Clinton Foundation Witness Klaus Eberwein Found Dead-Truth! & Unproven!
Summary of eRumor:
Former Haitian government official Klaus Eberwein was found dead just before he was scheduled to expose Clinton Foundation fraud before an anti-corruption committee.
The Truth:
Klaus Eberwein was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in July 2017 — but there wasn’t any indication that he was going to testify about the Clinton Foundation, or that Bill and Hillary Clinton had anything to do with his death.
After Klaus Eberwein, the former director-general of Haiti’s economic development agency, was found dead in a Miami hotel room on July 11, rumors began to swirl on fringe websites that Eberwein was the latest victim of the long-running “Clinton Body Count” conspiracy theory that Bill and Hillary Clinton have been murdering political opponents for decades.
Miami-Dade Medical Examiner Veronica Lamar told the Miami Herald that Klaus Eberwein committed suicide. “He shot himself in the head,” she said. Gilbert Bailey, who once co-owned a pizza chain with Eberwein, said he spoke to Eberwein in the last few weeks and the called his suicide “shocking.” The paper reported, however, that Eberwein had “fallen on hard times” after his stint in government and had been driving a ride-sharing company before his death:
Bailly said he last spoke to Eberwein, 50, two weeks ago and he was in good spirits. They were working on opening a Muncheez restaurant in Sunrise, he said.
But it appears that Eberwein had fallen on hard times. An Uber spokesperson confirmed that he worked as a driver for awhile in South Florida.
During and after his government tenure, Eberwein faced allegations of fraud and corruption on how the agency he headed administered funds. Among the issues was FAES’ oversight of shoddy construction of several schools built after Haiti’s devastating Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake.
Klaus Eberwein was scheduled to testify before Haitian Senate’s Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission shortly before his death, the paper reports. The committee was probing corruption within PetroCaribe, Venezuela’s discounted oil program. There’s been no public indication that the Clinton Foundation has been involved with PetroCaribe, which makes claims that Eberwein was going to expose the Clinton’s unfounded.
The Clintons have faced scrutiny over their dealings with Haiti over the years, and Klaus Eberwein’s unexpected suicide played into the hands of Clinton body count conspiracy theorists. However, we weren’t able to find any evidence that Eberwein exposed the Clinton Foundation, or was going to testify about the Clintons, which is why we’ve called those claims “unproven.”
Bill and Hillary Clinton have been closely tied to Haiti over the years. Bill raised more than $100 million for emergency relief as a special UN envoy after a 2010 earthquake struck Haiti, and Hillary helped finance an industrial park there in 2012. Both of those things have drawn scrutiny, the New York Times reports:
Among the litany of complaints being laid at their feet: Fewer than half the jobs promised at the industrial park, built after 366 farmers were evicted from their lands, have materialized. Many millions of dollars earmarked for relief efforts have yet to be spent. Mrs. Clinton’s brother Tony Rodham has turned up in business ventures on the island, setting off speculation about insider deals.
“A vote for Hillary Clinton means further corruption, further death and destruction for our people,” said Dahoud Andre, a radio show host in New York who has helped organize protests against the Clintons. “It means more Haitians leaving Haiti and not being able to live in our country.”
And now, Michel Martelly, a president whom Mrs. Clinton helped get elected, has turned out to be another in a long line of troubling leaders.
Klaus Eberwein backed Michel Martelly (just like the Clintons) — but we couldn’t find any further ties between him and the Clinton Foundation. For their part, the Clintons have denied wrongdoing in Haiti and have emphasized the positive impact of their efforts there.
So, while it’s true that Klaus Eberwein was found dead in July 2017, we couldn’t find any proof indication that he was going to expose Clinton Foundation fraud, or that the Clinton Foundation was under investigation. That’s why we’re calling this one “truth” and “unproven.”