Hunter Biden began his business dealings with Chinese nationals and entities when his father, sitting President Joe Biden, was vice president, documents show.
The younger Biden’s business relationship with Chinese infrastructure firm CEFC started in October 2015 and translated into lucrative financial rewards immediately after his father left office in January 2017, according to bank records, emails, texts and testimony made public by House investigators in addition to legal documents produced by federal prosecutors. (RELATED: IRS Whistleblowers Unable To ‘Verify’ Loans White House Claims Joe Biden Sent To Family Members, Testimony Shows)
“In the late fall of 2015, the Defendant, Business Associate 1, and Business Associate 2 began to investigate potential infrastructure projects with individuals associated with CEFC China Energy Co Ltd. (CEFC), a Chinese energy conglomerate,” reads a federal indictment against Hunter Biden in the Central District of California.
Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, leaves the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Delaware, on July 26, 2023. Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to minor tax offenses on July 26, as a deal with federal prosecutors fell apart in a Delaware court. The surprise reversal of Biden’s agreement last month to settle the charges came after Judge Maryellen Noreika raised questions about the complicated deal that would also settle a separate gun charge against the president’s son, US media reported. (Photo by RYAN COLLERD / AFP) (Photo by RYAN COLLERD/AFP via Getty Images)
Then-Vice President Biden announced in October 2015 he would not run for president after months of speculation, Politico reported at the time. Democratic party operatives and then-President Obama himself encouraged Biden not to run for president against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primary, according to multiple reports and Joe Biden’s 2017 book, “Promise Me Dad” written in the wake of his late son Beau Biden’s death in May 2015 from brain cancer.
“In or around December of that year, the Defendant met in Washington, D.C., with individuals associated with CEFC. During the next two years the Defendant, Business Associate 1, and Business Associate 2 continued to meet with individuals associated with CEFC, including in February 2017, with CEFC’s then-Chairman,” the indictment adds.
Hunter Biden is facing nine tax related charges in California that could land him in prison for up to 17 years. His attorney attributed the charges to Republican pressure in a statement shortly after the indictment was filed. (RELATED: Hunter Biden’s Drug Addiction Defense Shattered By New California Indictment)
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In March 2017, Hunter Biden’s business associate Rob Walker received $3 million from State Energy HK, an entity affiliated with CEFC, and proceeded to wire roughly $1 million of the funds to Biden family companies, bank records released in March by the House Oversight Committee show. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: America First Legal Demands Records From Hunter Biden’s Attempt To Expand Business Into Louisiana)
The California indictment contains identical details about the State Energy HK transactions. Walker sent roughly $1 million of the CEFC money to James Gilliar, another business associate involved with the CEFC dealings, the bank records show. Gilliar infamously suggested in May 2017 giving Joe Biden a 10% ownership stake in a proposed business venture with CEFC associates.
“10 held by H for the big guy?” Gilliar emailed Walker, Hunter Biden and business associate Tony Bobulinski in May 2017, the New York Post first reported ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
Joe Biden’s vice presidency concluded in January 2017 upon the inauguration of former President Donald Trump, his likely opponent in the 2024 presidential election. (RELATED: Burisma Slashed Hunter Biden’s Salary When Donald Trump Took Office, New Indictment Shows)
The FBI interviewed Walker in December 2020, and Walker recalled a meeting Joe Biden attended with CEFC associates after his vice presidency when Hunter Biden was trying to close out a deal. Walker told FBI agents Hunter Biden discussed a potential meeting with his father and CEFC when Joe Biden was vice president, a transcript of the FBI interview shows.
He confirmed to the FBI he received the CEFC funds through the State Energy HK account and told agents the money was a “finders fee” related to meetings they set up with individuals based in Oman.
“So the money that comes in from State Energy HK March of 2017, the timing of that is so significant, I think, looking back at everything that it makes sense that maybe there was some sort of agreement there that they weren’t going to pay it while — pay that money while the former Vice President was in office,” IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler testified to the House Ways and Means Committee on Dec. 5, a transcript of the closed-door session reads.
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“The significance of the March 2017 was that they withheld payment from that Chinese company until then-Vice President Biden was no longer in office,” Shapley said at the same closed-door hearing.
Both whistleblowers told lawmakers they were not allowed to pursue leads connected to Joe Biden as part of the ongoing criminal investigation into Hunter Biden by the Department of Justice (DOJ) centered around his taxes. (RELATED: DOJ Prosecutor Accused Of Protecting Joe And Hunter Biden Departs Her Post)
The CEFC meetings came about from a person connected to Sidwell Friends, the prestigious D.C. private school Hunter Biden’s three daughters with his first wife attended, Walker vaguely recalled.
Emails contained on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop archive appear to confirm a Sidwell Friends parent and Serbian diplomat Vuk Jeremic separately introduced Hunter Biden and his business associates to CEFC officials in late 2015.
An email on Biden’s laptop appears to show he first attempted to schedule a call with the acquaintance in October 2015, and another email appears to show the D.C. meeting mentioned in the indictment scheduled in December 2015 shortly after Jeremic’s correspondence.
