Prince, lottery donate to Clinton foundation

Friday 19 December 2008

Prince Johan Friso and the Dutch postcode lottery organisation are on the list of donors to the William J Clinton Foundation which has just been published on the foundation's website.

The publication follows pressure from US president elect Barack Obama who wants to appoint Clinton's wife Hillary as his foreign affairs chief. Obama wants to ensure there are no conflicts of interest between the minister and her husband's charity work.

The list does not include exact sums of money but says that Johan Friso donated between $100,000 and $250,000.

Nor is it clear when Johan Friso donated the cash. The prince, second son of queen Beatrix, has not been part of the official royal household since his marriage to Mabel Wisse Smit. Members of the royal household are not supposed to be involved in politics.

The postcode lottery group has donated $1.5m a year since 2005. 'A person like Bill Clinton opens doors which make more effective action against poverty possible,' the lottery group said.

Clinton's foundation was set up in 1997 and has raised some $500m since then. The list of donors also includes Saudi Arabia (between $10m and $25m), the governments of Brunei, Norway and Jamaica and former Formula 1 racing driver Michael Schumacher.

© DutchNews.nl

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