New jailhouse testimony from a former Biden family business associate details at least two calls between Hunter Biden and his father, then the vice president, about lucrative business deals with China and Russia.
One of the calls puts Mr. Biden in contact with a Russian oligarch and former mayor of Moscow.
Jason Galanis, sentenced to more than 11 years for securities fraud, is the fourth former business associate to put President Biden in the center of Hunter Biden’s enormously profitable business deals as lawmakers investigate him on charges that he helped his family carry out an influence-peddling scheme.
“It’s a tale as old as time. A government official takes action. That action benefits his family. And then, when questions are asked, there’s a cover-up,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, said Monday.
Galanis told House lawmakers in a jailhouse statement obtained by The Washington Times that Mr. Biden participated in a May 4, 2014, call with Yelena Baturina, a wealthy Russian real estate investor seeking a financial foothold in the United States.
Hunter Biden rang his father on speakerphone from a restaurant in Brooklyn, New York, where he met with Ms. Baturina and her husband, a former mayor of Moscow.
Mr. Biden took the call from his son and offered a few pleasantries to the group.
He ended the call with, “Ok then, you be good to my boy.” Hunter Biden responded, “Everything is good, and we are moving ahead,” Galanis testified.
A few days later, Ms. Baturina agreed to pump $20 million into one of Hunter Biden’s business projects, Galanis said.
Galanis is the fourth Biden family business associate to recount Mr. Biden’s participation in his son’s business deals, either by phoning into meetings or stopping by in person. Lawmakers say Mr. Biden joined his son’s business meetings by speakerphone on at least 20 occasions. Ms. Baturina ultimately escaped placement on a sanctions list that would have blocked her from doing business in the United States.
Mr. Biden denied involvement in any of the deals and said he never conducted official business on behalf of his son or business associates.
Republican lawmakers say Mr. Biden played a critical role by serving as the closer on the deals. They have testimony from the business associates who witnessed his participation, either during his time as vice president or shortly after leaving office.
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Former business partner Rob Walker told lawmakers this month that Mr. Biden appeared at Hunter Biden’s business meeting with Chinese energy company officials at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington. It was shortly after Mr. Biden’s term as vice president ended.
Another business associate, Devon Archer, said Mr. Biden spoke by phone with officials from Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings who were paying Hunter Biden a $1 million annual salary.
As vice president, Mr. Biden dined with a group of his son’s business associates twice at a Georgetown restaurant. Around the time of a 2014 meeting, dinner guest Kenes Rakishev, a Kazakh businessman, inexplicably wired $142,000 to Hunter Biden so he could buy himself a sports car.
Tony Bobulinski, another business associate, said he “personally met with Joe Biden in Los Angeles in May of 2017 multiple times to discuss the broad contours of business dealings.”
Some of the former associates said the business deals were secured with Mr. Biden’s name, which they called “The Brand.” Lawmakers suspect much of Mr. Biden’s involvement was at the end of his time as vice president while he was looking for ways to pad his retirement from public office.
In his written testimony, Galanis recalled an instance in 2014 when Hunter Biden spoke with his father directly about his business.
Galanis said Hunter Biden took a call from his father while at the Peninsula Bar in New York. He said he overheard Hunter Biden updating his father on progress in landing a business partnership with Harvest Fund Management, a $300 billion Chinese financial services company closely connected to the Chinese Communist Party.
As part of the deal, Galanis said, Hunter Biden wanted the company to reserve a board seat for Mr. Biden to take after his second term as vice president ended. At the time, Democrat Hillary Clinton was expected to win the White House and Mr. Biden’s political career would come to an end.
“He told his father things were going well … and that he might need a little help getting it across the finish line,” Galanis recounted. He said the phone call was not on speakerphone.
Galanis pleaded guilty in 2020 to orchestrating two multimillion-dollar fraud schemes, engaging in market manipulation and defrauding shareholders. Mr. Galanis said he suspects the Justice Department revoked his approved release to home confinement as retaliation for his testimony to lawmakers.
Galanis told lawmakers about a draft email dated Aug. 23, 2014, in which Hunter Biden told business associates to “remind” the Chinese executives at Harvest Fund Management “of our conversation about a board seat for a certain relation of mine.”
The draft email was never sent, but it quoted Hunter Biden as saying, “Devon and I golfed with that relation earlier last week and we discussed this very idea again and as always, he remains very very keen on the opportunity.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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