Further BOMBSHELL news regarding the Biden crime...

Further BOMBSHELL news regarding the Biden crime family

EXCLUSIVE

Fund manager indicates Jim Biden was inbusiness with Qatari officials

The alleged arrangements would be some of theclosest known links between a Biden relative and a foreign government.

James Biden, brother of President Joe Biden, arrives for a depositionbefore the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees on President Biden'simpeachment inquiry in Washington on February 21, 2024. | Mandel Ngan/AFP viaGetty Images

By BEN SCHRECKINGER

04/28/2024 07:00 AM EDT

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New details about Jim Biden’s foreignfundraising efforts are spilling out in a Kentucky bankruptcy court, whererecent testimony indicates that President Joe Biden’s brother partnered withQatari government officials in his quest to find money for U.S. health careventures.

The sworn testimony by fund managerMichael Lewitt, a former business partner of Jim Biden’s, attests that twocompanies that facilitated the efforts were part-owned by “members of theQatari government.”

One company named in the testimony partnereddirectly with Jim Biden in the multi-year fundraising efforts.

The second company provided financialbacking for a series of loans that a hospital chain paid Jim Biden to arrange,according to documents and testimony Lewitt submitted in the course of thefederal bankruptcy proceedings.

If substantiated, the allegedarrangements would constitute some of the closest known financial links betweena relative of President Joe Biden and a foreign government.

The alleged arrangements stem from aneffort by Jim Biden to raise money from Qatari sources for ventures in the U.S.beginning in the months after his older brother left the vice presidency. Atthe time, the tiny, gas-rich nation faced a financial blockade from itsneighbors and was spending lavishly to shore up its political standing in theWest.

Public records and emails obtained by POLITICOoffer a window on fundraising efforts in which Jim Biden invoked his ties toolder brother and sought workarounds to restrictions on international money movements.Transactions related to the efforts are also at the heart of a recently-settledfraud case brought by the SEC and are being scrutinized as part of a federal criminal investigation in South Florida.

Much about the efforts remains unknown,and the White House, the Qatari Embassy, and a representative for Jim Biden alldid not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Jim Biden suggested to congressionalinvestigators in February that his fundraising efforts stalled for lack ofviable projects to back. But the previously unreported testimony by fundmanager Michael Lewitt about the ownership of the two companies — the PlatinumGroup USA and Obermeyer Engineering Consulting — indicates that Jim Bidenforged closer ties to Qatar’s government than previously understood.

Lewitt, a former business partner ofJim Biden’s, is likely to face questions about the efforts when he sits for aplanned interview with House impeachment inquiry investigators.

No date has been announced for theinterview, and Lewitt declined repeated requests to comment further on hiscourtroom testimony.

Crisis in the Middle East

In June 2017, Qatar’s neighbors, led bySaudi Arabia, ganged up and cut diplomatic ties with the country, citing itsalleged support for terrorism. The ensuing financial and physical blockadethrew the country — a peninsula that juts out from Saudi Arabia into thePersian Gulf — into a sustained crisis.

In response, the country’s rulers beganshowering well-connected Westerners with gifts and financial benefits, sometimes in the form of investment funding. The Qatari influence offensive strengthened the country’s ties to the U.S. and Europe but has also led to corruption scandals, including the European Parliament’s sprawling Qatargate fiasco.

Around the time of the blockade, JimBiden was embarking on a foray into the health care business in which he workedclosely with troubled hospital chain Americore.

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To raise money for the company, heteamed up with the Platinum Group’s CEO, a Florida businessman named AmerRustom who has boasted of his ties to officials in the Middle East, and Lewitt.

A hedge fund manager known for authoring a popularfinance newsletter, the Credit Strategist, Lewitt has written that he pursued graduate studies under the legendary literary critic Harold Bloom at Yale, where he rubbed shoulders with Italian novelist Umberto Eco and the French philosopher Jacques Derrida before embarking on a finance career at the investment bank Drexel Burnham.

Together, Jim Biden, Rustom and Lewittsought investment funding from sources in the Middle East for Americore andother ventures, according to federal court filings in Tennessee and emailsobtained by POLITICO.

Those efforts came to focus largely onQatar, according to a former Americore executive who was granted anonymity todiscuss a sensitive matter. Jim Biden and his partners said that Qatariofficials had expressed an interest in investing more deeply in the U.S. healthcare sector, the former executive recalled.

POLITICO previously reported that in August 2017, Jim Biden and Rustom workshopped a draft letter to an official at the country’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority. The draft letter from Jim Biden read in part, “My family could provide a wealth of introductions and business opportunities at the highest levels that I believe would be worthy of the interest of His Excellency,” and, “On behalf of the Biden family, I welcome your interest here.”

Rustom did not respond to requests forcomment.

As the group refined their pitch inearly 2018, Lewitt and a group of Platinum-related companies committed toraising $30 million for the hospital chain, according to a complaint later filed against Lewitt by the SEC.

In the meantime, Lewitt’s investmentfund, Third Friday, began making a series of bridge loans to Americore to keepthe cash-strapped company afloat until the $30 million arrived.

