By Chuck Ross from The Daily Recorder

Frank Giustra, the Canadian mining magnate and Clinton Foundation board member, has gone to great lengths recently to shoot down claims that his work with the former president presents a conflict of interest.

But a review of Canadian court documents and other records raises questions over whether Giustra is truly an above-the-board businessman.

The 57-year-old Giustra, who bears the haircut of Caesar, the stature of Napoleon, and was described to The Daily Caller as a “puppet-master,” has interests in a wide variety of industries — including the film industry and the olive oil business.

But his main interest is in mining, and he has made millions investing in shell companies in the industry and turning them for massive profit. Technically, Giustra is the CEO of Fiore Financial, but he is heavily involved and invested in numerous companies, including Endeavour Financial, and its offshoot, the Cayman Islands-based Endeavour Mining.

In Dec. 2008, Endeavour Financial and Rusoro Mining, a company controlled by Russian businessman Andre Agapov, attempted a hostile takeover of Gold Reserve Inc. (GRI), a mining company based in Spokane, Wash.

The rub was this: in 2004, GRI entered a contract with Endeavour in which it paid the company $1.2 million for consultation services while Endeavour had both equity and debt investments in the company. GRI alleged that it was not aware of Endeavour’s investment in Rusoro, and that the Giustra-controlled company breached its confidentiality and engaged in an obscene case of a conflict of interest.

Two Canadian judges sided with GRI in separate rulings in February and April 2009. Giustra and his right-hand man, Gordon Keep, were named by GRI in a lawsuit in 2010, and Endeavour and Rusoro eventually agreed to a multi-million dollar settlement with GRI in 2012.

Stanley Beck, an arbitrator and the former chair of the Ontario Securities Commission, offered scathing testimony during the case.

“I am not aware of any case in which the financial adviser of a company, who is subject to a confidentiality agreement, has subsequently appeared as the financial adviser to a hostile bidder for that same company,” Beck stated, according to court documents.

Another mining industry insider familiar with the companies and the lawsuit told The Daily Caller that Endeavour’s double-dealing was “unprecedented” and that Endeavour’s “financial advisory business suffered…because people were literally appalled.”

Endeavour Financial morphed into a mining company after the ruling, said the insider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Partnership

Clinton’s first documented meeting with Giustra occurred in Jan. 2005 when the former president spoke via satellite for an event arranged by Giustra to discuss tsunami relief. By June, Clinton’s team reached out to Giustra to seek use of the tycoon’s luxurious MD-87 private jet.

“The plane is a business tool,” Giustra told The Globe and Mail in 2008. “No more, no less.”

Clinton has used that so-called business tool 26 times since meeting Giustra, according to The Washington Post. Giustra has accompanied Clinton on 13 of those trips.

Photo of Chuck Ross

For more on this story go to: http://dailycaller.com/2015/05/06/the-clintons-canadian-mining-pal-has-been-accused-of-double-dealing-before/