A conviction handed down by a federal court for a previous business partner of Joe Biden’s son has been restored by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were involved in a variety of business schemes over the years, including a corporation that received a payment of $3.5 million from Elena Baturina, the billionaire wife of the former mayor of Moscow.
The payment raised concerns of a conflict of interest because it came when Joe Biden was vice president.
Hunter Biden also received a total of $3.1 million for serving on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma while it was under investigation for corruption. At the time, his father was overseeing U.S. policy in Ukraine, which focused on an anti-corruption campaign. Joe Biden is on video boasting that he pressured Ukraine’s president to fire the country’s top prosecutor, who was investigating Burisma at the time.
The restored conviction against Archer was related to events in which Hunter Biden apparently was not involved.
Just the News reported the appeals court overturned a lower court’s decision to give Archer a new trial.
The report said that while Hunter Biden was not charged in the scheme, his name was “invoked at various stages of the fraud as a selling point in transactions.”
In the 2018 indictment, Archer was accused of conspiracy to commit securities fraud over a bond scheme involving Native American tribes.
He was found guilty, but he asked for a new trial, which was granted.
The 2nd Circuit’s ruling canceled the new trial and reinstated the conviction, and a sentencing hearing was ordered.
“Because the weight of the evidence presented at trial did not preponderate heavily against the jury’s verdict, we find that the district court abused its discretion in vacating the judgment and granting a new trial. Accordingly, the decision of the district court is REVERSED, and the jury verdict is reinstated. The case is REMANDED to the district court for sentencing,” the appeals judges said.
JTN reported: “Financial records made public during Archer’s 2018 trial revealed large sums of Chinese and Ukrainian money flowing into Archer’s and Biden’s accounts via a Morgan Stanley account for an entity called Rosemont Seneca Bohai, LLC (RSB). For example, the RSB financial records revealed that Ukraine’s largest gas company, Burisma Holdings, funneled millions to Archer and Biden in 2014 and 2015. According to Archer’s bank statement, Burisma paid at least $166,666.66 (twin payments of $83,333.33) into Biden and Archer’s joint account each month between May 2014 and October 2015.”
That government-owned Bank of China sent more than $100,000 to the company, and more money came from a Kazakh businessman.
An investigation in the U.S. Senate criticized the Bidens and their associates for apparent conflicts of interest.
A report of the Senate probe warned that there also were Suspicious Activity Reports generated because of the transfers of money.
Many of the issues remain a concern to U.S. officials.