Biden got recurring $1,380 payment from Hunter’s firm starting in 2018
By Steven Nelson | New York Post
WASHINGTON — President Biden received a recurring payment of $1,380 from his son Hunter’s law firm beginning in late 2018 shortly after a bank money laundering officer warned that the same account was receiving millions of dollars in Chinese government-linked funds without “any services rendered.”
A bank order shows that Owasco PC set up a “monthly” transfer to then-former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., with a voided check for the future president included in the documentation, which was released Monday by the House Oversight Committee.
A source told The Post that at least three payments were made — on Sept. 17, Oct. 15 and Nov. 15, 2018 — totaling $4,140 to the elder Biden from Owasco PC, according to the firm’s bank records.
“President Biden and his family must be held accountable for this blatant corruption,” Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a video release.
“This wasn’t a payment from Hunter Biden’s personal account but an account for his corporation that received payments from China and other shady corners of the world,” Comer said.
“Hunter Biden is under an investigation by the Department of Justice for using Owasco PC for tax evasion and other serious crimes. And based on whistleblower testimony, [DOJ] made a concerted effort to prevent investigators from asking questions about Joe Biden. I wonder why?”
Emails from Hunter’s abandoned laptop indicate that the recurring transfers may have been to repay Joe Biden for help with his son’s car payment. However, the provenance of the funds that went from the first son’s business account to his father is unclear.
A January 2019 email to Hunter from his assistant Katie Dodge annotated various expenses including “Ford Raptor — Reimbursement to JRB — $1380.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment at her regular briefing Monday, saying, “I have not seen that report, so I would have to refer you to my colleagues over at the White House counsel’s office.”
White House counsel’s office spokesman Ian Sams did not comment on the latest Comer release other than to tweet, “Can you be impeached for Buying American?”
The source of the funds used by Hunter to pay his father is murky, as records show that Hunter Biden was involved in two of his most controversial business relationships at the time, with Ukraine’s Burisma Holdings and CEFC China Energy.
The evidence emerged as House Republicans prepare to question first brother James Biden on Wednesday and Hunter next week about the president’s role in his family’s dealings in countries such as China and Ukraine — with a possible floor vote to authorize the ongoing impeachment inquiry this month.
While a presidential candidate, Joe Biden denied that he ever discussed business with his relatives, but evidence has since shown that he met with his relatives’ associates from both the Burisma and CEFC ventures.
Documents from the first son’s abandoned laptop show that Burisma board adviser Vadym Pozharskyi sought “bank reference” information on Sept. 14, 2018 — three days before the first of the recurring payments.
Joe Biden met Pozharskyi at an April 17, 2015, dinner at DC’s Café Milano, one year after the embattled Ukrainian gas company hired Hunter, who had no relevant industry experience, as his father led US policy toward the country following Russia’s seizure of Crimea.
An unproven FBI informant tip released publicly this year said that Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky claimed in 2016 he was “coerced” into paying $10 million in bribes to the Bidens for their assistance in ousting prosecutor Viktor Shokin.
At the time that the recurring payment was set up, Hunter also was at the tail end of disbursing millions of dollars received from CEFC China Energy — one of two major Biden family dealings with Chinese government-linked firms.
On June 26, 2018 — less than three months before Joe Biden began to receive the monthly transfers — an internal Bank Secrecy Act expert warned colleagues that the financial institution should consider ending its relationship with Hunter as a result of Owasco PC seeming to receive Chinese funds without “any services rendered.”
CEFC transferred $5 million to another Biden family-linked entity, Hudson West III, in August 2017 after Hunter warned a China-based associate of his father’s wrath if a business deal was aborted, warning he was “sitting here with my father.” Much of the subsequent transfer later went to Hunter’s Owasco PC.
Prior bank records released by the Oversight Committee indicate that Joe Biden received payments of $40,000 and $200,000 from his brother James, who also was involved in the CEFC venture and other foreign-focused enterprises.
Comer alleged that the $40,000 transferred to Joe Biden’s bank account on Sept 3, 2017, was from “laundered” Chinese funds.
James Biden paid Joe Biden $200,000 on March 1, 2018 — the same day that James received a $200,000 transfer from troubled rural hospital company Americore after pledging to use his political connections to secure a Middle Eastern investor, according to bankruptcy filings.
The White House says there’s evidence that both transfers were loan repayments, but Republicans argue they have not seen loan agreement documents and note that the funds distributed to James came from a law firm, rather than Joe Biden himself, further clouding the picture.
