Special Counsel David Weiss has recently revealed that Hunter Biden accepted $3,101,258 from Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu to “influence U.S. government agencies” while his father, Joe Biden, served as Vice President. Although the Department of Justice (DOJ) is not accusing Hunter of having “improperly coordinated with the Obama administration,” it could still charge him with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA.
Weiss has not indicted Hunter on FARA violations, but instead chose to indict him on alleged tax violations. This decision has been criticized by Republicans who claim that potential wrongdoing falls short of justice. The sweetheart plea deal negotiated for Hunter fell apart under judicial scrutiny, leading Weiss to file separate gun and tax charges in Delaware and California, respectively. The tax trial is scheduled for September.
In court filings, the DOJ has stated that it intends to introduce evidence related not only to Hunter’s Romanian business partner but also to CEFC China Energy Co. and Burisma Holdings, two entities that paid Hunter millions of dollars when his father was both vice president and a private citizen. The filing asserts that the evidence will show Hunter performed almost no work in exchange for the millions he received from these entities.
One of Hunter’s biggest deals came when Biden family members accepted money from CEFC China Energy Co., an organization with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Popoviciu. The House Oversight Committee revealed that CEFC controlled State Energy HK Limited, a company linked to $1.3 million in collective payments to the Biden family members. Through suspicious activity reports (SARs), the committee also discovered that a Biden associate, Rob Walker, received a $3 million wire transfer from CEFC. In turn, four Biden family members – Hunter, James, Hallie, and an unidentified “Biden” – received a collective $1.3 million cut from the $3 million wire transfer.
In addition to the $3 million wire transfer, Hunter also earned a $1 million legal retainer in 2017 from CEFC’s chairman, Ye Jianming. In February 2017, he received a large diamond, worth an estimated $80,000, from Ye as well.
In April 2014, Hunter joined the board of Burisma, just two years before Joe Biden announced that he would force the firing of prosecutor Viktor Shokin investigating Burisma. Despite his lack of experience in Ukraine or the energy sector, Burisma paid him $83,000 per month – or $1 million per year – shortly after his father was announced as the “point person” on U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine.
In 2015, Burisma was under suspicion of money laundering and public corruption. Prosecutor Shokin investigated the case before his termination, which was due to pressure from then-Vice President Joe Biden who threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid if the Ukrainian government did not fire the prosecutor investigating Burisma.
Weiss indicted Hunter on nine tax charges in December, including three felonies: allegedly failing to file taxes, evading an assessment, and filing a fraudulent form. The indictment accuses him of “willfully failing to pay his 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 taxes on time” and instead spending millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle. Legal experts criticized Weiss’s scope of the indictment for not charging Hunter as an unregistered foreign agent, limiting it to tax evasion to avoid implicating Joe Biden, and focusing only on recent years in alleging tax evasion.
If convicted, Hunter could face a maximum of 17 years in prison for the nine tax charges alone. In total, he faces 42 years in federal prison for nine tax and three gun-related convictions. His gun case sentencing is set for November – after the presidential election.