Lifestyle - Bill Clinton made a whopping $6 million in speaking fees

Washington, Jan 28 (IANS) Former US president Bill Clinton earned a whopping $6 million in speaking fees last year, almost all of it from foreign engagements, including one before the Confederation of Indian Industry in New Delhi.

Media reports citing financial documents filed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton show that $5 million of her husband's $5.7 million earnings from those speaking engagements came from a host of foreign sources.

Clinton also earned cash by speaking in Canada, Mexico, Germany, Portugal, Kuwait and Malaysia, the New York Post reported Tuesday.

Executives at many of the firms that paid honoraria to Bill Clinton have also donated large amounts of money to the Clinton Foundation, according to documents it released last year as part of an agreement with Congress on Hillary Clinton's nomination as the chief US diplomat.

In addition to Bill Clinton's income from speaking fees, Hillary Clinton reported joint holdings of between $6.1 million and $30.3 million in a blind trust as well as cash, insurance and retirement accounts worth between $1 million and $5.2 million.

Hillary Clinton made between $50,000 and $100,000 in royalties from her 2003 memoir 'Living History'. Bill Clinton earned between $100,000 and $1 million in royalties for his 2004 autobiography 'My Life', the documents show. The Clintons reported no liabilities.

The most Bill Clinton got from a foreign source was $1.25 million for appearing at five events sponsored by the Toronto-based Power Within Inc., a company that puts up motivational and training programmes around North America, according to Hillary Clinton's submission.

For one Power Within speech alone, delivered in Edmonton in June 2008, Clinton was paid $525,000, the most for any single event that year. For one event, he got $200,000 and for three others he received $175,000 each, the documents show.

Clinton also received $200,000 from Malaysia's Petra Equities Management on behalf of the Sekhar Foundation run by Malaysian multimillionaire Vinod Sekhar, who donated between $25,001 and $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation, according to its documents.

In addition to the foreign earnings, Bill Clinton made just over $1 million from domestic speaking engagements, including $250,000 from MSG Entertainment, $225,000 from the National Association of Home Care and Hospice, $200,000 from the United Nations Association, $175,000 from the ING North America Insurance Corp., $125,000 from the Rodman and Renshaw Capital Group and $100,000 from the Hollywood Radio and Television Society.