by Tyler Durden
Investigative journalist Peter Schweizer has called on the Senate to invite Hunter Biden to testify about his business dealings in China and Ukraine – both of which were linked to his father, former Vice President and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden.
“What I’ve called for simply is for the Senate to call former second son Hunter Biden to come and testify and people look into this,” said Schweizer in an exclusive interview with The Hill. “We’re talking about large deals and large sums of money...it involves countries like China, which are America’s chief rival on the global stage.”
1/ NEW: @peterschweizer calls for Hunter Biden to testify before the Senate and for investigations into whether the Chinese/Ukrainian governments were seeking to influence US policy when they inked big business deals with his company https://t.co/hyRK5xKIaH pic.twitter.com/2z6bFVty6S
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) May 14, 2019
The researcher provided an overview of Hunter Biden’s alleged business dealings with Ukrainian energy company Burisma and the Chinese government in a recent New York Post op-ed that details payments of more than $3 million to Hunter Biden’s company during a 14-month period when his father was the point person on Ukraine policy for the Obama administration. –The Hill
“In the case of the Ukraine, the very energy company that was paying Hunter Biden millions of dollars was under investigation in the Ukraine for corruption. Ukrainian officials have claimed that Joe Biden pressured them to suspend or end that investigation. That’s in fact what the Ukraine did,” said Schweizer.
In the case of China, Hunter and his partners Chris Heinz (John Kerry’s stepson) and Heinz’s longtime associate Devon Archer began making multi-billion dollar deals “through a series of overlapping entities” after creating several LLCs. In one instance, Schweizer discovered that in 2013, then-Vice President Biden and his son Hunter flew together to China on Air Force Two – and two weeks later, Hunter’s firm inked a private equity deal for $1 billion with a subsidiary of the Chinese government’s Bank of China, which expanded to $1.5 billion, according to an article by Schweizer’s in the New York Post.
Schweizer noted last week in a New York Post Op-Ed that “Hunter Biden at the time had no background in China and had little background in private equity.”
“If it sounds shocking that a vice president would shape US-China policy as his son — who has scant experience in private equity — clinched a coveted billion-dollar deal with an arm of the Chinese government, that’s because it is” –Peter Schweizer
Schweizer also referenced a report by The Hill‘s John Solomon, who reported in early May that in March of 2016, Joe Biden pressured Ukraine’s President, Petro Poroshenko, to fire its head prosecutor – who was leading a wide-ranging corruption investigation into the natural gas firm that Hunter sat on, Burisma Holdings.
“I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” bragged Biden, recalling the conversation with Poroshenko.
“Well, son of a bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time,” Biden said at the Council on Foreign Relations event – while insisting that former president Obama was complicit in the threat.
The former vice president told The New York Times in a recent statement that his son’s business dealings was not a consideration in pressuring Ukraine to fire its prosecutor general, noting the decision was made “without any regard for how it would or would not impact any business interests of his son, a private citizen.”
Hunter Biden also issued a statement declaring that “at no time have I discussed with my father the company’s business, or my board service, including my initial decision to join the board” of the Ukrainian energy company. –The Hill
Solomon reviewed the general prosecutor’s file for the Burisma probe – which he reports shows Hunter Biden, his business partner Devon Archer and their firm, Rosemont Seneca, as potential recipients of money.
And before he was fired, Shokin says he had made “specific plans” for the investigation – including “interrogations and other crime-investigation procedures into all members of the executive board, including Hunter Biden.”
Schweizer, the author of Clinton Cash and now Secret Empires discovered that in 2013, then-Vice President Biden and his son Hunter flew together to China on Air Force Two – and two weeks later, Hunter’s firm inked a private equity deal for $1 billion with a subsidiary of the Chinese government’s Bank of China, which expanded to $1.5 billion, according to an article by Schweizer’s in the New York Post.
Perhaps this is why Joe Biden – now on the 2020 campaign trail – said last week that China wasn’t a threat.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took a shot at Biden’s comment during a speech at the Claremont Institute’s 40th anniversary gala, saying “Look how both parties now are on guard against the threat that China presents to America — maybe except Joe Biden.”
Back to Hunter…
Schweizer connects the dots, writing that “without the aid of subpoena power, here’s what we know:”
- Hunter Biden and his partners created several LLCs involved in multibillion-dollar private equity deals with Chinese government-owned entities.
- The primary operation was Rosemont Seneca Partners – an investment firm founded in 2009 and controlled by Hunter Biden, John Kerry’s stepson Chris Heinz, and Heniz’s longtime associate Devon Archer. The trio began making deals “through a series of overlapping entities” under Rosemont.
- In less than a year, Hunter Biden and Archer met with top Chinese officials in China, and partnered with the Thornton Group – a Massachusetts-based consultancy headed by James Bulger – son of famed mob hitman James “Whitey” Bulger.