The first bridge loan coincided with a$400,000 payment from Americore to Jim Biden.

In his interview with impeachment inquiryinvestigators in February, Jim Biden said the roughly $600,000 payments hereceived from Americore around that time were for his role in arranging theloans. After prompting from his attorney, he added that the payments were alsofor “many other services,” according to a transcript of the interview.

In March 2018, Jim Biden transferred$200,000 of the payments in question to Joe Biden, who was then out of office,in what he and the White House have both described as a repayment of anunrelated loan between brothers. POLITICO previously reviewed bank records that show a $200,000 payment to Jim Biden from an account that appeared to belong to Joe Biden made several weeks earlier.

‘Global banking emissary’

In the spring of 2018, the fundraisingefforts gained steam.

On March 10, Jim Biden’s wife, SaraBiden, emailed a draft investor presentation to a Platinum Group executive,Julie Lander, saying that it reflected “a few minor revisions by Jim.”

The email was part of a cache ofinternal Americore documents obtained exclusively by POLITICO, which publisheda February report on Jim Biden’s work with the hospital chain.

The attached presentation said thatAmericore was seeking $30 million in financing to acquire hospitals anddescribed Jim Biden as “Brother and Campaign Finance Chair of former VicePresident Joe Biden.”

A month later, on April 10, Landeremailed Jim Biden about the fundraising efforts and referred to an apparentmeeting with a high-ranking Qatari official.

“I am following up from the meeting wehad with the Minister,” wrote Lander. “Your approach with him was flawless. Herequested more information on Americore.”

In the previously unreported email, Landersuggested a potential request of $200 million and asked Jim Biden to providemore information on the potential benefits to Qatar of an investment deal.

Lander’s email came five days aftera large delegation of Qatari officials and business leaders visited Miami. It is not clear which minister Lander, who did not respond to requests for comments, was referring to.

Despite her upbeat email, thefundraising efforts hit a series of snags. The former Americore executive saidthat some of the issues pertained to legal restrictions on moving investmentfunds across borders, but the person said they were not versed in the detailsof those restrictions. The former executive recalled discussion at one point oftrying to move money across a Middle Eastern border in the form of gold bars,but said they were not aware of any action taken on the idea.

One avenue that Jim Biden explored forgetting investments to Americore was dependent on helping a payment processingcompany, Billerfy, gain access to the U.S. banking system, internal Americoreemails show.

At the time, Billerfy processedpayments for Canada’s then-largest crypto exchange, Quadriga, which has since collapsed. A lawyer who has represented Billerfy, Philip Holdsworth of Robbins Appleby in Toronto, did not respond to requests for comment and POLITICO was unable to reach the company directly.

A draft presentation that circulatedinside Americore described Billerfy as an “open network for global payments”and described Jim Biden as Billerfy’s “chief global banking emissary.”

It is not clear what came of the talks.In an April 10 email to Jim Biden, Americore’s outside counsel, ChristopherAnderson, expressed reservations about working with Billerfy. Anderson did notrespond to requests for comment and a representative for Jim Biden did notrespond to a question about Billerfy.

‘Dubai $$$'

As business in Qatar slowed down inmid-May for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the fundraising efforts stalledand tensions grew among the people involved.

In a May 17 email to Americore CEO Grant White, JimBiden vented about a flap between the two men and implored White to providemore detailed financial information to potential investors.

By way of explaining the continuedfundraising delays, Jim Biden wrote that Rustom and Lewitt “are waiting onWorld Bank approval” of their acquisition of a bank and touted his own effortsto secure funding. “I agreed to go to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and China (at my ownexpense),” he wrote.

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A week later, Jim Biden aired hisfrustrations in an email to Rustom. “The $30 million was committed to over twomonths ago and we made moves predicated on that available line of credit,” hewrote.”Thingshave happened in the interim that are completely understandable, but the factremains that the $5 million at this point in time is critical in order to getby for the big picture.”

In late June, Lewitt emailed Jim Bidenand White about efforts to move money into Qatar from Dubai in the neighboringUnited Arab Emirates, referring to an unspecified “blockage” that was holdingup the process.

“Amer would like me to join Jim for thepresentation to the Finance Minister in Doha so as soon as we have the date Iwill plan my travel,” the email concluded.

The former Americore executive saidthat Jim Biden and Lewitt traveled to Qatar in mid-2018 as part of thefundraising efforts, but it is not clear whether any meeting between Jim Bidenand Qatar’s then-finance minister, Ali Sharif Al Emadi, took place.

Al Emadi left his post in 2021 after Qatar’sattorney general ordered him arrested on suspicion of corruption. In January, Reuters reported that he was convicted on charges that included laundering more than $5 billion and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Neither a representative for Jim Bidennor Qatar’s embassy in Washington responded to questions about Jim Biden’salleged trip to Qatar or plans to meet with Al Emadi.

In July of 2018, Jim Biden cut tieswith White, a move he attributed in his congressional testimony to Americore’sdependence on high-interest loans.

