The Washington Post reports:
David Plouffe, a senior White House adviser who was President Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, accepted a $100,000 speaking fee in 2010 from an affiliate of a company doing business with Iran’s government.
A subsidiary of MTN Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications company, paid Plouffe for two speeches he made in Nigeria in December 2010, about a month before he joined the White House staff.
Since Plouffe’s speeches, MTN Group has come under intensified scrutiny from U.S. authorities because of its activities in Iran and Syria, which are under international sanctions intended to limit the countries’ access to sensitive technology. At the time of Plouffe’s speeches, MTN had been in a widely reported partnership for five years with a state-owned Iranian telecommunications firm.
The article noted that Plouffe did nothing illegal, and the White House defended him.
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The Obama campaign responded to the story by going after Mitt Romney for his investments in companies that do business with Iran. But the one company the campaign mentioned by name — Turkcell — Politico noted, has also paid Plouffe a speaking fee.
