She [Bachmann] put in for a pardon for a convicted drug dealer and money launderer...
Listen (2:00):
Clark is talking about Bachmann's connection to convicted felon Frank Vennes Jr.:
In 2008, it was revealed that Bachmann had received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Frank Vennes Jr. and his family. Vennes is a convicted money-launderer/cocaine runner/gun runner for whom Bachmann had requested a presidential pardon in 2007.
When Vennes became implicated—but never charged—in the Tom Petters multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme in 2008, it didn’t take long for Bachmann to abandon her principled “innocent until proven guilty” stance. She quickly rescinded her pardon request for her close personal friend, and then tried to further save face by giving away a portion of the money she had taken from Vennes and family—although it was only $9,200 of the $27,400 she had hauled in from the Vennes family from 2005-2008.
Bachmann first tried to give the money to Minnesota Teen Challenge, a favorite evangelical charity of Bachmann’s that once had very close ties to Vennes. He is a former board member of the organization. However, Minnesota Teen Challenge allegedly lost $5.7 million in investments in Petters companies that were made through one of Vennes’ companies.
Rich Scherber, executive director of Minnesota Teen Challenge, said his organization sent Bachmann’s $9,200 check back without even cashing it.
“We didn’t want to be involved if it was dirty money,” Scherber said at the time.
Bachmann eventually found a willing taker for her tainted Vennes money when she donated it to R3, a collaborative of Christian recovery groups that happens to include Minnesota Teen Challenge.
Some background... from the Strib :
Frank Vennes Jr., a Shoreview businessman who recruited investors for Tom Petters, learned that the operation might be a fraud scheme in December 2007
Instead of reporting his suspicions to authorities, Frank Vennes told only his lawyer Craig Howse. Even though he had suspicions that the money he received from Petters was tainted, he donated thousands of the tainted dollars to Bachmann's campaign and continued to serve on the board of Minnesota Teen Challenge where Bachmann later donated the tainted $$$.
The same month Frank Vennes is reported to have learned he was involved in a massive Ponzi scheme, Bachmann wrote a letter (dated December 10, 2007) to George Bush requesting a pardon for Frank Vennes.
According to this Strib article on Frank Vennes, Vennes made a lot of money working for Petters:
According to a federal search warrant affidavit, Vennes was a facilitator who persuaded five major investors to invest $1.2 billion in companies controlled by Petters. The document says Vennes collected more than $28 million in commissions for his work.
From another Strib article about Tom Petter's complicated philanthropy:
In 2006, a company called Metro Gem, run by Shorewood businessman Frank Vennes Jr., donated $60,000. That same year, the foundation gave $275,000 to Minnesota Teen Challenge, an investor in Petters Co. Inc. that runs one of the state's largest drug and alcohol recovery programs. Vennes sat on the Teen Challenge board for seven years until he resigned Oct. 2.
Vennes has not been charged in the fraud case, but court documents say he made nearly all of his substantial income by brokering investments for Petters' companies.
Karl Bremer in MnIndy:
Following his and his wife’s initial $4,200 contribution to Bachmann in 2005, Vennes — who does not live in Bachmann’s congressional district — dumped another $10,000 into her campaign coffers in 2006. In December 2007, Bachmann used the power of her office to write a recommendation for a presidential pardon of Vennes.
“As a U.S. Representative, I am confident of Mr. Vennes’ successful rehabilitation and that a pardon will be good for the neediest of society,” Bachmann wrote to the U.S. Office of Pardon Attorney. “Mr. Vennes is seeking a pardon so that he may be further used to help others. As I know from personal experience, Mr. Vennes has used his business position and success to fund hundreds of nonprofit organizations dedicated to helping the neediest in our society.”
In addition, Bachmann noted that Vennes needed a pardon because he “still encounters the barriers of his past and especially in the area of finance loan documents.” Bachmann has refused to further explain the nature of her “personal experience” with Vennes or clarification of the finance loan documents to which she refers in her letter.
On June 30, 2008 — six months after Bachmann wrote her pardon recommendation for Vennes — he and his wife gave another $9,200 to Bachmann’s campaign.
Then, on Sept. 24, federal agents raided Vennes’ $5 million Shorewood home on Lake Minnetonka in connection with the Petters investigation and seized “boxes and buckets of silver and gold coins, trays of jewelry, five stacks of $100 bills, boxes of gem stones, silver plates and Rolex watches,” along with diamond rings and artwork. His $6 million oceanfront home in Jupiter, Fla., was raided also and among the items seized was a briefcase containing “256 $20 gold pieces dated 1904, and eight uncirculated one-half dollar pieces.”
See Vennes 2008 campaign contributions to Bachmann at Newsmeat.
What Bachmann should have known about Frank Vennes Jr - Was Frank Vennes Jr. a Wolf in Sheeps Clothing?
Recent news: Bankruptcy trustee Doug Kelley seeks $2.7 billion from Petters associate Frank Vennes Jr.
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