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Are we starting to find out how Joe Biden got himself that $2.7 million mansion?
American Thinker ^ | 10/22/2023 | Monica Showalter

Posted on 10/23/2023 4:35:16 PM PDT by simpson96

Joe Biden has always been a man of mystery as to how he obtained his wealth, reportedly in the $90 million range.

He doesn't understand markets, so we know it wasn't his investment acumen. He's an expert at nothing and has never written a significant book anyone would want to read. We also know that he's not much of a public speaker, stumbling his way through speeches, so he probably couldn't make much on speaking fees, though that could be a disguised avenue of bribery, particularly if fees are inflated. Still, it wouldn't explain $90 million.

He's has been in public office for his entire working life, though, he has that, some fifty-plus years in the halls of power, so while he theoretically doesn't have time to amass wealth the way the private sector does, he somehow has anyway. Some have pointed to many political officeholders getting rich while in public office based on insider trading which until a few years ago was legal and even today isn't enforced well. But it's hard to think of Biden managing a stock portfolio with any expertise, the way, say, Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, can do.

(snip) it seems most likely he made it the old fashioned political way -- through naked political bribery.

According to the Daily Mail:

DailyMail.com has discovered that then-private-citizen Biden, who had spent virtually all his adult life in public service, bought [his Rehoboth Beach home in June 2017] for slightly under $2.75million – in cash.

And making the transaction even stranger it was within weeks of a highly questionable text that Hunter had sent to Runlong 'Raymond' Zhao, an associate at Chinese oil giant CEFC asking to seal a deal worth $10 million a year.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


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KEYWORDS: joesmysteriouswealth
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To: simpson96

I bet Hunter knows. Ask him.


21 posted on 10/23/2023 6:08:20 PM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: Pontiac

Ole’ Bribey sure left a lot of loose threads hanging around.
It seems like he thought he could just skate like all the rest of the dem presidents always do thanks to their democrat media.


22 posted on 10/23/2023 6:08:41 PM PDT by Bullish (...And just like that, I was dropped from the ping-list)
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To: simpson96
"He doesn't understand markets, so we know it wasn't his investment acumen. He's an expert at nothing and has never written a significant book anyone would want to read. We also know that he's not much of a public speaker, stumbling his way through speeches, so he probably couldn't make much on speaking fees, though that could be a disguised avenue of bribery, particularly if fees are inflated. Still, it wouldn't explain $90 million."

Find out who his accountant/tax preparer/money launderer. Maybe it's some person or agency used by many so called "servants of the people" in Washington. It might be a very well protected magic bookkeeper.
23 posted on 10/23/2023 6:53:26 PM PDT by clearcarbon (Fraudulent elections have consequences.)
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To: Bullish

Well yes. It was also reported that Hunter thought “this thing” would go away once his father was elected President. But don’t forget of Joe that, before he got dementia, his baseline was “stupid.” I’ve not seen any evidence any of them are particularly bright. Except Jill. She’s a doctor


24 posted on 10/23/2023 7:22:20 PM PDT by j.havenfarm (22 years on Free Republic, 12/10/22! more then 6500 replies and still not shutting up!)
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To: Ann Archy

There are plenty of Rightist Jews, too, and powerful ones.

But this isn’t about the Jews... Or is it for you?


25 posted on 10/23/2023 7:50:20 PM PDT by golux
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To: Liz
The more evidence — from whistleblower testimony to documentation — of President Joe Biden’s involvement arises, the more frantically they shout “no evidence!” and insist the elder Biden was only involved to the extent that he loves his son and talks with his wealthy foreign friends about the weather.

Even if it were true that Biden was not involved with the bribery, would it not be extraordinary poor judgement for a vice-president to have any interaction with his son’s business partners who just happen to be involved in international operations?

Now that Biden is President of the United States doesn’t these past dealing, if true, put the president and the nation in peril of undue influence from these foreign nationals?

26 posted on 10/24/2023 4:32:21 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: golux

WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? You KNOW YOUR LEFTIST JEWISH FRIENDS WILL STILL VOTE FOR ANY AND ALL DEMOCRATS.

