NYT: Did Joe Biden Strongarm Ukraine To Protect His Son’s Job? And Will Republicans Pounce?

Did Joe Biden use his position as vice-president to shield his son Hunter from a corruption probe in Ukraine? The New York Times at least asks the question in describing a curious coincidence of American diplomatic demands for the removal of Kyiv’s equivalent of an attorney general, supposedly for ignoring corruption. However, one potential instance of corruption that had greatly interested Viktor Shokin involved Burisma Holdings — and guess who got $50,000 a month from Burisma?

It was a foreign policy role Joseph R. Biden Jr. enthusiastically embraced during his vice presidency: browbeating Ukraine’s notoriously corrupt government to clean up its act. And one of his most memorable performances came on a trip to Kiev in March 2016, when he threatened to withhold $1 billion in United States loan guarantees if Ukraine’s leaders did not dismiss the country’s top prosecutor, who had been accused of turning a blind eye to corruption in his own office and among the political elite.
The pressure campaign worked. The prosecutor general, long a target of criticism from other Western nations and international lenders, was soon voted out by the Ukrainian Parliament.
Among those who had a stake in the outcome was Hunter Biden, Mr. Biden’s younger son, who at the time was on the board of an energy company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch who had been in the sights of the fired prosecutor general.
Hunter Biden was a Yale-educated lawyer who had served on the boards of Amtrak and a number of nonprofit organizations and think tanks, but lacked any experience in Ukraine and just months earlier had been discharged from the Navy Reserve after testing positive for cocaine. He would be paid about $50,000 per month for his work for the company, Burisma Holdings.

The implication here seems especially clear coming from the Times. Burisma had no particular reason to hire Biden at a rate of $600,000 a year, except to just be a Biden when the chips were down. Mykola Zlochevsky might have considered that a rather cheap price to get a prosecutor off his back that might have shut down his operations in a corruption probe. And it seems to have worked; Ukraine dropped the probe into Burisma after Biden’s intervention, and Hunter remained with Burisma until last month, when his father readied his presidential-campaign launch.

Now, however, Ukrainian prosecutors are taking another look at Burisma. The new prosecutor-general has decided to reverse the earlier decision to drop its investigation of Zlochevsky. A new probe might uncover some uncomfortable revelations about how the prosecutor-general’s predecessor found himself out of a job, thanks to Joe Biden.

Give the New York Times’ Kenneth Vogel credit for reporting on this — and for holding off on the “Republicans pounce!” angle until the tenth paragraph. No, seriously:

But the renewed scrutiny of Hunter Biden’s experience in Ukraine has also been fanned by allies of Mr. Trump. They have been eager to publicize and even encourage the investigation, as well as other Ukrainian inquiries that serve Mr. Trump’s political ends, underscoring the Trump campaign’s concern about the electoral threat from the former vice president’s presidential campaign.
The Trump team’s efforts to draw attention to the Bidens’ work in Ukraine, which is already yielding coverage in conservative media, has been led partly by Rudolph W. Giuliani, who served as a lawyer for Mr. Trump in the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Mr. Giuliani’s involvement raises questions about whether Mr. Trump is endorsing an effort to push a foreign government to proceed with a case that could hurt a political opponent at home.

That’s a fair angle from Vogel, especially given Giuliani’s efforts to revive the Burisma probe. Most other news outlets — and even the NYT — would have run the “Republicans pounce!” part of the story first and buried those first four paragraphs long after the fold. In fact, if both parts of the story are accurate, then the two parts are roughly equivalent. Two different administrations could have manipulated diplomatic power for the personal benefit of its top members, although the nature of the benefits are somewhat different.

Hunter might come up in another more recent story about Biden. Yesterday, Biden scoffed at the idea that China was a threat to the US economy, a comment that might raise some eyebrows among Biden’s supporters in Big Labor:

Democrat Joe Biden downplays China's threat to the U.S. economy, says while stuttering, "They're not ther-ther-ther competition for us" pic.twitter.com/GegsLrZ4U7
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 1, 2019

Allahpundit thought it strange that Biden would scoff at a threat that’s now widely accepted by people on both sides of the political aisle. Peter Schweitzer warned about it several weeks ago by following the money back through the Bidens and the Kerrys, whose sons had formed a partnership called Rosemont Seneca:

Less than a year after opening Rosemont Seneca’s doors, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were in China, having secured access at the highest levels. Thornton Group’s account of the meeting on their Chinese-language website was telling: Chinese executives “extended their warm welcome” to the “Thornton Group, with its US partner Rosemont Seneca chairman Hunter Biden (second son of the now Vice President Joe Biden).”
The purpose of the meetings was to “explore the possibility of commercial cooperation and opportunity.” Curiously, details about the meeting do not appear on their English-language website.
Also, according to the Thornton Group, the three Americans met with the largest and most powerful government fund leaders in China — even though Rosemont was both new and small.
The timing of this meeting was also curious. It occurred just hours before Hunter Biden’s father, the vice president, met with Chinese President Hu in Washington as part of the Nuclear Security Summit.
There was a second known meeting with many of the same Chinese financial titans in Taiwan in May 2011. For a small firm like Rosemont Seneca with no track record, it was an impressive level of access to China’s largest financial players. And it was just two weeks after Joe Biden had opened up the US-China strategic dialogue with Chinese officials in Washington.