Bobulinski told the FBI in October 2020 Hunter Biden and his uncle James Biden’s relationship with CEFC began when Joe Biden was vice president, but neither received compensation until afterwards, an FBI document shows. The proposed CEFC joint venture mentioned by Gilliar was known as “Sinohawk,” and the deal later fell through.
In late July 2017, Hunter Biden appeared to send Chinese business associate Raymond Zhao a threatening text where he appeared to invoke his father, IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley revealed when he first testified to the House Ways and Means Committee in May. Shapley told lawmakers Zhao was a CEFC business associate.
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,” Hunter Biden apparently texted Zhao.
The White House said Joe Biden said was “not in business” with his son when the apparent text was released. Joe Biden falsely stated during a 2020 presidential debate that his son did not make money from China. (RELATED: KJP Blurts ‘No Evidence’ Five Times In A Row To Answer Question About Hunter Biden)
“And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father,” Biden added.
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 20: U.S. President Joe Biden hugs his wife Dr. Jill Biden, son Hunter Biden and daughter Ashley Biden after being sworn in as U.S. president during his inauguration on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2021 in Washington, DC. During today’s inauguration ceremony Joe Biden becomes the 46th president of the United States. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Images from Hunter Biden’s laptop archive show he was with his father on the day he sent the text message, the Washington Free Beacon first reported.
A few days later, Biden texted a CEFC business associate bragging about how the “Biden’s [sic] are the best” at what the CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming wants them to do, according to the House Oversight Committee.
Hunter Biden likened Jianming to CCP ruler Xi Jinping, according to a memo of an interview DOJ, FBI and IRS conducted with his uncle and business associate James Biden, who was involved with Hudson West III.
On Aug. 4, 2017, the day after his boastful text, he received a $100,000 payment from a CEFC account, according to the Oversight Committee.
Hunter Biden and CEFC officials created Hudson West III in August 2017, a joint venture that began with a $5 million cash influx from a Chinese firm on Aug. 8, 2017, bank records released in November by the Oversight Committee show. He proceeded to wire $400,000 to his Owasco P.C. account, and from that account Hunter Biden sent $150,000 to Lion Hall Group, James Biden and his wife Sara Biden’s business account.
James and Sara Biden wired $50,000 into their personal account and proceeded to write a $40,000 check to Joe Biden in September 2017, the bank records show. An email on Hunter Biden’s laptop archive sent in September 2017 lists Joe Biden and a CEFC associate as “office mates” alongside Hunter Biden.
The check sent by Sara Biden to Joe Biden is classified as a loan repayment, and the White House has repeatedly said the check was a loan repayment. The Biden administration did not respond to a request for comment.
Hunter Biden hauled in just under $1 million from Hudson West III in 2017, according to his failed guilty plea deal with DOJ prosecutors. He admitted to the arrangement in Delaware court when his guilty plea deal collapsed at a July court appearance in front of a federal judge.
The California indictment says Hunter Biden wired himself $1.445 million from Hudson West III in 2017 and sent $500,000 to an unnamed business associate who appears to be James Biden.
“Look at the time period of that. That is right around the same time that this Hudson West Three agreement was up and running, and then you have all this other indication that there was some sort of perceived involvement from the former Vice President Joe Biden. So when you put all of that together, it paints a pretty clear picture,” Ziegler testified in response to a question from Republican Texas Rep. Beth Van Duyne.
In 2018, he transferred $2.1 million from Hudson West III to Owasco P.C. and sent roughly $843,000 to the other business associate, the indictment states. He also received $1 million from CEFC executive Patrick Ho in 2018 for legal services Hunter Biden does not seem to have performed, Ziegler said in an affidavit provided to the Ways and Means Committee.
Ho later received a three year prison sentence for international bribery and money laundering offenses in March 2019. In a similar fashion, Chinese authorities arrested Jianming in 2018 for alleged bribery, and his whereabouts are unknown.
House Republicans released a lengthy report Dec. 5 describing how witness testimony confirmed central allegations first brought forward by Shapley and Ziegler when they testified before the House Ways and Means Committee in June.
Special counsel David Weiss, the lead prosecutor in the Hunter Biden investigation, and numerous officials from the DOJ, FBI and IRS have testified about their role on the case, according to transcripts reviewed by the Caller.
The Biden family and its business associates received more than $24 million from Ukraine, Russia, China, Romania and Kazakhstan over a five year period ending in 2019. Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings and the IRS whistleblower allegations are at the center of the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
Hunter: “Let me state as clearly as I can: My father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma. Not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman. Not my investments at home nor abroad and certainly not as an… pic.twitter.com/NWgBrfm7ux
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 13, 2023
“Let me state as clearly as I can: My father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma. Not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman. Not my investments at home nor abroad and certainly not as an artist,” Hunter Biden said at a Dec. 13 press conference staged on Capitol Hill. His attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
President Biden scalled the impeachment inquiry “baseless” in a statement released Wednesday when House Republicans formalized it with a floor vote.
Hunter Biden held the press conference instead of attending a scheduled closed-door deposition in front of the House Oversight Committee. He repeated his offer to testify publicly and skip the deposition Republicans previously rejected.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan have said they will initiate contempt of congress proceedings against Hunter Biden because he defied a subpoena by dodging the deposition.
The White House has said it will not pardon Hunter Biden.