Former US President Mr Bill Clinton headed to New Orleans today to make a speech to high-tech executives for an expected $100,000.
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Former US President,
Mr Bill Clinton |
Mr Clinton was set to open a four-day conference sponsored by software giant Oracle. This is despite a similar appearance two weeks ago that caused a storm and another that was reportedly canceled due to the fuss over his pardon to billionaire fugitive Mr Marc Rich.
It was not known if the former president would discuss last month's pardon that triggered a criminal and congressional probes amid suspicions Mr Clinton was influenced by huge donations to Democratic causes from the ex-wife of Mr Rich, who faced charges including tax evasion.
Mr Clinton has remained in the media spotlight because of the pardon and a series of other controversies in recent weeks, including a bid to rent an expensive Manhattan office and his use in his own home of furniture meant for the White House.
Oracle spokeswoman Ms Stephanie Hess said the company invited the ex-president partly because he was a "good draw".
"Like him or not, people want to see him," she said.
Since Oracle announced Mr Clinton would speak, a flood of people have signed up for the conference, which was now expected to attract at least 10,000 participants, Ms Hess said.
The speech will be Mr Clinton's first on the corporate circuit since an appearance at a Morgan Stanley Dean Witter conference in Florida two weeks ago.
That event prompted a storm of protests from some of the investment firm's anti-Clinton clients and a public apology from Morgan Stanley chairman Mr Philip Purcell.
Since his departure, Mr Clinton has come under attack for now-discarded plans to rent an $800,000-a-year Manhattan office at taxpayer expense and for taking $190,000 in gifts in his last year in the White House.
He and wife, Ms Hillary Rodham Clinton, now US senator from New York, have since paid for some of the gifts and returned others, including furniture that donors gave to the White House and the Clintons were using in their New York home.