Remember when sources close to Biden leaked that his hesitation about jumping into the race involved supposed attacks on his family? That got framed around Hunter’s struggles with addiction. That might have been a little misdirection to pre-empt more scrutiny of Hunter’s connections to foreign governments and his father’s potential conflicts of interests and outright interventions over them.

Small wonder, then, that Trump has jumped all over this. Bernie Sanders can’t be far behind, especially after yesterday’s comments about China.

CIRCA 2012 Crony capitalism & Joe Biden’s brother
SOURCE https://nypost.com/2012/10/23/crony-capitalism-joe-bidens-brother/
By Charles Gasparino, NY POST, October 23, 2012

James Biden isn’t a big name in the business of residential housing development, so what exactly qualifies him to work at a construction company and share in the winnings of a $1.5 billion project to build affordable homes in Iraq? If you said it has something to do with his last name, the one shared by his older brother Vice President Joe Biden, you wouldn’t be far off. At least that’s the guess of some Wall Street analysts who cover the Marlton, NJ-based company Hill International and think they’ve seen yet another sordid tale of crony capitalism.

Hill has been around for decades; its main business is managing construction projects in the Middle East and here in America. It’s built a good reputation over the years, as has the father-son team who run it, Irv and David Richter. But the bursting of the real-estate bubble took its toll; Hill shares are down 80 percent since 2008. Since 2011, the company has reported losses. Its Middle East business has also been stymied by the Arab Spring uprisings; in Libya alone, Hill is out $60 million in payments that it’s still trying to recover.

But it got some good news not long after its housing subsidiary hired James Biden as an executive vice president in late 2010. Just six months later, Hill won one of its biggest contracts ever, a $1.5 billion deal to build at least 100,000 affordable homes in Iraq. A good deal for Hill, a relative newcomer to building homes — and for James Biden, who as one partner will get a good share of that $1.5 billion.

The deal is contingent on the Iraqi government providing financing, which it has yet to do, but Hill execs tell analysts the money could start flowing by the end of the year. That’s when everyone involved, James Biden included, will start collecting on tens of millions of dollars in profits.

One friend of James Biden’s estimates his net worth at around $7 million, yet he seems to have a remarkable lack of concrete business experience. An attorney who’s done work for him called him a “serial entrepreneur,” but didn’t name the startups he was responsible for. Hill chief Irv Richter called Biden a “good salesman” and the firm’s Web site describes “40 years of experience dealing with principals in business, political, legal and financial circles across the nation and internationally.”

(James Biden also had a relatively short and somewhat controversial run as a co-owner of a hedge-fund company with Joe’s son Hunter. The company, as it turns out, was marketed by companies controlled by now convicted Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford. Neither Biden was charged, but the fund company is now winding down its operations.)

No, James Biden’s obvious value comes from his connection to the Obama administration. Richter assures me that James’ ties to Joe played no part in landing the plum assignment in Iraq or any of the other government-related jobs Hill has received recently.

Really? Connect these dots: Both the Iraqi government and the Obama State Department played roles in helping Hill win the assignment, Richter concedes. And Joe Biden is President Obama’s point man on Iraq — a country where people expect politicians’ families to be “taken care of.”

Also key is TRAC Development, a South Korean firm that won the master contract for the Iraq work. And — huh! — James Biden and his wife were guests of President Obama and Michelle for last October’s state dinner honoring the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak. All one big coincidence?

Well, Richter insists that, while Biden’s name and connections might open doors when government business is on the line, that doesn’t guarantee success. “If he had the name Obama, he would get in the door easier,” Richter joked. During this month’s vice-presidential debate, Joe Biden told Americans to just ignore all that stimulus money that went to administration-connected failures like Solyndra. Crony capitalism, he insisted, hardly exists with Joe Biden and Barack Obama watching the store.

Maybe that’s why the veep, after making that dopey statement, was laughing so much that night.

Charles Gasparino is a Fox Business Network senior correspondent.

VP Biden weaponized govt power to protect his son---
to get the lead Ukranian prosecutor fired -- and bragged about it.

Biden caught on tape (apparently in cahoots with Obama): "We're not going to give you the billion dollars," he said. "They said, 'You have no authority. You're not the president.' Biden said, 'Call him (indicating Obama was in on the shakedown).' 'I'm telling you, you're not getting a billion dollars.' I said, I will be leaving here in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money.' Well, son of a b---h got fired."

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Biden is already badly-damaged goods. https://www.worldtribune.com/joe-bidens-additional-problems-ukraine-china-and-his-son/

This is one particularly incriminating excerpt from that website: Biden’s role in the firing of Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin in 2016 could prove to be a major issue for the former vice president. Last year, during a Council on Foreign Relations event, Biden told the audience that he pressed President Petro Poroshenko to fire Shokin, including threatening to withdraw a $1 billion U.S. loan from Ukraine, which had been economically decimated due to its war with Russian forces since 2014. Shokin had been working on a corruption probe that implicated the natural gas firm Burisma Holdings, a company that employed Hunter Biden, as a board member, The Hill reported.

