DOJ SOURCE — Federal investigation into Hunter Biden ‘more extensive than campaign indicates’…
https://www.citizenfreepress.com ^ | Posted by Kane on December 10, 2020 10:15 am
Posted on 12/10/2020, 10:31:44 AM
https://www.citizenfreepress.com/breaking/doj-source-federal-investigation-into-hunter-biden-more-extensive-than-campaign-indicatesJustice Department’s interest in Hunter Biden covered more than taxes
The federal investigation into Joe Biden’s son Hunter has been more extensive than a campaign statement indicates, according to a person with firsthand knowledge of the investigation. On Wednesday, Hunter Biden said he had been contacted about a tax investigation out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware.
In addition to Delaware, the securities fraud unit in the Southern District of New York also scrutinized Hunter Biden’s finances, according to the person with direct knowledge of the investigation. The person said that, as of early last year, investigators in Delaware and Washington were also probing potential money laundering and Hunter Biden’s foreign ties. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
In addition to the probe into Hunter Biden, federal authorities in the Western District of Pennsylvania are conducting a criminal investigation of a hospital business in which Joe Biden’s brother James was involved. Federal officials have asked questions about James Biden’s role in the business, according to a second person with direct knowledge of that investigation, who said it remains ongoing.
The investigation of Hunter Biden has dealt primarily with his financial ties to foreign figures and businesses, according to the person familiar with it. In a standard practice for tax investigations, the Tax Division at Main Justice in Washington has also been involved in the probe, the person said.
In recent years, Hunter Biden has served on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, whose founder faced allegations of corruption, and did legal work for Gabriel Popoviciu, a Romainian businessman accused of corruption.
Hunter Biden has also pursued deals with Chinese oil magnate Ye Jianming and an associate of Ye’s, Patrick Ho. In 2018, Ho was convicted in the Southern District of New York of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act over his attempts to bribe government officials in Chad and Uganda.
Another business partner of Hunter Biden’s, Devon Archer, was convicted in 2018 in the Southern District of New York on unrelated fraud charges. Bank records showing foreign payments to Hunter Biden surfaced as a part of that case.
After a judge overturned Archer’s conviction in late 2018 (an appeals court reinstated the conviction last month), prosecutors in the SDNY securities fraud unit revisited Archer’s case and began last year to scrutinize those foreign payments to Hunter Biden, looking for signs of money laundering, according to the person with firsthand knowledge of the investigation. But after conferring with prosecutors in Delaware, whose investigation was already well underway and acknowledged Wednesday by Hunter Biden, prosecutors in the SDNY securities fraud unit ceased their probing without opening a separate, formal investigation, the person said.
Hunter Biden has also faced recent tax problems. In July, the District of Columbia levied a $453,000 lien against him for unpaid state taxes, which he quickly satisfied, according to D.C. tax records accessed through the database service Nexis. The lien was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon.
FBI agents, meanwhile, have been asking about James Biden’s dealings with the hospital company Americore Health, an operator of rural hospitals, as part of an investigation based out of the Western District of Pennsylvania, according to the person with direct knowledge of that investigation.
In late January, FBI agents raided an Americore hospital in Ellwood City, Pa., and carted off boxes. The raid, which has been previously reported, followed crippling dysfunction at the hospital.
