Hunter Biden announced Sunday that he will resign from the board of a Chinese private equity firm called BHR Partners, but he’s still one of the two directors of the company that owns his 10% equity stake in the firm, business records show. The other director holds the role of supervisor at the Chinese firm.
There has been no public indication that the second director, Eric Schwerin, would step down as supervisor.
Hunter Biden traveled to China on Air Force Two in December 2013 and arranged for his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to shake hands with the CEO of BHR. At the time of the meeting, which Hunter Biden later described as social in nature, BHR was seeking to raise $1.5 billion from Chinese state-backed investors. The firm currently manages the equivalent of $2.1 billion in assets, according to its website.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer, on behalf of his client, said in a statement Sunday that the younger Biden had served as an unpaid member of BHR’s board since its founding in 2013, and that it wasn’t until October 2017 that he invested $420,000 to obtain a 10% equity stake in the firm.
But Hunter Biden did not invest in BHR Partners directly.
Rather, Chinese business records reveal a company called Skaneateles LLC, which Hunter Biden controls alongside Schwerin, became a BHR shareholder on Oct. 23, 2017.
On the same day, Schwerin became BHR’s supervisor, according to the firm’s business records.
As BHR’s supervisor, Schwerin has the power to oversee the private equity firm’s financial affairs, supervise its board of directors and take measures to hold its directors accountable if they engage in actions that damage the firm’s interests, according to a Chinese law firm’s explainer of the role.
Hunter Biden’s relationship with Schwerin dates back to at least 2008 when the pair served as lobbyists for Oldaker, Biden & Belair.
Hunter Biden and Schwerin are the only two listed directors of Skaneateles, which was founded in 2008 for the purpose of holding “ownership interests in a number of consulting and investment firms,” according to its Washington D.C. business registration documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Hunter Biden and Eric Schwerin serve as directors for Skaneateles, LLC, the business entity which holds Hunter Biden’s 10% stake in BHR Partners in China. Addresses redacted. (D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs / Screenshot)
The Sunday statement indicated that Hunter Biden would step down from BHR’s board of directors by the end of October, but absent from his statement was any mention of his business relationship with Schwerin, Schwerin’s role as BHR’s supervisor or whether Schwerin would be stepping away from either firm.
In addition, Hunter Biden did not state whether he and Schwerin, through their company Skaneateles, would divest the 10% equity stake in BHR. (RELATED: Hunter Biden To Step Down From Board Of Chinese Firm)
Despite these omissions, Joe Biden on Sunday lauded his son’s planned move to resign from BHR’s board of directors as a sign of his integrity.
“The statement my son put out today, which I saw when he put it out — I was told it was going to be put out, I did not consult with him about what’s being put out — in fact represents the kind of man of integrity he is,” Biden, who is considered the frontrunner in the 2020 Democratic presidential race, said.
Hunter Biden and Schwerin did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the DCNF, nor did the Biden campaign.
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