Shokin told The Hill that he had made “specific plans” for the probe, including “interrogations and other crime-investigation procedures into all members of the executive board, including Hunter Biden.” The investigation ended shortly after Shokin was fired, and no charges were filed against any individuals of the company.

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Biden bragged to a Council on Foreign Relations event that he pressed Ukraine Pres Petro Poroshenko to fire Shokin,the man investigatng a corruptio probe that inluded Buden's son's Ukraine dealings.....Biden weaponized his govt position, threatening to withdraw a $1 billion US loan (tax dollars) from Ukraine. Shokin had been working on a corruption probe that implicated the natural gas firm Burisma Holdings, a company that employed Hunter Biden, as a board member, The Hill reported. Shokin told The Hill that he had made “specific plans” for the probe, including “interrogations and other crime-investigation procedures into all members of the executive board, including Hunter Biden.”

During the Obama Admin, then-VP Joe Biden took his son Hunter on an official trip to China.
China then gave Hunter a billion dollar check for his hedge fund .... making it likely that Biden sold out the United States to China.

"Middle-class Joe," as he refers to himself has done very well in Democrat politics. And what was Obama's cut of the Biden deals?

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INSIDE THE SHADY PRIVATE EQUITY FUND OF BIDEN AND KERRY'S KIDS

EXCERPT--Peter Schweizer in his new book, “Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends,” details a number of ethical violations on both sides of the political aisle. One example: the little-noticed private equity firm run by the sons of Democrats Joe Biden and John Kerry, as detailed in this exclusive first excerpt.

The two men became close while serving for several decades together in the US Senate. The two “often talked on matters of foreign policy,” says Jules Witcover in his Biden biography.So their sons going into business together in June 2009 was not exactly a bolt out of the blue. But with whom their sons cut lucrative deals while the elder two were steering the ship of state is more of a surprise.

What Hunter Biden, the son of America’s vice president, and Christopher Heinz, the stepson of the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (later to be secretary of state), were creating was an international private equity firm. It was anchored by the multi-million Heinz family alternative investment fund, Rosemont Capital. The new firm would be populated by political loyalists and positioned to strike profitable deals overseas with foreign governments and officials with whom the US government was negotiating.

Hunter Biden, Vice President Joe Biden’s youngest son, had gone through a series of jobs since graduating from Yale Law School in 1996, including the hedge-fund business. By the summer of 2009, the 39-year-old Hunter joined forces with the son of another powerful figure in American politics, Chris Heinz. Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania had tragically died in a 1991 airplane crash when Chris was 18. Chris, his brothers, and his mother inherited a large chunk of the family’s vast ketchup fortune, including a network of investment funds and a Pennsylvania estate, among other properties. In May 1995, his mother, Teresa, married Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. That same year, Chris graduated from Yale, and then went on to get his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Joining them in the Rosemont venture was Devon Archer, a longtime Heinz and Kerry friend. The three friends established a series of related LLCs. The trunk of the tree was Rosemont Capital, the alternative investment fund of the Heinz Family Office. Rosemont Farm is the name of the Heinz family’s 90-acre estate outside Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania. The small fund grew quickly. According to an email revealed as part of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, Rosemont described themselves as “a $2.4 billion private equity firm co-owned by Hunter Biden and Chris Heinz,” with Devon Archer as “Managing Partner.”The partners attached several branches to the Rosemont Capital trunk, including Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC, Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners, and Rosemont Realty. Of the various deals in which these Rosemont entities were involved, one of the largest and most troubling concerns was Rosemont Seneca Partners.

Rather than set up shop in New York City, the financial capital of the world, Rosemont Seneca leased space in Washington, DC. They occupied an all-brick building on Wisconsin Avenue, the main thoroughfare of exclusive Georgetown. Their offices would be less than a mile from John and Teresa Kerry’s 23-room Georgetown mansion, and just two miles from both Joe Biden’s office in the White House and his residence at the Naval Observatory. In short, the Chinese government was literally funding a business that it co-owned along with the sons of two of America’s most powerful decision makers.

--SNIP--rest at source

Chris Heinz (left) with John Kerry at a campaign fundraiser,
April 16, 2004./ Dennis Van Tine

Hunter and Dad, Joe Biden.

SOURCE http://nypost.com/2018/03/15/inside-the-shady-private-equity-firm-run-by-kerry-and-bidens-kids/

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Hunter Biden also had connections to jailed crook Allen Stanford
WSJ, By Susan Schmidt, Steve Stecklow and John R. Emshwiller, Feb. 24, 2009 12:01 a.m. ET

A fund of hedge funds run by two members of Vice President Joe Biden's family was marketed exclusively by companies controlled by Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, who is facing Securities and Exchange Commission accusations of engaging in an $8 billion fraud.

The $50 million fund was jointly branded between the Bidens' Paradigm Global Advisors LLC and a Stanford Financial Group entity and was known as the Paradigm Stanford Capital Management Core Alternative Fund. Stanford-related companies marketed the fund to investors......--snip--rest at WSJ paywall

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