Investigative reporter and author Peter Schweizer has released documents to counter ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos’ claim Sunday that allegations of impropriety in a $1.5 billion investment deal with China involving Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter have been debunked.
Schweizer notes that the Biden campaign, among others, has tried to create the impression that Hunter Biden was only “passively involved” in the 2013 venture with a Chinese government-backed, private investment fund. But Schweizer posted online Monday a copy of a document showing Hunter Biden was on the the “management team” of the fund, BHR Partners, as a board member. Further, Hunter Biden’s business partner Devon Archer was vice chairman of the board and sat on the company’s investment committee.
Significantly, the $1.5 billion deal with BHR Partners was struck 12 days after Hunter Biden traveled with his father on Air Force Two to Beijing.
“People have a right to know how precisely the Biden family was enriched, and what did Hunter Biden give them in return,” Schweizer said in an interview Monday with “Fox & Friends.”
“He wasn’t being paid for his expertise. He was being paid for something,” he continued. “And I think we have a right to know what that something is.”
Similarly, Schweizer presents extensive evidence in his 2018 book “Secret Empires” that Joe Biden’s role at the “point person” for the Obama administration’s relations with Ukraine was intertwined with his son’s appointment to the board the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings. The firm paid Hunter Biden $50,000 a month to sit in its board despite his having no expertise in the industry.
‘Flimsy distinction’
Stephanopoulos, in his interview Sunday of President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, declared the claims about the $1.5 billion deal are “simply not true.”
Biden defenders contend Hunter did not receive a stake in BHR until after his father left office. But Schweizer has posted the Chinese registration records — and an English description — showing Hunter Biden’s firm, Rosemont Seneca, held a 30% stake in BHR alongside its other American partner, the Thornton Group, dating back to 2015.
Bidens attorney, Schweizer notes, claims Hunter’s interest in BHR amounted to “only” a $420,000 initial investment.
“This argument relies on a flimsy distinction between Bohai Harvest RST, the investment management company, and the investment fund it oversees,” Schweizer writes on his Government Accountability Initiative website. “While records currently available do not disclose the precise level of compensation Hunter Biden received as part of this deal, his $420,000 investment in the management company bought him influence over $1.5 billion in capital backed by the authority of the Chinese government.”
Further, BHR explicitly states the value of having the vice president’s son and his partner on its board, citing the “networks and known-how.”
The company states: “BHR, with its unique mixed ownership, combines the resources and platforms of China’s largest financial institutions … and the networks and know-how of our U.S.-based investment fund and advisory firm shareholders.”
“Now what networks are they talking about?” Schweizer asked in his interview with “Fox & Friends.”
“These gentlemen are not titans on Wall Street. I think we know what they’re talking about. And the Chinese were very explicit as to why they struck up this partnership [with] this small investment firm that very few people have heard of.”
Joe Biden has insisted he never spoke with his son about the $1.5 billion deal, but Hunter Biden contradicted that in an interview with the New Yorker.
And Schweizer pointed out that Hunter Biden’s Chinese partners said that just before the deal was closed, they were introduced to Vice President Biden by Hunter Biden.
“How that happened without [Joe and Hunter Biden] discussing the business dealings is an absurd stretch,” Schweizer said.
“I think what Joe Biden needs to do is come clean with this stuff,” he concluded. “The old days of just obscuring are not going to work here. This is why we need an investigation.”
