Already accused of lying to Congress
about other issues, Hunter Biden's February impeachment inquiry
testimony distancing himself from a controversial securities firm
directly conflicts with evidence the FBI seized years ago, including his
signature on an employment contract that made him the firm's vice
chairman.
The documents were gathered by FBI and SEC agents back in 2016 and were recently obtained by Congress and shared with Just the News,
but not until after Hunter Biden had already given his deposition in
February to the U.S. House as part of his father's impeachment inquiry.
The growing conflicts between evidence now in lawmakers' possession
and the stories the Biden camp continually gives to America and Congress
are becoming of increasing interest to lawmakers.
This is especially true regarding the Burnham Asset Management firm
that was embroiled in a criminal securities fraud case back in 2016 and
also was used by Hunter Biden's business partners to help a
controversial Russian oligarch a decade ago.
Hunter Biden testified to Congress in February that he never became
part of the Burnham investment. “And did you have any active
participation in Burnham, either as an equity holder, director, or
officer?” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., asked Biden in his impeachment
inquiry deposition earlier this year.
“No. I don't think that ever came to fruition. I think that there was
a proposal that I'd be a part of that, but it all fell apart in all of
this,” Biden replied, referring to the federal securities fraud charges
against his partners, Devon Archer and Jason Galanis. The two partners
were convicted but Hunter Biden was never charged.
Yet, the newly obtained documents show Hunter Biden was in fact
working for Burnham during the same time period. An employment agreement
signed by Hunter Biden shows he was named the Vice Chairman of Burnham
Asset Management and was to be awarded an $800,000 salary, according to
the document, which was also signed by then-CEO Jon Burnham in April
2015.
“Burnham hereby hires the Employee, as Vice Chairman and Senior Managing Director, of Burnham,” the agreement reads.
The FBI's longtime signature expert reviewed the employment document at the request of Just the News and
confirmed the signature was indeed Hunter Biden's, matching it to
numerous other public documents he signed over the years that included
his Social Security card.
"Selecting from those samples, all of them bore similarity with the
signature on the Burnham Access Management Employment Agreement,"
retired Agent Wayne Barnes reported to Just the News. "But
there is one which is so close to the current questioned signature that
it is all that is needed for today’s conclusion. It is the signature
Hunter Biden wrote on his Social Security card dated 9/20/12."
You can read Barnes' analysis here.
Other documents in the FBI collection also show Hunter Biden's direct involvement in Burnham's matters,
For instance, a contemporaneous "Letter of Intent" shows that Hunter
Biden’s employment at Burnham was part of a deal that also acquired two
of his firms, Rosemont Seneca Advisors and RSP Investments. The plan was
to roll Rosemont’s business into the wider Burnham umbrella under
Burnham Asset Management or Burnham Securities. The letter confirms
Biden’s salary and promised an “earned/buy-in equity plan for each
employee” of his old firms, the documents show.
Emails also show that on occasion Hunter Biden responded to business
deals involving Burnham. For example, Hunter Biden emailed a Chinese
businessman named Henry Zhao about the partnership with Burnham and
implied that he was now officially a part of the venture.
“Henry-I am so glad to hear that we have concluded our joint venture
between Harvest and Burnham,” Biden wrote. “This is an exciting
milestone and I look forward to helping building a cross border
institution that helps investors in our respective countries across the
globe.”
In another instance in June 2015, Biden received a welcome
communication from Burnham, instructing him how to set up his company
email, phone, and computer, according to a record obtained by Just the News.
And in November 2015, just months after his official onboarding as
vice chairman, Biden was copied on an email chain where partners
discussed the visit of Zhao and his partners to the Burnham offices in
New York City. In this email, the partners used Biden's new Burnham
email address.
The new evidence has caught the attention of lawmakers, including Biggs who told Just the News he thinks Congress should refer Hunter Biden to the DOJ for additional prosecution.
"It's no longer a surprise when one finds out that Hunter Biden has
lied to you," Biggs said. "It's not even a surprise that he would lie
during a formal congressional interview. Truth seems to be a stranger to
him," Biggs said.
"I'm hoping that Congress takes further action on the Biden family
and their propensity to abuse power and lie to members of Congress," he
added,
Abbe Lowell, lawyer for Hunter Biden, did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News.
The efforts to obscure Hunter Biden's involvement with Burnham and its controversies go back years, well before his testimony.
Archer and Galanis were charged in May 2016 in a $60 million bonds
fraud scheme while they were working at Burnham. According to the
Justice Department, the pair, along with several other co-defendants,
defrauded an Oglala Sioux Native American tribal entity by inducing it
to issue bonds, but then failed to invest them as they promised.
The fraud was carried out from March 2014 to April 2016, according to
the Justice Department. Archer and Galanis were ultimately convicted,
though a judge recently ruled that Archer should be re-sentenced.