The next month, Lewitt wrote to JimBiden to express confidence that his fund would be repaid imminently for itsloans to Americore with money from Dubai, according to an email that emerged inbankruptcy litigation. “Nothing else changes in terms of what I will be doingre Americore,” Lewitt wrote, “since I will be just as responsible for theDubai$$$ with the added worry of being driven around the desert....LOL.”

In the meantime, Jim Biden continued towork with Lewitt and Rustom to secure financing for other health care venturesfrom the Qatar Investment Authority, according to filings in asince-settled federal court case in Tennessee in which Jim Biden, Lewitt, Rustom and Platinum Group USA were named as co-defendants.

As they continued to pursue businesstogether, Jim Biden’s financial ties to Lewitt deepened.

Over the course of 2019, Jim Biden’scompany, Lion Hall Group, received $225,000 from Third Friday.

Jim Biden testified to Congress that the paymentswere loans that were later forgiven. Lewitt disputed that his fund forgave theloans, telling POLITICO that Jim Biden’s debt was instead assumed by a third party, which he declined to name.

Also in 2019, a new business, PlatinumGlobal Partners, LLC, was registered in Florida with Jim Biden, Sara Biden,Lewitt, Rustom and his brother Azzam Rustom all listed as managers, accordingto the state’s corporate records.

Asked in his impeachment inquiryinterview about the purpose of the company — which was dissolved in 2020 — Jim Biden said he was trying to land investment from Qatar for infrastructure projects and hotels.

In the end, he said, the venturepetered out.

“We weren’t able to show the financialbona fides of any one particular project,” he said. “We got pretty far down theroad on several hotel complexes, but they never came to fruition.”

‘A black haze’ over Kentucky

In the years since Qatar’s rulersreached into their deep pockets to fend off a diplomatic crisis, the country’sinternational spending spree has created political fallout in the West.

Qatari investment in an office tower owned by Jared Kushner’s family has come under scrutiny, the ongoing Qatargate graft scandal has rocked the government of the European Union, and, in January, federal prosecutors in New Jersey alleged that Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez corruptly advanced Qatar’s interests to help an associate land investment funding from the country.

The Qatar-focused fundraising effortsof Jim Biden and his partners have also become the subject of legalcontroversies.

In 2022, investors in Third Friday sued Lewitt,saying he embezzled their money through Americore to Jim Biden and others. Lewitt has denied wrongdoing in the Palm Beach case, which remains ongoing. Jim Biden has not been named as a defendant in the case.

In March, POLITICO reported that ThirdFriday’s loans to Americore — as well as other dealings involving Jim Biden,Lewitt, Rustom and the Platinum Group — were being scrutinized in an ongoingfederal criminal investigation in South Florida.

And in April, Lewitt settled a fraudcase brought by the SEC over the loans, receiving a five-year ban from the securities industry, according to court filings.

Meanwhile, a bizarre commercial disputebetween Lewitt and the Rustom brothers has provided a striking glimpse into JimBiden’s foreign business ties.

In the course of Americore’s bankruptcylitigation, Lewitt produced documents that included an agreement between his fund and a Delaware company, Obermeyer Engineering Consulting. The agreement calls for Obermeyer to purchase Third Friday’s loans to Americore, as well as a 35 percent stake in the hospital chain, for $30 million.

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The agreement, submitted by Lewitt inthe course of litigatio
n, appears to include a signature from Azzam Rustom asObermeyer’s “authorized signatory.”

But Amer Rustom, who is listed incorporate records as Obermeyer’s manager, contested the validity of thecontract, saying neither he nor his brother had ever seen it before, accordingto court filings.

The Rustoms also contested the authenticity ofsignatures and documents Lewitt produced that showed loans from Third Friday tothe Platinum Group, saying the loans in question did not exist, according tocourt filings. In a signed declaration Azzam Rustom said that Lewitt had“forged” his signature on the loan documents.

On September 21 of last year, Lewittwas called to testify about the matter at the federal bankruptcy court inLexington.

Lawyers for Americore’s bankruptcytrustee had accused him of perjury regarding the alleged Platinum Group loans, and Judge Gregory Schaaf was entertaining a potential criminal referral to the Justice Department.

Called to the stand, a subdued Lewitttold the court that Amer Rustom verbally authorized Lewitt to affix hisbrother’s signature to the disputed documents.

Towards the end of the hearing Lewittwas asked why, if the agreements he produced were valid, the Rustoms werecontesting them.

Lewitt testified that the Rustoms ownedboth Obermeyer and the Platinum Group with “members of the Qatari government.”He speculated that the brothers had not cleared the agreements with the Qatariofficials, whom he did not name. “I don’t think they expected these to becomepublic,” he testified, “and I think they were trying to cover themselves.”

Schaaf punted any final decisions onsanctioning Lewitt, but he made clear at the hearing’s close that he found thewhole matter suspicious.

“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” the judgesaid, “and this is a black haze right now.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/28/jim-biden-qatar-testimony-00154704