The Senate Republican report this week on Hunter Biden shows he amassed a network of shady foreign clients who pumped millions of dollars into his bank accounts — all while his dad, Joseph R. Biden, served as vice president.
The report traced the bank transfers based on U.S. government reports that “show potential criminal activity” by Mr. Biden, other family members, and business partners. The report’s phrasing is a sure indicator that Hunter Biden and his associates showed up by name in confidential Suspicious Activity Reports (SARS) issued by the Treasury Department.
In one instance, after Hunter Biden transferred nearly $2 million to his uncle––the money ultimately connected to Chinese businessmen––the bank inquired about the large amount. It then closed the account when the Bidens were not forthcoming, the Senate report said.
Hunter Biden’s financial sources: a Russian oligarch; a Ukraine oligarch; a Kazakhstan holding company and Chinese businessmen tied to the Communist Party and People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden, who has fought drug addiction, sent thousands of dollars to Russian and Ukraine women tied to human trafficking and prostitution, the report said.
The findings prompted the report’s authors, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, Iowa Republican, and Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican, to state,
“In particular, these documents show that Hunter Biden received millions of dollars from foreign sources as a result of business relationships that he built during the period when his father was vice president of the United States and after. These foreign nationals have questionable backgrounds that have been identified as being consistent with a range of criminal activities, including but not limited to organized prostitution and/or human trafficking, money laundering, fraud, and embezzlement.”
The two senators bluntly stated that Biden the son “cashed in on Joe Biden’s vice presidency.” The vice president is the Democratic presidential nominee challenging President Trump.
Here are Mr. Biden’s major sources of big money, according to the senate report.
The Ukraine energy firm Burisma Holdings and its oligarch boss, Mykola Zlochevsky.
The State Department views Mr. Zlochevsky as one of the most corrupt men in Ukraine. He paid a $25 million bribe to the public prosecutor investigating his alleged money laundering, the Senate report said.
In April 2014, Vice President Biden became the Obama administration’s point man on Ukraine. His mission: convince the former Soviet state to tamp down rampant corruption.
The next month, Hunter Biden showed up on Burisma’s board of directors. He joined his business partner Devon Archer.
In the ensuing years, Burisma paid the two over $4 million. From May 2014, to February 2016, 48 wire transfers totalling $3.4 million went to Rosemont Seneca Bohai, a shell company run by Mr. Archer in partnership with a Chinese investment fund.
In 2014-15, Rosemont sent $700,000 to Hunter Biden. After Mr. Archer was arrested for alleged financial fraud in 2016, Burisma directly sent $752,000 to Mr. Biden’s law firm.
Russia’s only women billionaire, Elena Baturina, wired Mr. Biden $3.5 million for consulting services in February 2014, the same month Russian troops invaded Ukraine’s Crimea. She sent another $241,000 in 2015.
Ms. Baturina is the widow of a corrupt Moscow mayor, Yuri Luzhkov. She became an oligarch thanks to her husband’s administration funneling huge contracts to her plastics company, Intake.
As an oligarch, Ms. Baturina would have close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. She wired the money to Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC, co-founded by Hunter Biden.
Another Biden firm was Rosemont Seneca Partners, which included Mr. Archer and Christopher Heinz, stepson to former Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat.
Treasury reported these bank transfers, the Senate report said, “because of Baturina’s reported criminal activity.”
On the day in 2014 that Vice President Biden addressed the Ukraine parliament as the new Obama administration point man, Novatus Holding, a private company in Singapore, used a Latvian bank to wire $142,300 to Rosemont Seneca Bohai. The transaction report said “for Rosemont Seneca Bohai LLC for a car.”
The sole shareholder of Novatus is Kenges Rakishev who has ties to Kazakhstan’s power elite. He sent the money to Hunter Biden’s partner at a time when the country was debating whether to approve of Russian’s invasion of Crimea that February.
Mr. Biden gleaned millions of dollars from China.
“Hunter Biden has extensive connections to Chinese businesses and Chinese foreign nationals that are linked to the Communist government,” the Senate report said. “Those contacts bore financial fruit when his father was vice president and after he left office.”
“During 2010-2011, as a representative of Rosemont Seneca, Hunter Biden networked with representatives from Chinese state-owned enterprises and representatives of the Boston-based Thornton Group,” the report said
Constant figures in Mr. Biden financial forays in China are Ye Jianming, who ran an energy fund worth $33 billion, and an associate, Gongwen Dong. Both men were close to the ruling Communist Party, which planted layers of party members throughout the fund’s holdings.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Archer in 2012 formed Bohai Harvest Shanghai Equity Investment Fund Management Co. (Called BHR). The company is today mostly owned by Chinese entities.
In December 2013, Biden the son flew with his dad on Air Force Two to Beijing. After the trip, China approved BHR’s business license.
In 2016, Mr. Biden and Mr. Gongwen, who executes transactions for companies controlled by Mr. Ye, opened a line of credit for their New York business Hudson West III LLC. Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s brother, James, and wife, Sara used credit cards from that bank.
“The Bidens subsequently used the credit cards to purchase $101,291.46 worth of extravagant items, including airline tickets and multiple items at Apple Inc. stores pharmacies, hotels and restaurants,” the Senate report says. “The cards were collateralized by transferring $99,000 from a Hudson West III account to a separate account, where the funds were held until the cards were closed.”
The Treasury Department tagged the transactions as “potential criminal active.”
In 2017, Mr. Ye’s China Energy Co. sent $100,000 to Hunter Biden’s law firm. This too was flagged by Treasury as potentially criminal. Another Ye firm, CEFC Infrastructure Investment, wired $5 million to Hudson West III. Hudson then sent $4.7 million to Mr. Biden’s law firm as consulting fees.
The next year, another $1 million came from Hudson to Mr. Biden
Mr. Biden was also sending money to uncle James and his Lion Hall Group. Hunter’s law firm, Owasco, sent 20 wires totaling $1.3 million. This too was flagged by Treasury as criminal.
When the bank inquired with Sara Biden about the large transfers, she said the payments were for consulting. She refused to supply backup information. The bank then closed the account.
Mr. Gongwen owned other Hudson West entities that handled huge transfers, some as high as $113 million
In November 2017, Mr. Ye’s associate, Patrick Ho, was arrested by U.S. authorities for money laundering and conspiracy. Mr. Ye was detained the next year in China.
Human trafficking
The Senate report says Hunter Biden “sent thousands of dollars to individuals who have either: 1) been involved in transactions consistent with possible human trafficking; 2) an association with the adult entertainment industry; or 3) potential association with prostitution.”
The report continues: “Some recipients of those funds are Ukrainian and Russian citizens. The records note that it is a documented fact that Hunter Biden has sent funds to nonresident alien women in the United States who are citizens of Russia and Ukraine and who have subsequently wired funds they have received from Hunter Biden to individuals located in Russia and Ukraine. The [Treasury] records also note that some of these transactions are linked to what ‘appears to be an Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring.’”
Andrew Bates, former vice president Joe Biden’s spokesman, responded to the report:
“As the coronavirus death toll climbs and Wisconsinites struggle with joblessness, Ron Johnson has wasted months diverting the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee away from any oversight of the catastrophically botched federal response to the pandemic, a threat Sen. Johnson has dismissed by saying that ‘death is an unavoidable part of life.’ Why?
“To subsidize a foreign attack against the sovereignty of our elections with taxpayer dollars — an attack founded on a long-disproven, hardcore rightwing conspiracy theory that hinges on Sen. Johnson himself being corrupt and that the Senator has now explicitly stated he is attempting to exploit to bail out Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.”