- According to the Thornton Group’s Chinese-language website, Chinese executives “extended their warm welcome” to the “Thornton Group, with its US partner Rosemont Seneca chairman Hunter Biden (second son of the now Vice President Joe Biden.”
- Officially, the China meets were to “explore the possibility of commercial cooperation and opportunity,” however details of the meeting were not published to the English-language version of the website.
- “The timing of this meeting was also notable. It occurred just hours before Hunter Biden’s father, the vice president, met with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington as part of the Nuclear Security Summit,” according to Schweizer.
- Perhaps most damning in terms of timing and optics, just twelve days after Hunter and Joe Biden flew on Air Force Two to Beijing, Hunter’s company signed a “historic deal with the Bank of China,” described by Schweizer as “the state-owned financial behemoth often used as a tool of the Chinese government.” To accommodate the deal, the Bank of China created a unique type of investment fund called Bohai Harvest RST (BHR). According to BHR, Rosemont Seneca Partners is a founding partner.
It was an unprecedented arrangement: the government of one of America’s fiercest competitors going into business with the son of one of America’s most powerful decisionmakers.
Chris Heinz claims neither he nor Rosemont Seneca Partners, the firm he had part ownership of, had any role in the deal with Bohai Harvest. Nonetheless, Biden, Archer and the Rosemont name became increasingly involved with China. Archer became the vice chairman of Bohai Harvest, helping oversee some of the fund’s investments. –New York Post
National Security implications
As Schweizer also notes, BHR became an “anchor investor” in the IPO of China General Nuclear Power Corp (CGN) in December 2014. The state-owned energy company is involved with the construction of nuclear reactors.
In April 2016, CGN was charged by the US Justice Department with stealing nuclear secrets from the United States, which prosecutors warned could cause “significant damage to our national security.” CNG was interested in sensitive, American-made nuclear components that resembled those used on US nuclear submarines, according to experts.
More China dealings
It doesn’t stop there. While Hunter Biden had “no experience in China, and little in private equity,” the Chinese government for some reason thought it would be a great idea to give his firm business opportunities instead of established global banks such as Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs.
Also in December 2014, a Chinese state-backed conglomerate called Gemini Investments Limited was negotiating and sealing deals with Hunter Biden’s Rosemont on several fronts. That month, it made a $34 million investment into a fund managed by Rosemont.
The following August, Rosemont Realty, another sister company of Rosemont Seneca, announced that Gemini Investments was buying a 75 percent stake in the company. The terms of the deal included a $3 billion commitment from the Chinese, who were eager to purchase new US properties. Shortly after the sale, Rosemont Realty was rechristened Gemini Rosemont.
Chinese executives lauded the deal. –New York Post
That partnership planned to use Chinese money to scoop up US properties.
“We see great opportunities to continue acquiring high-quality real estate in the US market,” said one company executive, who added: “The possibilities for this venture are tremendous.”
Then, in 2015, BHR partnered with a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned military aviation contractor Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) in order to purchase American precision-parts maker Henniges – a transaction which required approval from the Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the same rubber-stamp committee that approved the Uranium One deal.
Tying it back to Ukraine
While we have previously reported on the Bidens’ adventures in Ukraine, Schweizer connects the dots rather well here…
Consider the facts. On April 16, 2014, White House records show that Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s business partner in the Rosemont Seneca deals, made a private visit to the White House for a meeting with Vice President Biden. Five days later, on April 21, Joe Biden landed in Kiev for a series of high-level meetings with Ukrainian officials. The vice president was bringing with him highly welcomed terms of a United States Agency for International Development program to assist the Ukrainian natural-gas industry and promises of more US financial assistance and loans. Soon the United States and the International Monetary Fund would be pumping more than $1?billion into the Ukrainian economy.
The next day, there was a public announcement that Archer had been asked to join the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural-gas company. Three weeks after that, on May 13, it was announced that Hunter Biden would join, too. Neither Biden nor Archer had any background or experience in the energy sector. –New York Post
Hunter was paid as much as $50,000 per month while Burisma was under investigation by officials in both Ukraine and elsewhere.
Then Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in US loan guarantees to Ukraine unless President Petro Poroshenko fired his head prosecutor, General Viktor Shokin, who was leading a wide-ranging corruption investigation into natural gas firm Burisma Holdings.
Biden bragged about the threat last year, telling an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations: “I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” bragged Biden, recalling the conversation with Poroshenko.
“Well, son of a bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.”
Joe Biden says that he had no idea Hunter was on the board of Burisma (for two years after he joined), and that the two never spoke about the Burisma investigation. The former VP claims that Shokin’s removal was required due to his mishandling of several cases in Ukraine.
As we head into the 2020 elections, it will be interesting to see how Joe Biden dances around his son’s lucrative – and very potentially daddy-assisted deals around the world.
