Millionaire hotelier Chatwal to raise $10 mn for Obama

FUND FINDER: Hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal raised over $10 million for Senator Hillary Clinton.

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Keywords: Fundraiser, Barack Obama, Sant Chatwal,

New York: Hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal raised over $10 million for Senator Hillary Clinton during the Presidential primaries.

Now, after Clinton endorsed Barack Obama, Chatwal has committed to raising big money for him too.

He will organise a fund-raiser, possibly in September, and aims to rake in over $10 million for Obama and the Democratic National Committee.

“Now a person can write a cheque for $28,500 for the Democratic Party and Democratic Party can spend the money. So, for us $10 million is not a big amount,” says Sant Chatwal.

Ironically, in 2007, the Obama campaign had released a memo criticising Clinton for taking money from the community. That memo mentioned Chatwal.

But any rancour now appears a thing of the past.

“Of course, he met me. He had already sent me the message that, ‘I'm so sorry this has slipped through’. He apologised last year and when we met, we started laughing. He said, ‘I hope we have done the apologizing’. I said, "Let's not talk about it. That's behind us’”, says Chatwal.

Sant Chatwal is probably the most effective fund-raiser in the Indian-American community for Democrats, especially Senator Hillary Clinton.

Now Senator Barack Obama will hope that Chatwal will prove to be his bridge to this affluent group.