Federal prosecutors in Delaware are investigating Hunter Biden for potential tax crimes, he said in a statement issued Wednesday through his father’s presidential transition team.
“I learned yesterday for the first time that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware advised my legal counsel, also yesterday, that they are investigating my tax affairs,” Biden said in the statement.
“I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors.”
A source familiar with the investigation told The Daily Caller News Foundation that the investigation began in 2018, which would have been months before Joe Biden launched his presidential campaign. CNN reported that the probe centers on Biden’s business dealings in China.
The Biden transition team issued a statement saying that the president-elect “is deeply proud of his son, who has fought through difficult challenges, including the vicious personal attacks of recent months, only to emerge stronger.”
Hunter Biden has come under scrutiny over his foreign business dealings, including in China and Ukraine.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reported last year that the IRS placed a $112,000 tax lien against Biden’s property in 2015 over unpaid taxes.
Vice-President Joe Biden and sons Hunter Biden (L) and Beau Biden walk in the Inaugural Parade January 20, 2009 in Washington, DC. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
A report released by the Senate Finance and Senate Homeland Security Committees on Sept. 23, detailed millions of dollars in wire payments from foreign companies to Biden and his business partners that were flagged for possible criminal activity. (RELATED: Hunter Biden Sought To Avoid Registering As Foreign Agent For Chinese Business Venture)
The Republicans who released the report said that the payments posed “criminal financial, counterintelligence and extortion concerns.”
According to CNN, one area of the investigation focuses on Biden’s partnership with Ye Jianming, the chairman of CEFC China Energy. The Senate report said that CEFC wired Biden’s law firm $5 million from August 2017 to August 2018. Biden also represented Patrick Ho, an executive for CEFC who was arrested in 2017 on charges that he bribed African government officials on behalf of the Chinese company.
Federal investigators obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant against Ho, according to court documents released in his case.
The owner of a computer repair shop in Wilmington, Delaware, released documents in October that he claimed were from a laptop that Biden dropped off at his store in April 2019. A copy of the laptop’s hard drive includes thousands of Biden’s personal and business emails.
The shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, told media outlets that he provided the Biden laptop to the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware in December 2019. He provided a copy of the hardware with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani in September 2020.
A former business partner of Biden’s named Tony Bobulinski also released a trove of emails and text messages he exchanged with Biden in 2017 as they were pursuing a deal with CEFC.
Some of the messages showed that Hunter Biden arranged a meeting with his father and Bobulinski in May 2017. Bobulinski said in interviews in October that he and the Bidens discussed business deals in China, undercutting the president-elect’s claims that he has not discussed business with his son.
Bobulinski said in interviews that FBI agents interviewed him in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 29 regarding Hunter Biden and the prospective deal with CEFC.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware declined comment.
“We cannot comment on an ongoing investigation,” said spokeswoman Kim Reeves.
Biden’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
Editor’s note: This post has been updated.
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