Chinese and American business records continue to list Hunter Biden as a 10% owner of the Chinese government-linked investment firm BHR Partners as of Tuesday, nearly four months after his lawyer said he had completely divested from the venture.
In November, Chris Clark, a lawyer for Biden, told the New York Times that his client “no longer holds any interest, directly or indirectly, in either BHR or Skaneateles,” the LLC wholly owned by Biden that held his 10% ownership stake in the Chinese investment firm.
But business records from China’s National Credit Information Publicity System accessed Tuesday continue to identify Skaneateles as a 10% owner in BHR, and Washington, D.C., business records continue to list Biden as the only beneficial owner of Skaneateles. The White House has routinely deflected questions about Biden’s business dealings to his attorneys, who have remained largely mum.
PSAKI DODGES ON HUNTER BIDEN’S 10% STAKE IN CHINA-LINKED COMPANY
As a presidential candidate, Biden’s father promised unequivocally on the campaign trail that nobody in his family would have any business relationships with foreign corporations or countries if he won. Biden added in December 2020 after his election victory that members of his family would not be involved in “any business, any enterprise that is in conflict with or appears to be in conflict with an appropriate distance from the presidency and government.”
BHR is co-owned by the Bank of China. The investment firm claims on its website that it manages the equivalent of $2.4 billion.
The Washington, D.C., Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs informed the Washington Examiner on Tuesday morning that there have been no filings submitted for Skaneateles since Oct. 20, when a two-year report for the entity was filed that listed Biden as the sole “governor” of the company.
Skaneateles is listed as “revoked” in the DCRA’s online business registry because a $300 “reinstatement fee” has not yet been paid for the LLC, a representative for the DCRA told the Washington Examiner.
Clark and George Mesires, another lawyer for Biden, did not return requests for comment asking why their client remains identified in business records as a 10% owner of BHR through his personal LLC.
It’s possible that China’s business registry hasn’t yet been updated to reflect a potential transfer or sale of Skaneateles’s 10% stake in BHR to another party. Biden’s lawyers did not respond when asked who received his ownership stakes in BHR and Skaneateles and for how much.
The White House referred the Washington Examiner to Biden’s attorneys.
Mesires disclosed in an October 2019 statement that Biden joined the board of BHR when it was founded in 2013 and obtained his 10% stake in the firm in October 2017 for approximately $420,000 through Skaneateles. Mesires added in the post that his client “has not received any compensation for being on BHR’s board of directors.”
But emails from Biden’s alleged laptop, as reported by the Daily Caller, show that he was informed by his business partner in November 2018 to expect a “significant distribution” in 2019 due to BHR’s lucrative exit from Chinese battery manufacturer CATL.
BHR nearly doubled its investment in CATL, having sold its position in the battery manufacturer for the equivalent of $30.5 million in 2018 after having obtained its stake in the company for the equivalent of $15.5 million in 2015. A review of BHR’s financial documents shows the firm had access to tens or hundreds of millions of dollars for Chinese and global investments and set up a complicated web of China-based and Cayman Island shell companies and subsidiaries.
Biden’s name was removed from BHR’s board of directors in April 2020, according to the investment firm’s file on China’s National Credit Information Publicity System.
BHR has also invested in multiple controversial Chinese companies, most notably the facial recognition company Megvii, which was slapped with sanctions by the U.S. government in 2019 for its alleged participation in China’s repression of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region.
BHR also invested in the Chinese state-owned China General Nuclear Power Group, which was blacklisted in 2019 for allegedly attempting to acquire U.S. nuclear technology for use by the Chinese military.
