Retired Brig. Gen. Peter Zwack discusses the potential of an armed conflict with China on 'Americas Newsroom.'
The Biden family offered their services to a huge, Chinese-government-linked
energy consortium to expand its business around the world. How do we
know? Because of hundreds of emails documenting the deal found on Hunter Biden’s
laptop, left in a Delaware repair shop in April 2019. In her new book,
"Laptop from Hell," New York Post columnist Miranda Devine tells the
tale:
James Gilliar, a wiry, 56-year-old British ex-SAS officer, got to know Ye Jianming, the 40-year-old chairman of CEFC, when they were both working in the Czech Republic.
CEFC was a Chinese conglomerate, one of the largest energy companies in the world.
Ye’s
task at was to spend $1.5 billion as quickly as possible to ensure the
Czech Republic would become China’s "Gateway to the European Union," a
priority of President Xi.
Gilliar connected with Hunter Biden
through trusted Biden family friend Rob Walker, a former Clinton
administration official whose wife, Betsy Massey Walker, had been Jill
Biden’s assistant when she was second lady.
Gilliar emailed Walker
in February 2015 to praise Hunter’s appearance in Beijing at a board
meeting of the fledgling investment fund Hunter had founded with John
Kerry’s son, called BHR.
"Hunter was great," Gilliar wrote to Walker. "True sheikh of Washington."
He
emailed Hunter a few weeks later: "It has been made clear to me that
CEFC wish to engage in further business relations with our group."
Gilliar
knew CEFC was the capitalist arm of President Xi’s Belt and Road
Initiative to spread China’s influence – and debt traps – across the
world. No Chinese company executed its goals more ardently than CEFC and
its young chairman, who was dubbed the "Belt and Road billionaire" in
the press.
The White House promised to keep the identities of buyers a
secret, but "many ethics experts expressed sharp disapproval of the
arrangement," according to Politico’s Ben Schreckinger.
((Randy Holmes via Getty Images))
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the
Communist Party of China, is said to be China's most authoritarian
leader in decades.
(Wang Ye/Xinhua via Getty Images)
HUNTER BIDEN'S FIRM HELPED CHINESE COMPANY PURCHASE RICH COBAL MINE IN $3.8 BILLION DEAL: REPORT
Chairman
Ye had built his provincial energy company into a Fortune 500 colossus
virtually overnight, an achievement described by Chinese news agency
Caixin as "another great enigma in the miraculous world of Chinese
business." He enjoyed the support of President Xi and was former deputy
secretary general of the government’s propaganda arm, the China
Association for International Friendly Contacts.
In a rare
interview with Caixin at CEFC’s palatial marble headquarters in
Shanghai’s upscale French Concession District, Ye is portrayed as a
"hermit king" sitting on a golden chair in "a room that resembles a
miniature Great Hall of the People."
Uniformed staff members wearing earpieces glide by. "Most of them were young women wearing smart clothes and bright faces."
Ye’s
face was "as expressionless as a stone statue. Amidst the gilded
surroundings, his canvas shoes had an eye-catching plainness. . . .
"In
his public activities as a private entrepreneur, Ye Jianming is always
walking alongside important foreign political figures. He has been
photographed with world leaders such as Israeli President Peres, Turkish
President Erdogan, Chadian President Déby, and European Commission
President Juncker. He has met with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and
the Prime Minister of Bulgaria held a feast to welcome him."
In
the winter of 2015, Chairman Ye and CEFC Executive Director Jianjun
Zang, a.k.a. "Director Zang," flew to Washington, D.C. A meeting with Ye
was scheduled in Hunter’s diary for Dec. 7, 2015, in a week that was a
swirl of back-to-back Christmas parties hosted by Joe and Jill at the
vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory.
One of his
former associates, who spoke on condition of anonymity, believes that
Hunter brought Chairman Ye to meet Joe at one of those parties. There is
no indication of any such meeting on the laptop, but Hunter had a
pattern of introducing business associates to Joe when they came to D.C.
After
a frustrating experience in another Chinese deal as a minority partner
in private equity firm BHR, in which the payday would not come until the
end of the fund’s life, Hunter and his uncle Jim Biden wanted more
control of the CEFC partnership and a regular income stream.
Enter
Tony Bobulinski. The naval officer turned wealthy institutional
investor came highly recommended by Gilliar to build what they planned
would be a world-class investment firm, called SinoHawk, named after
Hunter’s late brother Beau’s favorite animal, the hawk.
In
December 2015, Gilliar tells Bobulinski he needs help structuring a
Chinese joint venture for "one of the most prominent families in the
United States."
