Hunter Biden made it clear that one of his goals was for him and his associates to avoid violating the anti-bribery Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or having to register as foreign agents as he pursued potentially lucrative deals with a Chinese Communist Party-connected company, according to newly released texts from his ex-business partner Tony Bobulinski.
“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. Also we don’t want to have to register as foreign agents under the FCPA [Foreign Corrupt Practices Act] which is much more expansive than people who should know choose not to know. James has very particular opinions about this so I would ask him about the foreign entity,” Biden texted Bobulinski on May 1, 2017. “Regardless, we should have a DE [Delaware] come (sic) called CEFC America and ownership should be 50 me 50 them. We then cut up our 50 in a separate entity between the 4 of us. Create that company call it BWBG or whatever it’s just a pass through.”
Last week, the Washington Examiner reported on texts suggesting that Joe Biden met with his brother James Biden, Bobulinski, and Hunter Biden in 2017. At the time, Joe Biden’s son and his associates were pursuing a lucrative deal with a Chinese tycoon, Ye Jianming, complicating claims from the former vice president that he never discussed business dealings with his son. CEFC is a since-bankrupted multibillion-dollar Chinese conglomerate founded by Ye, who has since disappeared in China.
The Justice Department says that the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act “was enacted for the purpose of making it unlawful for certain classes of persons and entities to make payments to foreign government officials to assist in obtaining or retaining business.” It is possible that Hunter Biden may have also been thinking of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a law that “requires certain agents of foreign principals … to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal.”
When Patrick Ho, one of Ye’s lieutenants, was charged by the Justice Department in 2017, the first call he made after his arrest was to Joe Biden’s brother, Jim, who has said he thought the call was meant for Hunter Biden. Ho was indicted under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the Southern District of New York for his role in a global money laundering and bribery scheme aimed at government officials in Africa. Ho was sentenced to three years in federal prison in March 2019 and was deported to Hong Kong in June. Ho tried reaching out to Joe Biden’s son for help because he agreed to represent Ho as part of his efforts to work out a natural gas deal with Ye.
Bobulinski had asked Hunter Biden on April 26, 2017, if “the chairman” (likely Ye) was “just doing infrastructure and RE [likely real estate] or looking at technology deals” too. Biden replied, “Everything — the only thing that I told him I would not do is defense-relayed technology and arms and anything that would give the Chinese a military advantage.”
The Defense Department’s September report to Congress on China made it clear that “the CCP prioritizes economic development as the ‘central task’ and the force that drives China’s modernization across all areas, including its armed forces.” The Pentagon stressed that “China’s economic statecraft focuses intensely on advancing what the Party calls the country’s ‘productive forces’ (e.g., industry, technology, infrastructure, and human capital) which it views as the means to achieve the country’s political and social modernity — including building a ‘world-class’ military.”
Documents show that Hunter Biden became the sole member of G.K. Temujin LLC and James Biden became the sole member of Sino Atlantic Solutions on May 22, 2017, and that on that day, those Biden family LLCs became part of a broader agreement with the newly formed Oneida Holdings LLC, which was to become part of Bobulinski’s SinoHawk joint venture with CEFC.
Bobulinski repeatedly made it clear in messages to his business partners and in emails to CEFC that he expected the venture to get off the ground with $10 million in startup money from the Chinese businessmen that never appeared. Bobulinski expressed concern about the millions in funding never showing up, including in a lengthy Aug. 1, 2017, letter to CEFC, in which he said, “I have been continuously told the wire is on its way. Now, Chase Bank, where SinoHawk’s accounts are setup, is voicing concerns around KYC and the fact that the $10 MM hasn’t been funded.” Bobulinski seemed confused about the CEFC funds going directly to the Biden family, asking, “How will this $5 MM be used (or the $10 MM as a whole)? This $5 MM loan to BD family is interest-free. But if the $5 MM is used up, should CEFC keep lending more to the family?”
The Chinese money never showed up for the SinoHawk effort, but a September 2020 report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Finance Committee concluded that millions of dollars were ultimately directly or indirectly sent by CEFC to accounts linked to Hunter Biden.
The Senate GOP report concluded that just a few days after Bobulinski’s letter to CEFC, CEFC Infrastructure Investment, a subsidiary of the Chinese company that listed Ye’s deputy Gongwen Dong as its director, “sent Hunter Biden’s law firm, Owasco, a payment for $100,000” on Aug. 4, 2017. The report added that “this transaction was identified for potential criminal financial activity.”
CEFC Infrastructure Investment also “wired $5 million to the bank account for Hudson West III” on Aug. 8, 2017. The Senate report said that “it is unclear whether Hunter Biden was half-owner of Hudson West III at that time” but that beginning that day through Sept. 25, 2018, Hudson West III “sent frequent payments to Owasco, Hunter Biden’s firm” and that “these payments, which were described as consulting fees, reached $4,790,375.25 in just over a year.”
Biden and Dong “applied to a bank and opened a line of credit under the business name Hudson West III LLC” on Sept. 8, 2017. The Senate investigation found that Hunter Biden, James Biden, and James’s wife, Sara, “were all authorized users of credit cards associated with the account” and “subsequently used the credit cards they opened to purchase $101,291.46 worth of extravagant items.” The senators said that “the cards were collateralized by transferring $99,000 from a Hudson West III account to a separate account, where the funds were held until the cards were closed” and that “the transaction was identified for potential financial criminal activity.”
Bobulinski reached out to James Biden in a series of texts on Sept. 24, 2020, after the GOP report was released.
“Hope you and your family are well, safe, and healthy. You can imagine my shock when reading the report yesterday put out by the Senate committee. The fact that you and FBI were lying to Rob, James, and I while accepting $5 MM from CEFC is infuriating. And so disappointing based on the years of work that James, Rob, and team invested to get things done,” Bobulinski texted. “Looks like they are looking under every rock relative to CEFC and Dong, I have gotten calls and just not responded… I guess that wasn’t the response I expected but so be it. I don’t want to get pulled into that mess or anything near it. Good luck. Oh and congrats on Joe’s nomination.”
The texts are part of a trove of hundreds of documents from Bobulinski obtained by the Washington Examiner. Bobulinski has also provided the records to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the FBI, and Bobulinski did a sit-down interview with the bureau on Friday. His records are separate from those purportedly on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
“I am the CEO of Sinohawk Holdings, which was a partnership between the Chinese operating through CEFC/Chairman Ye and the Biden family. I was brought into the company to be the CEO by James Gilliar and Hunter Biden. The reference to ‘the Big Guy’ in the much-publicized May 13, 2017, email is, in fact, a reference to Joe Biden,” Bobulinski said on Thursday, adding, “Hunter Biden called his dad ‘the Big Guy’ or ‘my chairman’ and frequently referenced asking him for his sign-off or advice on various potential deals that we were discussing.”
The “big guy” email is from Gilliar to Hunter Biden and others, and it says that “at the moment there’s a provisional agreement that the equity will be distributed as follows,” including “20” (20%) for “H” (Hunter). The email also asks about “10 held by H for the big guy.”
Joe Biden has previously said, “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.”
Bobulinski spoke at a surprise press conference in Nashville on Thursday before the second presidential debate.
“I have heard Joe Biden say that he has never discussed business with Hunter. That is false. I have firsthand knowledge about this because I directly dealt with the Biden family, including Joe Biden,” Bobulinski said.
Joe Biden said during last week’s debate that “I have not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life.”
“Joe Biden has never even considered being involved in business with his family nor in any overseas business whatsoever,” Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates told the Washington Examiner. “He has never held stock in any such business arrangements nor has any family member or any other person ever held stock for him.”
