Mounting evidence shows President Biden was involved in his family’s shady foreign business deals, and looming testimony from a former associate could make it harder for the White House to refute charges of influence peddling and bribery.
Former Biden family business associate Devon Archer has been summoned to testify Monday before a House committee investigating the family’s foreign business deals.
Mr. Archer, 48, is a critical witness. Congressional investigators say he arranged lucrative roles on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma for himself and the president’s son Hunter Biden. Through his company Rosemont Seneca Bohai, Mr. Archer accepted $3.5 million in wire transfers from Burisma from 2014 to 2016 and sent more than $700,000 to three of Hunter Biden’s bank accounts, investigators say.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, last week released an FBI informant’s testimony saying Burisma paid Hunter Biden to “protect us through his dad, from all kinds of problems” as it sought to buy a U.S. oil and gas company.
Mr. Archer also may have some of the most direct knowledge of any American witness of the president’s involvement in ending a corruption investigation that was dogging Burisma and preventing its entry into the U.S. energy industry.
Mr. Archer was at a 2015 hotel meeting with two top Burisma executives in Dubai, where Hunter Biden appeared to showcase his influence by phoning his father and putting him on speakerphone at the table.
The New York Post, which first revealed the call, reported that Hunter Biden phoned then-Vice President Joseph R. Biden after Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky said he needed to speak with Hunter Biden urgently.
Mr. Archer, who is facing prison time on an unrelated securities fraud conviction, will claim to House investigators that he witnessed up to two dozen instances of Hunter Biden phoning his father in the presence of business associates, The Washington Times confirmed.
Mr. Archer met with the vice president in the White House on April 16, 2014, just days before Mr. Biden flew to Ukraine and one day after Burisma wired $112,758 to Rosemont Seneca Bohai. Mr. Biden appeared in Kyiv on April 22 with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and delivered a speech to lawmakers regarding Russia’s aggression in Crimea and touting U.S. solidarity with Ukraine.
Mr. Archer joined the Burisma board within a day of Mr. Biden’s speech. Hunter Biden joined the Burisma board a month later, on May 12.
“We’ve known that President Biden lied about not discussing Hunter’s overseas business dealings,” Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican, told The Washington Times. “It certainly wouldn’t surprise me to learn he was far more involved. I hope House investigators will ask Devon Archer what he discussed with then-VP Biden in the White House on April 16, 2014, five days before Biden traveled to Ukraine and six days before Archer joined the board of Burisma. The dates of these events are not coincidences.”
Mr. Johnson has been investigating Biden foreign business deals for several years.
SEE ALSO: DOJ to make prosecutor in Hunter Biden case available to testify before Congress
Bribery allegations detailed by trusted FBI informant
Congressional investigators want Mr. Archer to explain why Mr. Zlochevsky urgently sought a meeting with Hunter Biden. The request coincided with Mr. Zlochevsky’s effort to thwart Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin’s corruption investigation into Burisma.
According to the FBI memo that Mr. Grassley released last week, Mr. Zlochevsky said he eventually paid a $10 million bribe split between Hunter Biden and his father to ensure Mr. Shokin’s ouster. The FBI obtained the testimony from a paid informant.
The informant said he warned Mr. Zlochevsky that Mr. Shokin’s corruption investigation would make it harder for Burisma to purchase a U.S-based energy business. The informant said Mr. Zlochevsky replied, “Don’t worry Hunter will take care of all of those issues through his dad.”
According to the informant, Mr. Zlochevsky said “both” Hunter Biden and his father insisted that Hunter Biden remain on the Burisma board, with up to $1 million in annual pay.
During a call with the FBI informant shortly after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump, Mr. Zlochevsky labeled the $10 million payment to the Bidens “poluchili,” a Russian criminal slang term for a forced or coerced payment. According to the memo, the informant said Mr. Zlochevsky claimed to have text messages and recordings that he said would prove he was “forced” to pay the Bidens in exchange for the removal of Mr. Shokin.
Second business associate confirms Joe Biden’s role in son’s deals
The FBI memo follows revelations by an IRS whistleblower and an FBI agent that Vice President Biden may have helped his son secure business deals by popping in on meetings.
Rob Walker, who is among a handful of close Biden family business associates, told the FBI that Hunter Biden arranged for his father to make cameo appearances at several meetings with officials from a Chinese energy company that eventually paid millions of dollars to the Biden family and associates, including Mr. Walker.
Hunter Biden asked his father to drop into meetings with the Chinese energy company officials while he was vice president and shortly after he left office, according to Mr. Walker’s interview with an FBI agent.
Shortly after Mr. Biden left the White House in 2017, Mr. Walker said, Hunter Biden asked his father, “I may be trying to start a company or try to do something with these guys, and could you?”
Mr. Biden stopped in at the Four Seasons Hotel, where Mr. Walker and Hunter Biden were meeting with executives from CEFC, a Chinese energy firm linked to the Chinese Communist Party. Mr. Biden showed up and sat down at the table “just to say hello to everybody,” Mr. Walker said.
Hunter Biden looped in on Biden foreign policy
The Times recently reported on a newly disclosed 2016 White House email sent to Vice President Biden from his scheduler that looped in Hunter Biden. The email provided details for the vice president’s upcoming trips to Delaware and Rhode Island and a planned call to Petro Poroshenko, then president of Ukraine.
The call was placed on May 27, two months after Mr. Shokin was ousted from office. According to a readout of the call provided by the White House, the two leaders “discussed the importance of continuing to institute reforms in the Office of the Prosecutor General, and the significance of Ukraine’s progress toward implementing judicial reforms and meeting IMF conditions,” among other matters.
Bidens rake in profits
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s investigation into the Biden family business deals unearthed evidence through financial records that the family set up more than 20 shell companies, most of them created during Mr. Biden’s time as vice president.
Bank records scrutinized by lawmakers show the Biden family and business associates pocketed $10 million from foreign nationals and their companies and appeared to try to conceal the payments through a maze of financial transactions.
Hunter Biden’s profits, House investigators determined, came from China, Ukraine and Romania.
None of the financial records could connect the payments to the current president. In the FBI informant’s memo, Mr. Zlochevsky explained that he did not send money directly to the “Big Guy,” whom the informant understood to be Joseph R. Biden, but instead deposited the funds into various bank accounts.
Mr. Zlochevsky told the informant “it would take 10 years” for investigators to untangle the bank records and connect Mr. Biden with the money.
Democrats scoff at allegations
The allegations against Mr. Biden and his family are unverified, Democrats point out, and even Mr. Grassley acknowledged the texts and recordings Mr. Zlochevsky claims to possess may not exist.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said he believes the FBI informant’s story is made up.
“I don’t think there is any credibility to that person,” Mr. Nadler said.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House oversight panel, said Republicans released the FBI memo without providing context and Mr. Zlochevsky had denied any contact with Mr. Biden while Hunter Biden served on the Burisma board.
Mr. Raskin called the memo “unverified, secondhand, years-old allegations.”
Republicans close in
In a statement released Monday, Mr. Comer said Mr. Archer’s revelations about Hunter Biden’s phone calls to his father during his business meetings with foreign nationals show that the president was dishonest when he claimed to have no involvement or knowledge of the deals.
“Evidence continues to be revealed that Joe Biden was very much involved in his family’s corrupt influence peddling schemes and he likely benefited financially,” Mr. Comer said. “This includes deals with a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch and a CCP-linked energy company that generated millions for the Bidens and undermined American interests. We look forward to speaking soon with Devon Archer about Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s business affairs.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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