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The
plan is to "build an investment firm like Goldman Sachs," he writes in a
WhatsApp message, transcripts of which were obtained separate from the
laptop.
"The family is the Biden family," Gilliar will soon
disclose. Joe, who has announced that he will not run for president in
2016, will be actively involved once he leaves office, and the Bidens
expect billions of dollars of projects to flow through the company,
Gilliar says.
He lets Bobulinski in on the last piece of the
puzzle in March 2016: the Bidens’ Chinese partner is CEFC, which has
"more money than God," he writes. "This is the capital arm of one belt
one road."
At about this time, Bobulinski is introduced to Rob
Walker, who tells him he is "a proxy for Hunter Biden, Jim Biden and the
Bidens around the world."
Finally, in February 2017, Gilliar sends Bobulinski a WhatsApp message saying he wants to introduce him to his "partner."
"Who is your partner?" asks Bobulinski.
"Hunter Biden," replies Gilliar.
Bobulinski is leery. "I understand you want me to . . . help drive things in the US, but Hunter is [already] here."
Gilliar:
"Money there, intent there . . . skill sets missing . . . We need to
create the best deal platform in history, and they haven’t got a clue."
Bobulinski doesn’t like the fact Hunter "was kicked out of US Navy for
cocaine use."
"But he’s super smart," says Gilliar. "Just a lot of
under achievers around them using their name. Has a few demons but u
are used to those, right?"
Bobulinski asks: "Is he the decision maker or the Chinese?"
CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC IGNORE NYT BOMBSHELL REPORT ON HUNTER BIDEN'S BUSINESS DEAL WITH CHINESE COMPANY
Gilliar: "New platform. Best discuss face to face but I’m the driver."
Later, Bobulinski asks: "Ok who is putting up the $10MM [million]?"
Gilliar: "Joint vehicle – half us and then equally split – money is already in. Discuss more face to face."
Three
weeks after his father left office, in 2017, Hunter flew to Miami with
Gilliar and Walker to meet Chairman Ye, who was there for the Miami
International Boat Show.
They booked into the $700 a night
beachfront Nobu Hotel on Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, and scheduled lunch with
the Chinese for Thursday in a private room set for 10 at the Bourbon
Steak restaurant in the ritzy JW Marriott Turnberry Resort & Spa,
where Ye was staying with his entourage.
But Hunter flew home the
day before the lunch. He already had met with Ye, over a private dinner
on the Tuesday night, at which the CEFC chairman made him an offer too
good to refuse: $10 million a year, for a minimum of three years, for
"introductions alone," as Hunter would later assert in an imperious
email to CEFC executives.
Ye sealed the new alliance with a rich
gift – a 3.16 carat diamond worth $80,000. Photographs of the stunning
stone appear on Hunter’s laptop along with a grading report that lists
it as a "round brilliant" of Grade F with prime "VS2" clarity and
"excellent" cut.
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The
gift could not have come at a better time. Hunter was in the middle of
an ugly divorce from Kathleen, and his office manager, Joan Peugh, had
just sent him the latest in a series of overdue bills, a tax collection
notice from the District of Columbia for $47,226.78.
Hunter would tell the New Yorker’s
Adam Entous that he had flown to Miami to meet Chairman Ye purely for
charitable purposes, hoping to secure a donation to World Food Program
USA, the nonprofit on whose board he served and which he had used before
as a cover for his foreign business activities.
Hunter said it
was just chance that the altruistic encounter "turned to business
opportunities" and claimed to be surprised when Ye gave him the diamond.
He didn’t mention the happy coincidence that his business partners
Gilliar and Walker were with him in Miami to clinch a business deal with
CEFC.
Board Chair Hunter Biden introduces Vice President Joe Biden
during the World Food Program USA's 2016 McGovern-Dole Leadership Award
Ceremony on April 12, 2016, in Washington. (Kris Connor/WireImage)
CHINESE MEDIA APPLAUDS INTERPOL APPOINTMENT, DISMISSES INTERNATIONAL CONCERN OVER ‘OPERATION FOX HUNT’
But the diamond was just an appetizer.
Nine
days after Hunter’s meeting in Miami with Ye, $3 million is wired into
an account for Rob Walker’s company, Robinson Walker LLC, from State
Energy HK Limited, a Shanghai-based company linked to CEFC, according to
the Chuck Grassley-Ron Johnson inquiry.
On March 1, another $3
million is wired to Robinson Walker by the same company. Both
transactions are flagged by the Department of Treasury’s Financial
Crimes Enforcement network in a "suspicious activity report," filed with
the Senate committees as "Confidential Document 16."
