The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- Donna Robert
House investigators have uncovered a $40,000 check to President Biden they say was part of a payoff to his family members from a lucrative deal with a Chinese energy firm that leveraged his position when he was vice president.
The check, paid from the personal checking account of the president’s brother and sister-in-law, James and Sara Biden, is labeled “loan repayment” and is dated Sept. 3, 2017, nearly nine months after Mr. Biden’s second term as vice president had ended.
Investigators on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee say they have followed a money trail through a labyrinth of bank accounts that show the five-figure payment to Mr. Biden came from a joint venture between son Hunter Biden, James Biden and the now-defunct Chinese energy company CEFC, which was associated with the Chinese Communist Party.
It’s the second large check to Mr. Biden from his brother uncovered by the panel.
Last month, House investigators obtained bank records showing President Biden received a direct payment of $200,000 after James Biden secured a business deal with a rural hospital operator.
The money from Mr. Biden‘s younger brother was provided in the form of a personal check in 2018, between the time Mr. Biden left the vice presidency and when he announced he was running for president. James Biden wrote “loan repayment” on the check.
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer outlined Wednesday in a memo to fellow House Republicans how money from CEFC ended up in the president’s bank account.
“The committee’s most recent subpoenas issued to various banks for Biden family members’ bank records show a direct benefit to Joe Biden through a series of complicated financial transactions,” the memo concluded.
Records and witness testimony show James and Hunter Biden began building their business relationship with CEFC while Mr. Biden was vice president. To avoid the appearance of corruption, they waited for a $3 million payout deemed as a “thank you,” until six weeks after Mr. Biden left office, according to ex-business associate Tony Bobulinki.
The money, according to Mr. Bobulinski, was payment to James and Hunter Biden and several associates who, using the Biden name, had worked to advance CEFC’s interests abroad.
Hunter and James Biden in 2017 struck a new deal with CEFC to form a joint venture to build infrastructure projects. As part of the deal, CEFC was to transfer $10 million to capitalize the projects but had not sent any money by midsummer.
In a July 30, 2017, WhatsApp message provided to House investigators by IRS whistleblowers, Hunter Biden sent a message to CEFC associate Raymond Zhao, invoking his father and threatening the company if it did not come through with the payment.
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,” Hunter Biden said to Mr. Zhao in the message.
Making further demands for the money to be expedited to him, Hunter Biden warned: “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.”
Mr. Zhao later responded, “CEFC is willing to cooperate with the family,” and Hunter Biden cut out Mr. Bobulinski and other associates from the partnership.
Hunter Biden later assured Mr, Zhao the demand for payment was not “about money” but that “The Bidens are the best I know at doing exactly what the [CEFC] Chairman wants from this partnership.”
A few weeks after the WhatsApp message, Mr. Biden, then the ex-vice president who had not yet declared his intent to run for the White House in 2020, received the $40,000 in proceeds funneled from CEFC through a maze of shell companies and bank accounts owned by both Hunter Biden and James Biden.
The bank accounts were mostly empty until CEFC wired $5 million through an affiliated company, Northern International Capital, into the newly formed Hudson West III, which was jointly operated by Hunter Biden and a Chinese national affiliated with CEFC.
CEFC wired the money on Aug. 8, 2017, about a week after the WhatsApp exchange with Hunter Biden. The same day, Hunter Biden transferred $400,000 from Hudson West III and into the bank account of his law firm, Owasco P.C.
On Aug. 14, Hunter Biden transferred $150,000 from Owasco P.C. and into a nearly empty bank account for a company owned by James and Sara Biden, the Lion Hall Group.
After depositing the money on Aug. 28, 2017, Sara Biden, the president’s sister-in-law, withdrew $50,000 from the Lion Hall Group bank account and deposited it in her joint personal bank account shared with husband James Biden. Before the deposit, the balance on their personal bank account was $46.88.
A few days later, on Sept. 3, 2017, Sara Biden wrote and signed the $40,000 check to Joe Biden from their personal bank account.
President Biden has denied participating in any of his family’s business deals, but witness testimony, emails and text messages and other documents have prompted the Oversight Committee to conduct an impeachment inquiry into whether Mr. Biden used the vice presidency to help his family and himself profit.
Mr. Comer wants Mr. Biden to show proof that the $240,000 in payments from James and Sara Biden were a loan repayment. His committee last month sent a letter to White House Counsel Edward Siskel seeking loan documents, including the loan payment from the president to James Biden.
According to House investigators who have gained access to James Biden’s bank records, “no records in the committee’s possession state that Joe Biden made a large loan payment to his brother.”
The IRS requires loans between family members “be made with a signed written agreement, a fixed repayment schedule, and a minimum interest rate,” according to financial adviser Charles Schwab Corp.
Mr. Biden and his defenders say nothing directly connects him to any of the profits from his son’s business deals.
According to witnesses’ testimony and other evidence uncovered by investigators in the House and the Senate, Vice President Biden was indirectly and directly involved in some of the deals. James Biden and Hunter Biden leveraged the “Biden brand,” a reference to Joe Biden, to secure lucrative deals. And Mr. Biden phoned in or dropped by some of Hunter Biden’s business meetings.
In addition to deals with the Chinese, investigators in Congress say Mr. Biden’s position helped his family earn millions of dollars from deals in Ukraine, Russia, Romania and other countries.
The president has shrugged off the claims.
“Where’s the money?” Mr. Biden said in June when he was asked about allegations that he had accepted a bribe from the president of Burisma Holdings, a Ukraine gas company that employed Hunter Biden.
