Several federal investigations into Hunter Biden’s shady deals abroad are threatening to cast a long shadow over his father’s tenure in the White House, even with Joe Biden’s tenure still almost a month from now.
While the full scope of the federal government’s investigations has not been made public, the allegations claim that President-elect Joe Biden’s son obtained privileged investment opportunities, millions of dollars and an estimated $ 80,000 diamond, leveraging access to the Biden name.
Hunter Biden acknowledged the existence of a federal inquiry earlier this month, when in a statement released by his father’s transition team, he said he was the subject of an investigation by the US attorney in Delaware. Biden said he was “confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I have dealt with my matters in a legal and appropriate manner”.
According to a subsequent Political report, “Investigators in Delaware and Washington were … investigating possible money laundering cases and Hunter Biden’s international ties.”
History suggests that these investigations go beyond what Hunter Biden’s statement indicated and include an investigation by the New York Southern District securities fraud unit into its finances, as well as a criminal investigation by the Western District of Pennsylvania involving a company hospital with connections to Joe Biden’s brother James Biden.
However, the entire scope of the government’s scrutiny of expanding the president-elect’s son Business it remains a secret, leaving the potential for new revelations open.
There is nothing to suggest that Joe Biden is under investigation. However, numerous cases paint Biden’s family as someone who seeks to make use of his political connections, whose investigations can tarnish his presidency.
Republicans pledged to continue their investigations.
“I’m not going to turn a blind eye to this,” Republican Senator Ron Johnson told Fox News last month. “We will continue to dig.” Johnson chairs the Senate committee that issued the last report in Hunter Biden.
The investigation could be detrimental to a president who is contacting the president who seeks to completely break his predecessor’s conflicts of interest, even if Hunter Biden has not broken any laws.
Last year, Joe Biden said reporters that “no one in my family will have an office at the White House, attend meetings as if he were a member of the Cabinet, will, in fact, have any business relationship with anyone who relates to a foreign company or a foreign country.”
Hunter Biden, who at the time was under fire from Republicans for his overseas business, issued a statement through his lawyer agreeing “not to serve on the advice of, or work on behalf of, foreign companies”.
He had previously cut ties with a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, where, as a board member, he earned $ 50,000 a month.
Hunter Biden’s business relationship intensified in preparation for and after the then Vice President Biden resigned from office in 2017, as detailed in hundreds of emails shared with The Washington Examiner before election day, US Senate investigationsand media reports.
Hunter Biden helped CEFC China Energy co-chairman Ye Jianming “on a number of personal issues (employee visas and some more sensitive things)”, according to a text message sent by Biden to a business partner, who appeared in November report issued by Republican senators.
According to the September Senate report, a CEFC-linked company transferred $ 5 million to a bank account associated with Hunter Biden’s business interests before disbursing most of the amount to a Biden-linked account the following year.
“At least one of the subjects the investigators examined is a 2017 gift of a 2.8-carat diamond that Hunter Biden received from the founder and former president of CEFC, Ye Jianming, after a business meeting in Miami,” CNN reported.
Biden’s ex-wife Kathleen estimated the diamond’s value at $ 80,000, according to a lawsuit.
Large sums have also been transferred to James Biden’s consultancy.
Before then Vice President Biden stepped down, Hunter Started working with Romanian real estate tycoon Gabriel “Puiu” Popoviciu in 2016, while facing an investigation amid US pressure to curb public corruption, according The New York Times.
In a viral video captured by President Trump, a Chinese scholar suggested last month that Beijing’s ties to Wall Street and negotiations with Hunter Biden could help it exert greater influence under Joe Biden.
“Trump has said that Biden’s son has some kind of global base. Did you notice that? ”Di Dongsheng, a professor at Renmin University, said. “Who helped to build the foundations? Got it? There are many businesses within all of this. “
Although the video has already been deleted, the clips remain online.
Although CEFC’s business effort has largely been exhausted by the time of the letter, Hunter Biden said he intended to leave the board of a Chinese private equity firm, Bohai Harvest RST Equity Investment Fund Management, in which he held a position at the end that year. big bet.
Hunter Biden acquired a 10% stake in the company in 2017 based on a 2013 valuation, or $ 420,000, according to the statement, even as the company acquired assets in excess of $ 1 billion. Of Biden’s stake, “at least a third was provided in the form of loans from other [Bohai Harvest RST] directors ”, people familiar with the situation told the Wall Street Journal.
Biden’s statement said he “has not received any return on his investment” in BHR, but has made no claim to divest his holdings.
Corporate records in China suggest that he did not do so, according to the Wall Street diary.
On Tuesday, Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said he wants a thorough investigation into all of Hunter Biden’s overseas business to “see if his father’s foreign policy is compromised.”
Hunter’s international work “does not pass the smell test,” Graham told Fox News. “Its business partners and business activities were signaled by banks, not some right-wing group, across the country … because it could be part of a money laundering scheme. I want someone to look at this. “
He added: “I can promise that what I am asking for needs to be done. We are not going to let the Democrats pass. ”