NO DECENT JEW WOULD EVER VOTE FOR EVIL.


27 posted on 10/24/2023 5:28:52 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Chewbarkah; GOPJ; Ann Archy; poconopundit; Vaduz; Grampa Dave; Red Badger; mabarker1

Faked “cash” real estate deals and a “Repayment for Fake Loans Act”
are perfect cover-ups for Biden’s get-rich-quick schemes. Comer needs to:
<><>look into the chain of title on Joe’s Beach House,
<><>scrutinize the Buyers & Sellers,
<><>go back over multiple sales to check turnover.


Biden was party to several realty schemes-——read on.

ProPublica Feb 14, 2020-——Joe’s brother Jim Biden was in a bind. An investor had put up $1 million to help Jim and his nephew Hunter buy a hedge fund. Then it turned out that the fund’s assets were worth less than the Bidens had thought. Now the investor wanted its money back.

It was December 2006, not long before Jim’s older brother and Hunter’s father, Joe Biden, then a Delaware US Senator, would announce his second campaign for president.

Jim and Hunter Biden got a loan from a bank founded by one of Joe’s political backers — William Oldaker, an attorney for the senator’s presidential campaign and Hunter’s partner at a Washington law and lobbying firm.

Oldaker had strong ties to Joe Biden’s political operation, and at the time, the bank, WashingtonFirst, had nearly half a million dollars in deposits from a Joe Biden political committee Oldaker had helped set up

But Washington First was less than three years old, and a $1 million loan was large for its size. The bank required that loans be well secured by borrowers’ assets.

<><>Jim Biden put up his house in Merion Station, Pa, as collateral, but he already had $1.5 million in three mortgages against the property, then roughly valued at just over $1.1 million.

<><>Hunter offered as security his recently purchased Washington home, for which he had borrowed almost the entire purchase price.

Oldaker did not return phone calls, and a source close to Jim and Sara Biden said all of their loans were properly secured.

It was not the first time — or the last — during his long career that Jim Biden turned to Joe’s political network for the kind of assistance that would have been almost unimaginable for someone with a different last name.

Campaign donors helped Jim face a series of financial problems, including a series of IRS liens totaling more than $1 million that made it harder to get bank financing. Jim Biden took out two more loans from Washington First before its sale in 2018.

These transactions illuminate the well-synchronized tango that the Biden brothers have danced for half a century. They have pursued overlapping careers — one a presidential aspirant with an expansive network of well-heeled Democratic donors; the other an entrepreneur who helped his brother raise political money and cultivated the same network to help finance his own business deals.

snip


28 posted on 10/24/2023 6:21:38 AM PDT by Liz (“The only time Biden gets his hands dirty is when he’s taking cash from foreign countries." Trump)
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To: All

politico
By BEN SCHRECKINGER
01/28/2020

EXCLUSIVE-—Lobbyist bought tropical land from Biden’s brother
Extended Jim Biden a private mortgage

Scott Green, a lobbyist with close ties to Joe Biden, purchased Virgin Islands property from James Biden and then extended him a private mortgage.

pic-—Joe Biden, his brother James Biden and lobbyist Scott Green. | POLITICO Illustration/Getty Images; AP; Alain Brin

In 2005, Joe Biden’s brother bought an acre of land with excellent ocean views on a remote island in the Caribbean for $150,000. He divided it into three parcels, and the next year a lobbyist close to the Delaware senator bought one of the parcels for what had been the cost of the entire property. Later, the lobbyist gave Biden’s brother a mortgage loan on the remaining parcels.

The Virgin Islands land deal, reported here for the first time, furthers a pattern in which members of the Biden family have engaged in financial dealings with people with an interest in influencing the former vice president.

In this case, a Biden staffer left the Senate in the early ’90s to become a lobbyist. Both before and after the land transaction, his clients benefited from Biden’s support and appropriations requests. A firm the lobbyist co-founded — which features a testimonial from Biden praising his “emotional investment” in his work on its website — specializes in federal contracts for niche law enforcement and national security programs for which Biden long advocated.

