Bank official flagged Hunter Biden Chinese payments as ‘unusual,’ Comer says

The investigator, who was a bank employee and Bank Secrecy Act manager, according to a source familiar, alerted colleagues in an email to “unusual” financial activity after a Chinese government-linked company gave $5 million to fund a joint venture between Hunter Biden and a Chinese businessman.

GDP REVISED UP TO STRONG 5.2% GROWTH RATE IN THIRD QUARTER

The email, which Comer published, was redacted to conceal the bank’s identity but described a series of wire payments that attracted the suspicion of the bank investigator.

Additional emails released on Wednesday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee suggested that other bank employees did not view the high-dollar transactions as suspicious. One unidentified bank employee noted that the business activity observed in Hunter Biden’s accounts represented “[n]othing unusual with lobby type activity,” although Hunter Biden did not register himself as a lobbyist for the Chinese company paying him, as is typically required under foreign lobbying law.

In highlighting the Chinese payment to Hunter Biden’s businesses, the bank investigator warned his colleagues at the bank about the broader practice of China “targeting children of politicians and purchase [sic] of political influence through ‘sweetheart deals.'” The investigator also raised concerns about the Chinese payment coming amid “negative news” regarding Hunter Biden’s well-documented “extravagant spending on his own interests (drugs, strip clubs, prostitutes, etc.).”

At the time, court filings in Hunter Biden’s bitter divorce proceedings had laid bare his family’s financial condition.

The unusual activity and the headlines about Hunter Biden’s spending prompted the investigator to propose a “re-evaluation of [redacted] relationship with the customer.”

The additional emails released by committee Democrats suggested lawyers for Hunter Biden and his Chinese business partners were cooperative with the bank’s inquiries in the weeks after the bank investigator flagged the suspicious $5 million payment.

Hours before releasing the bank investigator’s concerned email, Comer and other senior House Republicans pledged during a press conference to move forward with their impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden over allegations he aided and profited from his family’s business dealings.

Joe Biden’s son, as well as his brother James Biden, earned significant income from their partnership with CEFC, a Chinese government-linked company, beginning shortly after Joe Biden left office in 2017.

Stephanie Scarbrough/AP

Bank records previously released by the Oversight Committee show that a CEFC affiliate sent $5 million to Hudson West, the joint venture owned partly by Hunter Biden and partly by a CEFC executive, on Aug. 8, 2017.

The same day, Hunter Biden appeared to have transferred $400,000 into Owasco, a personal entity he used to handle various overseas business dealings. In the weeks that followed, he wired some of the money to James Biden, whose wife ultimately wrote Joe Biden a $40,000 check that House Republicans touted as evidence the president benefited financially from his family’s foreign business.

Democrats cited other financial documents that supported Joe Biden’s claim the $40,000 check was repayment for a loan.

The email published on Wednesday shows that the bank investigator raised concerns about the initial $5 million cash influx into Hudson West, as well as the $400,000 Hunter Biden then placed into his Owasco account.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

According to the email, Hunter Biden would go on to transfer far more than $400,000 from Hudson West into his account; more than half of the original $5 million Chinese payment would eventually make its way into Hunter Biden’s account, the bank investigator said.

An attorney for Hunter Biden did not respond to a request for comment.