Getting former President Bill Clinton to attend an event is a costly proposition, one that cost Czech supermodel Petra Nemcova $500,000 when she invited him for her June 2014 Happy Hearts gala in New York City.
According to The New York Times, Nemcova and her Happy Hearts foundation could only get Clinton to appear if her small foundation donated $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation. Sue Veres, Happy Hearts’ executive director at the time, called it a “quid pro quo” deal.
“The Clinton Foundation had rejected the Happy Hearts Fund invitation more than once, until there was a thinly veiled solicitation and then the offer of an honorarium,” Veress, who was fired weeks after the gala over conflicts within the foundation.
Nemcova held the gala to mark 10 years since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. She actually survived the disaster by clinging to a tree for hours before she was rescued. Her boyfriend at the time, Simon Atlee, was killed.
Later, she founded Happy Hearts to help rebuild schools in areas hurt by natural disasters. That cause brought her to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake there, which was when she first ran into the Clintons. Happy Hearts and the Clinton Foundation said that the $500,000 Nemcova paid to have Clinton at her gala will go to more efforts in Haiti.
The two foundations “have a shared goal of providing meaningful help to Haiti,” a Happy Hearts spokeswoman said. “We believe that we can create the most impactful change by working together.”
Overall, the gala cost $363,413 to organize. The donation to the Clinton Foundation was equal to a quarter of the net profits Happy Hearts made from the event.
The Clinton Foundation activities have come under more scrutiny now that Hillary Rodham Clinton is running for President in 2016.
image of Petra Nemcova courtesy of INFphoto.com
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