After the land deal, Joe Biden vacationed elsewhere on the tiny island, which once protected a nearby submarine base before it became a tropical getaway, on at least three occasions.

pic-—Honeymoon Beach-—Water Island. | Alain Brin/POLITICO

The property itself has remained vacant and undeveloped. It is not clear why the lobbyist, Scott Green, purchased the parcel from Biden’s brother James, or why James Biden later went to the lobbyist for a loan, rather than to a bank. An easement James Biden obtained granting road access to the land before selling it to Green may have made the land more valuable, but it is unclear whether the dramatically higher price Green paid for his parcel reflected its true value. The terms of the loan were not disclosed in property records.

It is also not clear whether Joe Biden was aware of the transactions. Following the land purchase, Green continued to lobby on issues over which Biden wielded influence and to meet with Biden’s staff. Green’s firm also continued to land government contracts related to federal programs for which Biden advocated.

Representatives of the Biden campaign declined repeated requests over weeks to comment. Shortly before publication, spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement: “Joe Biden was wrong. Politico does have a sense of humor. Because this story is an absolute joke.”

Green did not respond to several requests for comment. A lawyer for James Biden, George Mesires, acknowledged receiving questions, but did not respond to them.

James Biden, six years Joe’s junior, served as finance chairman on his older brother’s first Senate campaign in 1972. He went on to pursue an entrepreneurial career that regularly intersected with Joe’s public duties. He once sought to launch a Washington lobbying firm, but the venture was cut short when his would-be partners were convicted of attempting to bribe a judge in an unrelated matter. He has previously been accused by former business contacts of seeking to exploit the former vice president’s clout for financial gain in court proceedings inNew York,Kentucky, andFlorida, though he has denied such claims.

Water Island is a 500-acre spit of land in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Department of Defense purchased the island from a Danish company during World War II, using it to protect a submarine base on nearby St. Thomas. Since then, it has become an under-the-radar tropical getaway dotted with several-dozen homes, where the largest beachfront estates can fetch north of a million dollars.

pic-—Island scenes-—Scenes of tropical Water Bay. Honeymoon Bay (top) and the Water Island Ferry. | Alain Brin/POLITICO

In May 2005, James Biden and his wife, Sara, purchased a one-acre plot of land in the middle of the island, according to property records. Tax records describe the view from the property as “excellent.” The price: $150,000.

Then, the couple got an easement to access the land and divided it into three parcels. The easement, granted by the Virgin Islands territorial government, gave them the right to use an existing driveway to the property that cut across government land. A year later, in May 2006, the Bidens sold the northernmost parcel, just over a third of an acre, to Green and his wife, Julie, according to property records.

The price, again, was $150,000. In effect, James and Sara Biden had gotten their money back while keeping most of the land — recouping their investment in just 12 months.

Land value can fluctuate, making it difficult to assess whether such a dramatic increase in land price was reasonable. An easement can make land more valuable, depending on how costly the easement was and how difficult it was to obtain.

The paperwork costs for this type of easement would be minimal, according to Raf Muilenburg, managing partner at Morrisette & Muilenburg, a law firm based in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Muilenburg estimated that the cost of planning and surveying a driveway easement would be under $1,000. Filing fees would be in the hundreds of dollars, and that the easement could also entail a small amount of legal work, he said.

Typically, the recipient of an easement also pays the party granting the easement for the rights they are getting on that party’s land. If James and Sara Biden paid the Virgin Islands territorial government for the driveway rights, it was not reflected in property records.

A tax bill from 2006 lists the assessed value of Green’s parcel at $87,000, but tax records indicate the bill was rescinded. Subsequent tax bills list the assessed value of Green’s plot at just $38,000 — a quarter of the $150,000 purchase price — until 2013, when it jumped to $83,700. Typically, land sells for more than its assessed value.

A person answering the phone at John Foster Real Estate, a local realtor, identified Chuck Gidley as the agent listed on the original 2005 transaction.

