Hunter Biden evaded paying a portion of his taxes by moving his earnings from Burisma to a Chinese firm and then getting the money back through a “loan,” an IRS whistleblower testified.
The alleged tax scheme began after Hunter Biden sent an email in 2014 to his Burisma business associate Devon Archer about how they planned to spend the $1 million they were both earning from the Ukrainian energy company, the unnamed whistleblower claimed in his June 1 testimony released Thursday by the House Ways and Means Committee.
“At that time Devon Archer and Hunter Biden were also looking into this Bohai Harvest investment. There was about a million dollars that they had to put forward. Hunter didn’t have the money to put that forward. So Devon was, like, ‘Why don’t I take part of the Burisma money. We can pay another part of it to you and then half of it will go into the investment in this Chinese company,'” the whistleblower said.
“So imagine this. If you are an owner of a company and your friend tells you that, I want to pay my wages to your company and you’re going to loan the money back to me, that’s essentially what happened here. He took loans from that corporation — which were distributions. And he didn’t pay taxes on those loans,” the whistleblower continued.
Anti-money laundering expert John Cassara told the Daily Caller that Hunter Biden’s alleged money transfer “doesn’t meet the normal definition of money laundering” — which is the “disguising of proceeds of any illegal activities” — because he was apparently being paid for a service.
The methodology of moving the money around through another country and using a loan as a financial vehicle, however, could be “in the category of layering,” which is the second stage or phase in money laundering. “Layering is that middle process where they try to complicate and disguise the money trail.”
Hunter Biden walks to a motorcade after arriving with his father, US President Joe Biden, at Fort McNair in Washington, DC on June 25, 2023. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
The Department of Justice (DOJ) chose not to prosecute Hunter Biden for this potential offense because they believed that the money paid back to him was really a “loan.” But “you can’t loan yourself your own money,” the whistleblower said.
Hunter Biden can no longer be charged for the transaction because the statute of limitations has run out for 2014, according to the whistleblower. The president’s son pleaded guilty on June 20 to two counts of tax evasion in 2017 and 2018, and entered a deal with prosecutors on a gun related charge.(RELATED: NO JAIL TIME: Hunter Biden Pleads Guilty In Deal To Avoid Jail)
He had “tax issues” for years before, the whistleblower said.
“Back in 2002, he filed his Form 1040 late-filing and owing over $100,000 in taxes; 2003, owed more than $100,000 dollars in taxes; 2004, late-filed and owed more than $20,000 in taxes; and then 2005, late filed his personal return and owed over $100,000 in taxes,” the whistleblower testified.
The House Oversight Committee released a report May 10 alleging that Hunter Biden and other Biden family members received $10 million from Romanian and Chinese sources through a chain of various LLCs while Joe Biden was vice president.
White House officials have dismissed the committee’s claims, with White House national security spokesman John Kirby saying he hadn’t read the report and that he had “no” national security concerns about it.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer Chris Clark released a statement Friday saying, “The DOJ investigation covered a period which was a time of turmoil and addiction for my client. Any verifiable words or actions of my client, in the midst of a horrible addiction, are solely his own and have no connection to anyone in his family.”
The White House and Hunter Biden’s lawyer did not immediately respond to inquiries from the Daily Caller.