Thursday's New York Times broke Giustra, a mining and movie mogul, need friends in high places as they try to penetrate highly protected markets like Kasakhstan. Door openers like Clinton, who have become global heroes, become essential. Often they trade in the coin of philanthropy, rather than high fees. The philanthropic route, moreover, has the advantage of secrecy: Giustra's big donation to the Clinton Foundation was kept secret until last month, according The Times.. The exact nature of the deal for the uranium concession is not clear from the story, nor is Clinton's role. The Kazakhstan dictator, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has held his country in chains for 19 years, and he had fended off other businesses wanting access to the uranium fields. Kazakhstan has 20 per cent of the world's supply. Apparently the Clinton visit was worth a lot to the dictator in public imagery, since shortly after the visit the concession to Giustra was awarded. Giustra is a former broker on the Vancouver Stock Exchange who made a bundle from mining stocks. He founded Lion's Gate Entertainment, a leading movie producer, selling that concern in 1993 in order to go back into mining, particularly gold and uranium. He's now a prominent, mega-rich figure in Vancouver. He knows how to play the global capitalism game in style.
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