The former Hunter Biden business associate at the center of his business dealings with China is set to testify before congress about his role in the Biden business enterprise.
Rob Walker, a business associate central to Hunter Biden’s dealings with Chinese firm CEFC, is scheduled to testify Friday before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees to advance the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. (RELATED: Kevin Morris Reveals Political ‘Risk’ He Warned Of After He Began Financially Supporting Hunter Biden)
Below are five questions lawmakers should ask Walker about his role in Hunter Biden’s CEFC transactions and his broader business enterprise.
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 10: Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, departs a House Oversight Committee meeting at Capitol Hill on January 10, 2024 in Washington, DC. The committee is meeting today as it considers citing him for Contempt of Congress. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Did CEFC pay Hunter Biden for work during Joe Biden’s vice presidency?
Hunter Biden and his business associates first got involved with CEFC in late 2015 while Joe Biden was vice president, his federal tax indictment in California lays out. He met with CEFC associates in December 2015, and he and two business associates continued meeting with CEFC, including a February 2017 meeting with CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming. (RELATED: Hunter Biden’s Drug Addiction Defense Shattered By New California Indictment)
In March 2017, Walker received roughly $3 million from State Energy HK, a CEFC affiliated account, and distributed roughly $1 million to Biden family-associated accounts and $1 million to European Energy and Infrastructure Group (EEIG), a company linked to business associate James Gilliar, according to bank records released in March by the House Oversight Committee.
The California indictment confirms the State Energy HK payments and describes the negotiations that ensued surrounding a proposed joint venture known as “Sinohawk” with CEFC associates.
Tony Bobulinski, a business associate involved with the “Sinohawk” negotiations, told the FBI the Biden family relationship with CEFC began during Joe Biden’s vice presidency but the payments did not begin until after he left office, according to FBI notes.
Why did Hunter Biden invite Joe Biden to meet with CEFC?
Joe Biden met with CEFC after his vice presidency concluded as Hunter Biden was trying to close a deal with CEFC, Walker told the FBI in December 2020, according to an interview transcript. Walker also recalled Hunter Biden planning meetings with his father and CEFC when Joe Biden was vice president.
Bobulinski told the FBI he and Joe Biden met in May 2017 to talk business at a hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The “Sinohawk” proposal was the topic of the conversation, according to Bobulinski, the FBI notes show.
In July 2017, Hunter Biden invoked his father in a threatening text he sent a Chinese business associate first disclosed by Shapley. Images from his abandoned laptop archive place him and Joe Biden together on the day he sent the text, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
Devon Archer, another former business associate, testified to the House Oversight Committee in July and recalled Joe Biden speaking with his son’s business associates around 20 times. Archer and Hunter Biden co-founded investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners and sat on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings together. (RELATED: Former Burisma Lawyer John Buretta Files Retroactive FARA Disclosure As Biden Impeachment Inquiry Progresses)
The Biden family “brand” protected Burisma from legal scrutiny when Hunter Biden sat on its board, Archer told lawmakers. Right after Joe Biden’s vice presidency concluded in January 2017, Burisma slashed Hunter Biden’s annual salary, according to the California indictment. Archer was not involved with Hunter Biden’s CEFC dealings.
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 10:Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, flanked by Kevin Morris, left, and Abbe Lowell, right, attend a House Oversight Committee meeting on January 10, 2024 in Washington, DC. The committee is meeting today as it considers citing him for Contempt of Congress. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Was 10% for the “big guy” ever on the table?
In May 2017, Gilliar appeared to suggest to Hunter Biden, Walker and Bobulinski that 10% ownership of a joint venture with CEFC be given to Joe Biden, emails from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop indicate. The New York Post first reported on the emails ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
“10 held by H for the big guy?” Gilliar asked his business associates. The proposed 10% ownership stake for Joe Biden appeared to be part of the “Sinohawk” negotiations, Bobulinski told the FBI.
IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley testified Dec. 5 before the House Ways and Means Committee and asserted that investigators were not allowed to pursue what “10 held by H for the big guy” meant during the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) criminal investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes.
