese descent, in 1980 and began
contributing to the organization. For his contributions, he was awarded
the organization’s highest award, the Founder’s Award, his wife was
named “Woman of the Year” by St. Jude in 1988, and a year later he was
named “Man of the Year.”

Chagoury is described as a “faithful and devout Catholic” in a bio on his website. He said that the church has looked to him for “personal and philanthropic assistance on many occasions.”

“In 1990, Pope John Paul II awarded him the distinct honor of the
Order of Saint Gregory the Great at the rank of Commander for his
generosity to the Church and his unwavering faithfulness,” his website
says.

The pope also honored Chagoury and his family with a private audience
in 1998 as a thank you for his contributions to the church, and was
knighted in 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI.

In 1995, Chagoury was appointed by the Caribbean island of St. Lucia
as ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO).

Chagoury did not respond to a request for a comment.