Using the
document as a source, the Grassley-Johnson report of Nov. 18, 2020,
says: "At the time of the transfers, State Energy HK Limited was
affiliated with CEFC China Energy, which was under the leadership of Ye
Jianming. In the past, State Energy HK Limited transferred funds to at
least one company associated with Hunter Biden’s business associate,
Gongwen Dong . . .
"These transactions are a direct link between
Walker and the communist Chinese government and, because of his close
association with Hunter Biden, yet another tie between Hunter Biden’s
financial arrangements and the communist Chinese government."
The
Senate report concludes it is "unclear what the true purpose is behind
these transactions [$6 million from CEFC] and who the ultimate
beneficiary is."
We know from the laptop that Hunter received
regular payments from Robinson Walker. One document lists $56,603.74
from Robinson Walker as income for Rosemont Seneca Advisors, between
June and December 2017.
Rob Walker paid at least $511,000 to
Hunter’s firm Owasco in 2017, according to an email from Hunter’s tax
accountant, Bill Morgan.
Walker tells Bobulinski his role in CEFC
is "being a surrogate for H [Hunter] or Jim when gauging opportunities,
i.e. digging around in Texas on high speed rail with some of my
republican friends . . . or hitting new countries and contacts abroad
where things are lukewarm, but not hot enough for H to close or too odd
for H to be present . . ."
Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during an event to commemorate
the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special
Economic Zone in Shenzhen in southern China, Oct. 14, 2020. (Zhang
Ling/Xinhua via AP)
BIDEN INVITES TAIWAN TO DEMOCRACY SUMMIT IN LIKELY SLAP AT CHINA
On March 5, 2017, Page Six breaks the news that Hunter and his brother’s widow Hallie are an item.
When
Hunter doesn’t show up for a scheduled meeting three days later in New
York, Gilliar tells Bobulinski it doesn’t matter: "In brand he’s
imperative but right now he’s not essential for adding input to
business."
It is at this point that Gilliar explains to Bobulinski
that the Chinese involved in CEFC are "intelligence so they understand
the value added" of the Biden name.
Bobulinski remains troubled by
Hunter’s scandals, and Gilliar, who is in Australia with Director Zang
looking for acquisitions, is worried he might pull out. So, he arranges
for him to meet Hunter the following month at the Chateau Marmont, in
Bobulinski’s hometown of L.A.
They meet by the hotel pool in April
and speak for two hours while Hunter chain-smokes. Bobulinski finds him
respectful and polite. Hunter boasts that he has his father’s ear and
can bypass his advisers.
Hunter tells Bobulinski how the joint
venture vehicle should be structured and expresses caution about U.S.
laws, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which
prohibits businesses paying bribes to foreign officials. He appears to
conflate that law with the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a
1938 antispying law that requires anyone acting as a lobbyist for a
foreign power to register with the U.S. government as a foreign agent.
"No
matter what, it will need to be a U.S. company at some level in order
for us to make bids on federal and state funded projects," Hunter writes
later.
"Also, we don’t want to have to register as foreign agents
under the FCPA which is much more expansive than people who should know
choose not to know.
"Regardless we should have a . . . company
called CEFC America, and ownership should be 50 me 50 them. We then cut
up our 50 [percent] in a separate entity between the 4 of us."
Hunter seems focused, but Bobulinski is puzzled about Uncle Jim’s frequent meddling in CEFC business.
For
instance, in April 2017, Jim pulls strings at New York’s elite Horace
Mann School to get Director Zang’s daughter Rouqi fast-tracked for
entry, although she ends up enrolling in another school.
Jim also writes a letter on behalf of CEFC to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
requesting a meeting. "We intend to discuss potential projects and
investments in New York." He lists the other attendees as Hunter,
Chairman Ye, Director Zang, and an unnamed "Member of the Royal Family
of Luxembourg."
"What is the deal w Jim Biden as he wasn’t part of
the discussion but now seems a focal point?" Bobulinski asks Gilliar.
"What role does Jim see himself playing?"
"Consultant is what he’s
offered as [far as] I know," Gilliar replies. "He [Hunter] brought in
Jim simply to leverage getting more equity for himself and family in the
final hour, that is evident."
In
another WhatsApp message, Gilliar tells Bobulinski: "With H [Hunter’s]
demons, could be good to have a backup, he [Jim] strengthens our USP
[unique selling point] to Chinese as it looks like a truly family
business, and I like the dude."
With the deal progressing, Hunter tells Bobulinski it’s time for the next step.
"I want Dad to meet you," he says.
Excerpted
with permission from "Laptop from Hell: Hunter Biden, Big Tech, and the
Dirty Secrets the President Tried to Hide" (Post Hill Press), out
Tuesday.
Click here to read more on the New York Post.
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