Shapley first testified in May and told the Ways and Means Committee former Delaware Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf instructed the FBI not to ask Walker about what Gilliar meant. Wolf left the DOJ after Shapley and Ziegler accused her of protecting Joe and Hunter Biden over the course of the criminal investigation. (RELATED: Ex-DOJ Prosecutor Accused Of Protecting Joe And Hunter Biden Lands Cushy New Job)
The FBI appeared to ask Walker about the subject nonetheless without going into detail because Walker did not recall the email and only saw it through media reports.
“It was an email. I think that maybe James [Gilliar] was ah.., wishful thinking that ah.., or maybe he was ah, projecting that, you know, if this was a good relationship and if this was something that was gonna happen, that ah.., ah.., and if the.., the V. P. was never gonna run,” Walker told the FBI.
What services did Hunter Biden offer CEFC?
The “Sinohawk” negotiations fell through, and instead, Hunter Biden and CEFC associates created Hudson West III, a business entity that hauled in millions for Hunter in 2017 and 2018, according to bank records, the California indictment and Hunter’s failed guilty plea with federal prosecutors in Delaware.
Hudson West III began in August 2017, and money from the business flowed into Joe Biden’s bank account through Hunter Biden’s business account and the personal and business accounts of James Biden and his wife Sara Biden, bank records released by the Oversight Committee in November revealed.
In September 2017, Sara Biden wrote a $40,000 check to Joe Biden with money originating from Hudson West III. The check is classified as a loan repayment and the Biden White House has said it was a loan repayment. (RELATED: IRS Whistleblowers Unable To ‘Verify’ Loans White House Claims Joe Biden Sent To Family Members, Testimony Shows)
Around the time of the check, Hunter Biden wrote an email to a property manager classifying him, Joe Biden and a CEFC associate as “office mates.” A bank investigator later flagged the initial $5 million sent from a Chinese firm to Hudson West in August 2017.
James Biden was involved with Hudson West III alongside Hunter, and the pair appeared to work with CEFC associates on attempting to secure U.S. based energy projects that eventually fell through.
CEFC associate Patrick Ho paid Hunter Biden $1 million in March 2018 for apparent legal services that Biden never performed following Ho’s arrest on bribery charges, House Ways and Means documents show. Ho was later sentenced to three years in prison in March 2019 for participating in an international bribery scheme.
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 05: Internal Revenue Service Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley (L) and IRS Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler (R), who both worked on the federal investigation into Hunter Biden, testify before the House Ways and Means Committee in the Longworth House Office Building on December 5, 2023 in Washington, DC. The Ways and Means Committee is hearing testimony from Internal Revenue whistleblowers Service Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and IRS Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler, who both claim they were blocked from pursuing leads that would lead to more serious charges during their five-year investigation into Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Was Joe Biden aware of Hunter Biden’s Romanian business dealings?
Walker also participated in Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Romanian oligarch Gabriel Popoviciu, bank records show. Poppviciu sent Walker approximately $3 million worth of payments from November 2015 to May 2017, and Walker split the money with Hunter Biden and Gilliar, according to the records.
Popoviciu faced corruption charges in Romania at the time, and Hunter Biden scheduled at least one meeting with the U.S. Ambassador to Romania to make Popoviciu’s case, emails from Biden’s abandoned laptop archive show. The Romanian oligarch later fled his home to live in the UK and successfully fought off the Romanian government’s extradition request.
Joe Biden was vice president for 16 of the 17 payments Popoviciu sent to Walker’s LLC from his Cyprus-based LLC. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh, a business associate Hunter Biden brought in to help Popoviciu with his case, floated working with Joe Biden on future affairs in summer 2016 towards the end of Joe Biden’s vice presidency.
Walker and Hunter Biden’s former Chinese business associate Mervyn Yan are scheduled to testify behind closed doors as part of the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry exploring the apparent role Joe Biden played in his son’s foreign business dealings. (RELATED: FBI Investigators Found Cocaine On Firearm Pouch Hunter Biden Used, Prosecutors Say)
The Biden family and its business associates received more than $24 million from foreign sources over a roughly five year period ending in 2019, House Republicans said in a September memo.
Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to the federal tax charges at an arraignment Jan. 11 in Los Angeles. None of the business associates are specifically named in the tax indictment.
House Republicans and Hunter Biden agreed to have him deposed Feb. 28.