Obama aide accepted fee from company with Iran links- report

US: Senior White House adviser David Plouffe, who managed President Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, accepted a $100,000 speaking fee from an affiliate of a company doing business with Iran, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The newspaper said the payment came from a subsidiary of MTN Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications company, which at that time was actively involved in business with a state-owned Iranian telecommunications firm.

The funds covered two speeches Plouffe made in Nigeria in December 2010, about a month before he joined the White House staff, the report said. MTN Group is now being scrutinized by US authorities because of its activities in Iran and Syria, The Post said. White House spokesman Eric Schultz said criticizing Plouffe would be unfair because MTN Group's role in Iran was not widely known at the time of the speeches, the paper noted.

“He gave two speeches on mobile technology and digital communications and had no separate meetings with the company's leadership,” The Post quotedSchultz's statement. “At the time, not even the most zealous watchdog group on this issue had targeted the Iranian business interests of the host's holding company. Criticism of Mr. Plouffe now for issues and controversies that developed only years later is simply misplaced.”

AFP