Gidley declined to comment.


29 posted on 10/24/2023 6:33:13 AM PDT by Liz (“The only time Biden gets his hands dirty is when he’s taking cash from foreign countries." Trump)
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To: Liz
'Oh what a tangled web we weave/When first we practice to deceive,’ - Walter Scott

Thanks for the ping.

30 posted on 10/24/2023 6:56:29 AM PDT by GOPJ (The reason Biden won't protect our border is he wants cash kickbacks for doing it. )
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To: Liz

go back over multiple sales to check turnover.

Bingo find all the bodies and have a sit down with them answers will come to light.


31 posted on 10/24/2023 7:01:10 AM PDT by Vaduz (....)
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To: Vaduz

Yup


32 posted on 10/24/2023 7:07:40 AM PDT by Liz (“The only time Biden gets his hands dirty is when he’s taking cash from foreign countries." Trump)
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To: Ann Archy
My "leftist Jewish friends" comprise come of the most powerful voices in the conservative movement, including producers, writers, publishers, performers, and broadcasters. I do not think I will provide a list to you.

Sure, I have leftist friends... But they are not all Jews. Sure, I have lots of Jewish friends... But they are not all leftists.

Jews rise to prominence in every imaginable profession.

Instead of on anonymously spewing thinly-veiled hate on the internet, for instance, the "wandering Jew" can often be found attaining doctoral degrees, winning Nobel prizes, securing patents for new, life-saving inventions, etc.

Sure, some become prominent leftists. Jews become prominent in almost everything. Many are Democrets. But many, also, are highly influential and prominent conservatives.

Sorry, I guess!

You may now go back to blaming Jews for your problems, just like so many Muslims.

Allah be praised: looks like he hot him another soldier!


33 posted on 10/24/2023 7:47:58 AM PDT by golux
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To: golux
(he got him.)
34 posted on 10/24/2023 7:49:04 AM PDT by golux
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To: golux

Do t be STUPID...why should i blame leftist JEWS for PROBLEMS in AMERICA? I B,AME ALL LEFTISTS! And if you dont. You’re part of the problem.

Keep saying LEFTIST JEWS that hate ISRAEL and AMERICA ARE CONSERVATIVES, GOLUM.....YOU AREN’T CONVINCING ANYONE WITH HALF A BRAIN.


35 posted on 10/24/2023 7:57:14 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Ann Archy

Boy, Free Republic’s core psychographic sure has changed.


36 posted on 10/24/2023 8:12:40 AM PDT by golux
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To: simpson96

Sic 87,000 armed IRS agents on the entire Federal bureaucracy...


37 posted on 10/24/2023 8:18:54 AM PDT by Manic_Episode (A government of the government, by the government, for the government)
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To: golux

Sure has.


38 posted on 10/24/2023 8:22:15 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: GOPJ; Ann Archy; Vaduz

Biden plays the real estate quid pro quo:

<><>Scott Green.....a 1980’s-era decade-long Sen Joe Biden staffer, turned lobbyist......purchased a parcel of land from Biden’s brother James for an enormous amount of money.

<><>James Biden later went to the lobbyist for a private loan, rather than going to a bank.

<><>It is unclear whether the dramatically higher price Green paid for the Biden parcel reflected its true value. The terms of the loan were not disclosed in property records.

<><>Following the land purchase, ex-Biden aide turned lobbyist, Scott Green, continued to lobby on issues over which Biden wielded influence, and also met with Biden’s staff.

<><>ex-Biden aide Green’s lobbying firm also continued to land US government contracts related to federal programs over which Biden controlled.


39 posted on 10/24/2023 9:21:21 AM PDT by Liz (“The only time Biden gets his hands dirty is when he’s taking cash from foreign countries." Trump)
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To: Liz

When you deal with a lobbyist everything is under the table and off the records the Biden syndicate has ties to many and the money flows.

Biden has made many mistakes he will be the family’s own undoing.


40 posted on 10/24/2023 2:33:18 PM PDT by Vaduz (....)
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