A top executive for Ukrainian energy firm Burisma who allegedly bribed then-Vice President Joseph R. Biden with a $5 million payment in 2016 referred to Mr. Biden as the “big guy” and has audio recordings of conversations with Mr. Biden, according to a secret FBI memo involving a paid informant.
The Burisma executive’s nickname for Mr. Biden mirrors a claim by a former Biden family associate who in 2020 described a payout scheme for a business deal with a Chinese energy company in which 10% of the profits would be held “for the big guy.” The “big guy,” the associate said, was Mr. Biden.
A source familiar with the FBI memo confirmed to The Washington Times that the Burisma executive identified Mr. Biden as the “big guy” involved in the bribery scheme.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley said Monday the memo also reveals that the Ukrainian energy company executive has audio recordings of conversations with Mr. Biden. The Iowa Republican said in a floor speech that the FBI-generated document contained redactions that cite Mr. Biden’s audio recordings.
Mr. Grassley said memo indicates that the Burisma executive has fifteen audio recordings of phone calls between him and Hunter Biden and two audio recordings of phone calls between him and then-Vice President Joe Biden.
“These recordings were allegedly kept as a sort of insurance policy for the foreign national in case he got into a tight spot. The [FBI document] also indicates that then-Vice President Joe Biden may have been involved in Burisma employing Hunter Biden,” Mr. Grassley said.
SEE ALSO: Audio recordings of Biden bribery scheme allegedly exist, Grassley says
House lawmakers reviewed the FBI memo as part of their broad investigation into the Biden family’s web of lucrative foreign business deals that appeared to revolve around Mr. Biden’s role as vice president and later as a likely candidate for president in 2020.
The memo was sent three years ago to the U.S. attorney in Delaware, who is investigating President Biden’s son Hunter Biden in crimes related to tax fraud and a gun purchase.
Mr. Biden last week called the Burisma executive’s bribery claims “malarkey.” He has repeatedly denied having any involvement in or knowledge about his family’s business deals.
The FBI memo has spurred a new round of subpoenas for bank account records belonging to Biden associates as investigators on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee try to determine the extent of Mr. Biden’s involvement. The oversight panel in the coming days will view additional FBI memos related to the Burisma bribery allegation, a source told The Times.
The investigation involves six U.S. banks where the money was distributed and 20 “shell” companies that Republicans believe were used to conceal the business schemes.
The “trusted” and “highly credible” FBI informant in the Burisma bribery memo said energy company executives paid the $5 million in 2015 and 2016 to solicit Mr. Biden’s help in thwarting a Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma.
Burisma paid an additional $5 million to Hunter Biden, who was serving on Burisma’s board at the time and was receiving a $1 million annual salary at the energy company, the informant said. The scheme was concealed using multiple bank accounts, the Burisma executive told the FBI informant.
The “big guy” nickname has surfaced multiple times in the investigation into the Biden family business deals.
Emails on a discarded laptop computer owned by Hunter Biden, and leaked to the media, showed a message from Biden family associate and British national James Gilliar outlining how the profits would be divided up from a 2017 deal with CEFC, a Chinese energy company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Mr. Gilliar included in his proposed payout plan, “10 held by H for the big guy?” According to former Biden associate Tony Bobulinski, “H” stood for Hunter Biden and the line referenced Hunter Biden reserving 10% of the profits from the deal for his father, who had concluded his vice presidential term months earlier.
Mr. Gilliar again used the “big guy” label in a message weeks before the 2020 presidential election, a Republican source confirmed to The Times.
A panicked Mr. Gilliar sent the message to an unidentified person in response to a New York Post story in October 2020 about the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop.
In the message, which a whistleblower provided to congressional investigators, Mr. Gilliar said he believed the emails exposed in Hunter Biden’s laptop computer would not hurt Mr. Biden if he won the presidential election because “they would just let sleeping dogs lie.”
If Mr. Biden lost, Mr. Gilliar said, “I don’t think that the Big Guy really cares about that because he’ll be too busy focusing on all the other s—- he is doing.”
Democrats on the House oversight panel say the Republican effort to investigate Mr. Biden is politically motivated and groundless.
Committee Chairman James Comer, Kentucky Republican, believes the foreign deals may undermine the president and threaten national security. He said the Biden family and associates might have pocketed up to $20 million in profits from business deals conducted with China, Russia, Ukraine and other countries during Mr. Biden’s second term as vice president, leading up to his bid for the presidency in 2020.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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