The Sea Change Foundation —why does that sound familiar? Oh right, let’s take a quick trip…
Back in 2016, the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) dropped a 56-page report titled From Russia With Money: Hillary Clinton, the Russian Reset, and Cronyism. Within, a treasure trove of Clinton-Russia links, conflicts of interest and ethical gray areas (to put it mildly).
…and, of course, the Sea Change Foundation.
Clinton campaign manager John Podesta sat on the executive board of a small energy company called Joule Unlimited. According to the GAI report, “Two months after Podesta joined the board, Vladimir Putin’s Rusnano announced that it would invest up to one billion rubles into Joule Unlimited, which amounts to $35 million. That represents one-fifth of the entire amount of investment dollars Joule collected from 2007 to 2013.”
“But the flows of funds from Russia during the ‘reset’ to Podesta-connected entities apparently didn’t end with Joule Energy,” the report states. According to the GAI, Podesta’s far-left think tank, Center for American Progress (CAP), took in $5.25 million from the Sea Change Foundation between 2010-2013.
Ah, there it is: “the Sea Change Foundation.” The GAI report continues…
“Who was funding the Sea Change Foundation? According to tax records, Sea Change Foundation at the time was receiving a large infusion of funds from a mysterious Bermuda-based entity called ‘Klein, Ltd.’…Who owns Klein? It is impossible to say exactly, given corporate secrecy laws in Bermuda. But the registered agent and lawyers who set up the offshore entity are tied to a handful of Russian business entities including Troika Dialog, Ltd. Leadership includes Ruben Vardanyan, an ethnic Armenian who is a mega oligarch in Putin’s Russia. Vardanyan also served on the board of Joule Energy with John Podesta.”
Skip forward to present day, and House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans are digging into U.S. environmental organizations that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be manipulating to keep his boot on the neck of American energy production.
According to Fox News, “Three environmental groups – the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the Sierra Club – reportedly have ties to the San Francisco-based NGO environmental organization called the Sea Change Foundation, according to Republicans on the committee.”
“Provided the public reporting of Putin’s dark money influence in Europe and the concerns surrounding similar efforts in the United States, we write today to explore your connections with Sea Change,” the Republicans stated in the letter. “Any action by President Putin, the Russian government, or Putin’s allies to undermine American energy security must be addressed.”
“If the League of Conservation Voters, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Sierra Club have nothing to hide, then we look forward to seeing the evidence by March 25,” a spokesperson for Energy and Commerce Republicans told Fox News.
As international conflict and Russian aggression heats up, Americans can anticipate Congressional committees and investigative reporters scouring the books and following the money of every energy corporation or environmental organization that may lead back to Putin.
I think we’ll find more than a few of them do.