In the wake of their arrests, Hunter Biden's then-lawyer George
Mesires said in a statement that his client immediately moved to
distance himself from the firm, claiming the pair had used Biden's name
without his knowledge.
“The defendants...invoked and used Hunter’s name—without his knowledge—to lend their business venture more credibility,” Mesires said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“As soon as Hunter learned of the illegal conduct, and that his name
was being used in this unauthorized and inappropriate manner, Hunter
took immediate steps to ensure that his business interests would not be
associated with the Burnham Group or with any of the defendants."
Despite that, The Wall Street Journal also reported that Archer’s attorney, Matthew L. Schwartz, said during the trial that Hunter Biden “was part of this deal."
More than a year before Hunter Biden officially became a part of
Burnham, Biden's partners, including Archer and Galanis, sought to
overcome a federal watch list that was preventing a potential investor,
Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina, from pouring resources into the new
Burnham venture. Emails show that Archer and Galanis worked with contacts at Morgan Stanley in order to help Baturina secure a U.S.-based bank account in January of 2014, Just the News previously reported.
Later that year, Baturina would wire $3.5 million to Rosemont Realty --another project tied to Hunter Biden's partners --just weeks before she dined with then-Vice President Joe Biden at the Cafe Milano restaurant in Georgetown, Just the News reported. Despite this, the president insisted on national television that he never met any of his son's business partners or discussed business with him.
Other foreign business partners of Hunter Biden, including oligarchs
from Kazakhstan, were also in attendance with the president. Galanis
told Congress that he worked through Burnham to secure a U.S. account
for Baturina precisely so she could invest further in the group's "new
projects," that is, Burnham.
"I previously met Ms. Baturina in February 2014 when Devon Archer
asked me to help open her a U.S. bank account. She had invested at least
$105 million from Rosemont Realty by that time, which was a Devon
Archer investment vehicle. She was having trouble opening a U.S. bank
account based on reports of her ties to criminal figures in Russia and
corruption allegations related to her politician husband," Galanis said
in his deposition.
"Our efforts were to help her open a bank account, done with the
understanding that she would provide more funding to our new projects,"
he added.
Later in 2014, and still months before Hunter Biden officially signed
his employment agreement, Burnham appeared eager to broadcast the
future first son’s association with the company. One December 2014
Burnham pitch book outlining the group’s plans identified Biden as part
of the “highly experienced” team the company was trying to assemble.
This was not the last time that trading on the Biden name would become
the go-to business model.
The presentation highlighted the benefits of acquiring Biden’s firms
including access to his financially powerful Chinese connections through
Bohai Harvest RST and enjoying “more day to day engagement by our
Chairman and Biden.”
The slide deck was set to be presented to Harvest Global Investments
which was headed by Zhao, the Chinese business executive. Emails from
Hunter Biden’s laptop and witness testimony at the impeachment inquiry
show Zhao was keen on partnering with Burnham and Biden because of the value of the Biden family name and the access it would provide, Just the News previously reported.
Another email first reported by investigative author Peter Schweizer in his book, "Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win" show that Zhao was primarily interested in partnering with Burnham because of Hunter Biden’s proposed involvement.
“Henry we believe, is still interested in doing the JV deal if a fair
evaluation of Burnham can be agreed to and if YOU as a deal maker are
inside Burnham,” one partner wrote to Hunter Biden in October 2014.
“Henry holds you in very high regard.”
Biden and Archer also planned to form another Burnham-connected
entity, this time a joint venture with controversial Burisma Holdings
founder Mykola Zlochevsky, which would be headquartered in Liechtenstein
and serve as Burisma’s expansion vehicle abroad, Just the News reported last week.
The venture was set to be capitalized by Zlochevsky with $120 million
investment and the new Burnham entity—Burnham Energy Security LLC—was
slated to get a quarter of the new venture's net revenues without
putting up any cash.
When the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began to
investigate the tribal bond transactions in 2016, the agency was also
aware of Hunter Biden’s apparent affiliation because it subpoenaed him
for documents related to his involvement with Rosemont Seneca Bohai, according to a letter from congressional investigators
to the SEC. Rosemont Seneca Bohai was a firm jointly utilized by Biden
and Archer via a “handshake 50-50 ownership” agreement, Archer testified
earlier this year. According to investigators, the firm carried out at
least one transaction of tribal bonds related to the scheme.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers responded to the subpoena by producing more
than 1,700 responsive documents, Congress says. But, the lawyers also
reportedly invoked his father’s name to urge the agency to keep his
association with the partners and companies at the center of the
investigation private.
“The confidential nature of this investigation is very important to
our client and it would be unfair, not just to our client, but also to
his father, the Vice President of the United States, if his involvement
in an SEC investigation and parallel criminal probe were to become the
subject of any media attention,” Biden’s lawyers wrote the SEC after
turning over documents, according to records on file with the committee.
Indeed, Biden’s affiliation with Burnham was never addressed by
prosecutors publicly.
