Up to nine members of President Joe Biden’s family may have received cash payments from foreigners during the years before Mr Biden became president in 2021, according to a Republican-led congressional committee’s analysis of the ruling family’s bank records.
James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, said he and colleagues had viewed “thousands of pages of financial records related to the Biden family, their companies, and associates’ business schemes” after subpoenaing US-based banks, including JP Morgan and HSBC, for the documents earlier this year.
“We’ve identified six additional members of Joe Biden’s family who may have benefited from the Biden family’s businesses that we are investigating, bringing the total number of those involved or benefiting to nine,” he said in a statement on Monday (Tuesday AEST).
“The Biden family enterprise is centred on Joe Biden’s political career and connections, and it has generated an exorbitant amount of money for the Biden family,” he added, promising to provided details of the transaction in coming weeks.
The Committee’s investigation into the Biden family, prompted in large part by information contained on a laptop the President’s son carelessly left at a computer repair shop in 2019, began after Republicans took control of the House Oversight committee earlier this year.
“We are going to continue to use bank documents and suspicious activity reports to follow the money trail to determine the extent of the Biden family’s business schemes, if Joe Biden is compromised by these deals, and if there is a national security threat,” Mr Comer said.
Last month, using similar subpoenaed documents, the committee said it had evidence that showed after Mr Biden left the office of vice president in early 2017, State Energy HK Limited, a CCP-linked Chinese company, sent $US3m to a company associated with John Walker, a friend of the Bidens.
Over the next three months, $US1.065m was distributed in a series of small individual payments to the personal accounts of Joe Biden’s son Hunter, James Biden (the President’s brother), Hallie Biden (his daughter-in-law), and an unknown “Biden”.
“It is unclear what services were provided to obtain this exorbitant amount of money,” Mr Comer said at the time.
Another $US1.065m was wired to a company in the Middle East associated with James Gilliar, a business partner of Hunter Biden who referred to setting aside 10 per cent of a business deal “for the Big Guy” – allegedly the elder Biden – in emails unearthed from the famous laptop.
Hunter Biden confirmed the payment from State Energy HK, but the White House has denied it.
Speculation the Biden family has had shady business relationships with businesses in China and Ukraine based around the elder Biden’s influence in US politics have dogged the first family since Mr Biden became president in 2021.
These investigation come alongside multiple investigations into former president Donald Trump over his behaviour in the lead up to the January 6th riots on Capitol Hill, storage of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and his indictment in New York over paying hush money to a porn star in 2017.
Separately, Hunter Biden is subject to an ongoing criminal probe by the justice department attorney in Delaware, David Weiss, whose scope to investigate the president’s son hadn’t been limited in any way, said US attorney general Merrick Garland last month in a senate hearing.
“The US attorney has been advised that he has full authority to make those referrals you’re talking about or to bring cases in other districts if he needs to do that,” Mr Garland said. ADAM CREIGHTON
