THE frontrunner for the Democrats in the 2008 presidential election, Hillary Clinton, has been hit by a legal dispute in which one of her fundraisers is accused of trying to “ingratiate” himself with powerful friends at the expense of his company. The row has revived accusations of the influence peddling and favours for donors that marred Bill Clinton’s presidency in the 1990s.

For years the Clintons flew on Vinod Gupta’s corporate plane, introduced him to world leaders - including Tony Blair - and received donations for their political campaigns and charitable foundations.

They relaxed at his holiday home in Hawaii - next door to Pierce Brosnan, the former James Bond star - and jetted to Acapulco, the Mexican resort, while Gupta once spent the night as a favoured guest in the Lincoln bedroom at the White House.

“If we’re negotiating with a company, it helps if Bill Clinton says, ‘Oh Vin, he’s a good guy’,” said Gupta in a frank interview with The Sunday Times.

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The lawsuit, by company shareholders, accuses Gupta of squandering millions of dollars on his high-profile friends, including $900,000 worth of travel on the Clintons.

Bill Clinton has a $3.3m consulting deal with the company, which the shareholders allege is a “waste of corporate assets”. He has already received $2.1m, with another $1.2m to come.

Interviewed at his office, not far from the White House, Gupta said Bill Clinton’s name and contacts were worth “over $40m” for the company. “We’ve met chief executives, bil-lionaires, government people - it helps us to make connections and do deals. It’s a very competitive world and who you know and which circles you belong to is a big thing.”

Gupta, 60, is the shrewd but genial Indian-born head of InfoUSA, a data marketing firm, and top “Hillraiser” for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Only last week he served as vice-chairman of a glittering fundraising event in Manhattan, which committed him to raise $50,000 in ticket sales for her campaign.

Hillary Clinton used to use Gupta’s private plane - leased through NetJets, which sells shares in private business aircraft - to fly to campaign stops as a senator. Her office would frequently ring to borrow it, he said.

“If we got five requests, maybe we’d say yes once, and the other four times we’d say no,” Gupta said. The company would be reimbursed with the cost of a first-class ticket, far less than the cost of chartering the plane. The Senate has now put a stop to such practices, but Hillary Clinton said recently: “Whatever I’ve done, I complied with Senate rules at the time.”

Gupta owns two companies in Britain, OneSource and Opinion Research, with contracts with the British government. “When I go to London, I’m always meeting people and playing golf - that’s how you get business,” he said.

Bill Clinton and Gupta played golf together at Loch Lomond and Clinton introduced him to Blair at a reception in London a few years ago. “Tony Blair is a great communicator,” said Gupta admiringly. “He’s like Bill Clinton Junior.”

Shortly after the Democrats won the congressional elections last November, Gupta hired Paul Pelosi, the son of Nancy Pelosi, the new Speaker of the House, on a full-time salary of $180,000, although it is not his only job. Pelosi, described by Men’s Vogue as a “rising prince” of the new political dynasty, is well qualified, Gupta insisted.

“Just because he’s Nancy Pelosi’s son and we’ve hired him, I don’t see why he should be news,” Gupta said. “He has a master’s degree in business and he is a very bright young man.”

The New York Times recently claimed that Gupta’s company had sold lists of elderly consumers to telemarketing criminals who used the information to steal their money. According to Gupta, a subsidiary company bought by InfoUSA was responsible and the abuse was stopped as soon as it was discovered. “We have 4m customers and we didn’t realise the lists were being misused,” he said.

The argument over fundraising and donations has come at a time when the 2008 candidates are competing to win the second quarterly round of the “money primary”. Hillary Clinton is engaged in a fierce battle with Barack Obama to announce the biggest haul of cash - but Obama is being tipped once again to bring in far more money than the former first lady in small donations.

Clinton has held some top-dollar Hollywood fundraisers recently and has maintained a solid poll lead over Obama and John Edwards, the former senator. With Edwards’s poll numbers dropping, the Democratic nomination is shaping up to be a race between the two fundraising juggernauts.

Gupta regretted having stayed in the Lincoln bedroom during the 1990s. “To be frank, it was not all it was cracked up to be,” he said. “I felt I was in prison. It wasn’t a very homely atmosphere.”

The financial row has its compensations, Gupta feels: “When I was a nobody, my name would never have been mentioned. I must be a somebody if they’re talking about me - and I haven’t done anything illegal.”

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