Federal prosecutors seek grand jury testimony regarding Hunter Biden’s income from foreign sources, according to press reports. President Joe Biden’s son is being investigated for potential violations of money laundering, foreign lobbying laws, and tax laws related to his international business dealings.
The investigation, which began in 2018, is ramping up as prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware seek grand jury testimony concerning the younger Biden’s foreign income, including monies from Burisma Holdings Ltd., where he served on the board of directors.
Federal prosecutors also have questioned a Biden associate regarding his alcohol and drug abuse in 2018, according to recent reports by the Wall Street Journal.
Hunter Biden has emphatically denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crime related to the investigation as yet.
Reports have swirled around, mainly below the mainstream media’s radar, since a September 2020 report from Senate Republicans.
In recent weeks, mainstream outlets, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, have authenticated thousands of emails from an abandoned laptop after initially dismissing the scandal in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election.
Meanwhile, Treasury records obtained in 2020 by Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa showed “potential criminal activity relating to transactions among and between Hunter Biden, his family, and his associates with Ukrainian, Russian, Kazakh, and Chinese nationals,” during the time President Joe Biden served as vice president in the Obama administration.
So, what is being investigated, and what countries are involved?
China
The Washington Post recently published a lengthy report about Hunter Biden’s “multimillion-dollar” financial dealings with Chinese energy company CEFC China Energy.
“Over the course of 14 months, the Chinese energy conglomerate and its executives paid $4.8 million to entities controlled by Hunter Biden and his uncle, according to government records, court documents, and newly disclosed bank statements, as well as emails contained on a copy of a laptop hard drive that purportedly once belonged to Hunter Biden,” according to the Post report.
According to the Post, the new documents include “a signed copy of a $1 million legal retainer, emails related to the wire transfers, and $3.8 million in consulting fees that are confirmed in new bank records and agreements signed by Hunter Biden — illustrate how his family profited from relationships build over Joe Biden’s decades in public service.”
According to the Senate Republican report, CEFC’s founder is financially connected to President Biden’s brother, James Biden, and has “extensive” ties to the Chinese Communist government.
“The records acquiring by the Committees show consistent, significant, and extensive financial connections among and between Hunter Biden, James Biden, Sara Biden, Devon Archer, and Chines nationals connected to the Communist regime and [People’s Liberation Army] as well as other foreign nationals with questionable backgrounds,” said the 2020 report.
Russia
According to the Senate report, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, a former adviser to Secretary of State John Kerry, had financial relationships with Russian billionaire Elena Baturina.
Baturina allegedly received illegal construction contracts from former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, her husband. The report said Baturina wired $3.5 million to the bank account of Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC in 2014, followed by $242,000 to the same account in 2015.
The Senate Republican report alleged that the younger Biden was a co-founder of the Thornton group. However, his lawyer denied his involvement in 2020, saying, “Hunter Biden had no interest in and was not ‘co-founder’ of Rosemont Seneca Thornton, so the claim that he was paid $3.5 million is false.”
Ukraine
Federal prosecutors are investigating payments from Burisma to Hunter Biden through a company called Rosemont Seneca Bohai LLC. He received around $50,000 per month while on Burisma’s board from April 2014 to April 2019.
A consulting firm hired by Burisma, Blue Star Strategies, “used Hunter Biden’s name in a request for a State Department meeting in early 2016 and then mentioned him again during the meeting as part of an effort to improve Burisma’s image in Washington,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
Prosecutors are trying to determine whether Blue Star Strategies or Biden should have registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires full disclosure to the Justice Department of public relations assistance or lobbying on foreign clients, said the Times.
Then-president Donald Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2019 concerning the Burisma dealings of the younger Biden. That conversation served as the basis for Trump’s first impeachment, of which he was acquitted by the Senate.
In October 2019, Hunter Biden admitted he used “poor judgment” when taking the Ukrainian job.
Kazakhstan
Federal prosecutors are also looking into documents about a Fisker sports car purchase Hunter Biden made in 2014 with funds from Rosemont Seneca.
At that time, the younger Biden’s business associate from Kazakhstan wired $142,300 to Rosemont Seneca, according to the Senate Republican report. The Journal confirmed the claims.
The transferred funds came from a Singapore company controlled by Kenes Rakishev, a Kazakhstan banker. Rakishev’s father-in-law was the mayor of the capital city, Astana. Bank statement records stated the purpose of the transfer was “For a Car,” according to the Senate report.
The Senate report occurred the same day that then-Vice President Joe Biden addressed Ukrainian legislators in Kyiv about the actions of Russia in Crimea.
