WASHINGTON — President Biden’s family and their allies brought in at least $20 million from foreign sources, including first son Hunter Biden’s business associates in Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine — some of whom dined with the current commander-in-chief, the House Oversight Committee revealed Wednesday.
Committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said Hunter Biden, now 53, appeared to deliver Russian, Kazakhstani and Ukrainian businesspeople access to his father, then Barack Obama’s vice president — noting that each of the post-Soviet associates allegedly attended at least one of two dinners at Washington’s Café Milano with the Bidens.
“During Joe Biden’s vice presidency, Hunter Biden sold him as ‘the brand’ to reap millions from oligarchs in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine. It appears no real services were provided other than access to the Biden network, including Joe Biden himself,” Comer said in a statement.
“And Hunter Biden seems to have delivered. This is made clear by meals at Café Milano where then-Vice President Joe Biden dined with oligarchs from around the world who had sent money to his son,” he added.
“It’s clear Joe Biden knew about his son’s business dealings and allowed himself to be ‘the brand’ sold to enrich the Biden family while he was Vice President of the United States.”
Bank records released by the panel confirm that Hunter earned up to $1 million per year from Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings, beginning when his father assumed control of the Obama administration’s Ukraine portfolio in 2014 and that Kazakhstani businessman Kenes Rakishev transferred $142,300 that April for Hunter to buy a luxury car — reportedly a Porsche .
The records supplement Archer’s deposition to the committee July 31, in which he revealed the flow of $3.5 million transferred on Feb. 14, 2014, from Russian billionaire and former Moscow first lady Yelena Baturina to the Archer and Hunter Biden-controlled entity Rosemont Seneca Thornton.
Rosemont Seneca Thornton in turn transferred $750,000 of Baturina’s funds to Archer on March 11, 2014, and another $2,752,711 on the same day to Rosemont Seneca Bohai, an account that was opened one day prior to Baturina’s $3.5 million transfer.
Archer testified that Rosemont Seneca Bohai was controlled on a 50-50 basis by himself and Hunter Biden.
On March 25, most of the $2.75 million was transferred to a different Rosemont Seneca Bohai account — with two transfers for $2,246,111 and $200,000 occurring on the same day.
The paper trail doesn’t neatly resolve whether Hunter Biden directly benefited from Baturina’s transfer, but an infographic in Comer’s release notes that Rosemont Seneca Bohai funds were used to cover personal expenses, as well as transferred to Hunter’s separate corporate entity Owasco PC.
Archer told the committee last week that he wasn’t sure why Baturina transferred the $3.5 million and that he thought it must have been meant for his other firm Rosemont Realty, which he said did more than $100 million in business with her.
When asked why most of the $3.5 million was passed along to an entity that was 50% held by Hunter Biden rather than directed to Rosemont Realty, Archer told the panel, “probably because it was owed,” without elaboration.
Archer testified that Hunter Biden was only briefly associated with his realty firm, though emails from Hunter’s abandoned laptop show he was involved in Baturina’s search for US real estate investments.
Archer also revealed that Baturina attended a previously unknown dinner at the Georgetown eatery with Hunter and Joe Biden and Hunter’s Kazakhstani partners sometime in spring 2014.
Baturina also appears to have attended an April 2015 Café Milano dinner featuring Joe and Hunter Biden, though Archer did not recollect her attendance in his testimony.
Emails from 2015 discuss Baturina as an invitee and a different attendee of that dinner told The Post he saw her there.
Baturina managed to avoid Obama administration sanctions over Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and support for pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine and she has also avoided President Biden’s broader sanctions against Moscow’s business elite over last year’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine— as has another Russian oligarch, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, with whom Hunter also partnered on real estate scouting.
The $3.5 million transfer has been debated for years since it was first revealed shortly before the 2020 election in a report by two Republican-led Senate committees. Joe Biden denied that report’s accuracy during a presidential debate.
“Why is it — just out of curiosity — the mayor of Moscow’s wife gave your son $3.5 million?” Donald Trump asked Biden during the first presidential debate of 2020.
“That is not true,” the then-candidate said.
“What did he do to deserve it?” Trump pressed.
“None of that is true,” Biden insisted.
More granular detail on the disbursement of Baturina’s funds is possible as Republicans continue to investigate.
House Republicans led by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are moving closer to launching an impeachment inquiry into whether Joe Biden corruptly misused his position as vice president to benefit his son Hunter and brother James’ international dealings — with McCarthy saying Monday that the president should “give us his bank statements” to clear his name.
Oversight Committee Democrats led by ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD.) have sought to flip the script by saying Hunter Biden’s foreign income is small compared to a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s government in a firm launched by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner shortly after he left office, which reportedly was expected to bring Kushner’s firm annual management fees of about $25 million.
The Oversight Committee has not yet subpoenaed bank records for Joe Biden or any member of the Biden family and the latest memo doesn’t resolve an FBI informant’s report that Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky claimed he paid $5 million apiece in bribes to Joe and Hunter Biden in exchange for the then-vice president pushing to oust Ukrainian prosecutor-general Viktor Shokin.
The panel has acquired documents on international transfers from business partners such as Archer and Rob Walker, who distributed to Hunter roughly one-third of $3 million hauls from Chinese State Energy HK in 2017 and about one-third of $3 million from Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu — who had been convicted of corruption — between 2015 and 2017 as the elder Biden led a US anti-corruption push in the country.
Comer in May identified nine Biden family members who allegedly got foreign funds for what he said was no apparent services provided.
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