Bill Clinton got a big payday after Hillary intervened in a diplomatic dispute with a Swiss banking giant

Hillary Clinton and Swiss foreign minister Micheline Calmy-Rey announcing UBS agreement
(Image credit: AFP/Stringer/Getty Images)

Soon after becoming secretary of state, Hillary Clinton in 2009 cut a deal with Swiss authorities that resolved an Internal Revenue Service inquiry into the Swiss bank UBS about secret accounts held by American citizens. Afterward, the bank dramatically upped its donations to the Clinton Foundation, the philanthropic organization founded by Bill Clinton, and paid Bill Clinton $1.5 million for a series of Q&A sessions, according to an investigative report in The Wall Street Journal.

The deal resulted in UBS handing over information related to 4,500 accounts, well below the 52,000 that the IRS had originally sought. The Journal describes Hillary Clinton's involvement in brokering the deal as "an unusual intervention by a top U.S. diplomat." UBS's response also raised eyebrows:

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Ryu Spaeth

Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.