Hunter Biden's firm took $40M payment from Russian oligarch "to enter the American market"

I’m so old that I remember when the American media felt concerned about business connections between political families and Russian oligarchs. In this case, it falls to the British newspaper Daily Mail to report that the same widow of the mayor of Moscow that paid Hunter Biden a $3.5 million “consulting fee” also dropped $40 million into the coffers of Biden’s real estate company:

Yelena Baturina wanted to “enter the American market,” her brother explained to the DM. Yelena herself was not available for comment, and neither was Hunter. This took place a couple of years before Baturina paid Hunter the $3.5 million “consulting fee” that Treasury officials flagged at the time as “suspicious.” Until yesterday, that was the only known connection between the Russian ruling elite and Hunter.

Where did the money go? Hunter’s company plowed it into office-space investment properties in Texas, Colorado, Alabama, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. The prospectus provided by the Daily Mail put the purchase price at a total of $212 million, $160 million of which came from mortgages on the properties. Hunter’s firm Rosemont came up with $15 million, far below Baturina’s ante, while still holding the general partnership of the investment group. That may not seem terribly risky in 2012 — office space was still a good investment and the pandemic was still eight years away — but it does look like an odd arrangement for an investor coming up with over 60% of the case for the venture.

The investment may well have been more aimed at Biden Inc rather than some office space, in other words.

Joe Bidens phony tax returns

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Joe Biden’s Released Tax Returns Don’t Explain Millions In Income. Where Did It Come From?
https://thefederalist.com ^ | APRIL 06, 2022 | BY: BOB ANDERSON
Posted on 4/6/2022, 1:49:22 PM by Red Badger

The sources of President Joe Biden’s large income after he left his post as vice president have never been detailed in his tax returns.

In the week prior to the presidential election, I wrote a piece that asked the question, “Where Is Hunter Biden’s Money?” It was an important question then, even more so now. Given the legacy media’s recent validation of Hunter’s laptop that discussed a slice of equity planned for the “Big Guy” in a deal that involved an entity controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), we should know if any money from it (or other foreign sources) ended up in Joe Biden’s pocket, but we don’t.

Recall that despite then-presidential candidate Biden having bragged that he had released his tax returns with what his team called “a historic level of transparency,” the truth is that he only released his individual returns. Those returns provided no detail regarding the source of most of his income, dollars that flowed to him and his wife Jill by way of S-corporations they set up shortly after his departure from the office of vice president. Those entities, CelticCapri Corp (his) and Giacoppa Corp (hers), contained more than $13 million of the $17 million the couple had reported in income after Biden left office, most of it in the first year (2017).

The same media that ignored Hunter’s laptop has shown a complete incuriosity about these entities, accepting the premise that Joe and Jill raked in $13 million from their book deal to generate their huge increase in income. We simply don’t know if that’s true, though. What we do know is that their book sales were dismal.

Perhaps sensing smoke starting to build just before the election, USA Today published a “fact check” piece that attempted to support that the Bidens earned “$15.6 million … from speaking fees and book deals” in the years 2017 through 2019 and that “more than $10 million of that total income was profits from Biden’s memoir ‘Promise Me, Dad’ and $3 million in profits from Jill Biden’s book.”

Follow the source link provided to that $10 million number, though, and you’ll end up at Joe Biden’s campaign website with financial disclosure links to only their individual returns — no S-corporation tax returns. So, in reality, readers were left with a smokescreen. (Now the financial disclosure links for 2016, 2017, and 2018 have even been changed to connect to a Democratic National Committee fundraising site via ActBlue rather than the tax documents.)

I noted back in 2020 that, “While (Joe Biden’s) financial disclosures reasonably support the $2.7 million of net income reported by CelticCapri in 2018, a notable $8.7 million gap exists between its $9.5 million net income in 2017 and the $809,709 of disclosed income in that year from book tour and related speaking events. Since his disclosure covers only part of 2017, we lack the insight into other income that may explain it.”

To that obvious question, the legacy press simply yawned. But it will become increasingly harder for them to maintain a head-in-the-sand position as more information arises.

Senators Present Proof of CCP Connections

Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., recently showed proof of payments from what they said were CCP-controlled firms “that prove just how connected the Bidens were and how compromised President Biden probably is.” An August 2017 wire receipt showed $100,000 sent from CEFC Infrastructure Investment to Owasco, and a copy of a November 2017 check from CEFC Limited revealed $1 million paid to Hudson West III, LLC. Both recipient entities were tied to the president’s son.

Did any of that money, or other overseas income, go to Joe or Jill? We would know if the president provided a copy of their S-Corp. tax returns with all partner K-1’s that flowed through them. But the only detail we have is aggregate numbers reported on the couple’s individual returns.

2017 Biden taxes

2017

2018 As it stands, we’re left to trust USA Today that Jill grossed $3 million (royalties plus about $700,000 from speaking fees) for a book that sold only 7,000 copies in its first week, and that from that book deal she netted more than $1 million in the two years prior to its release, but only $175,319 in the year it was published (2019). It’s possible an advance was paid, but could a publisher have justified that amount?

2019 The Numbers Don’t Add Up We are told that Joe netted $12.2 million (after expenses) in the same deal for a book that sold 300,000 copies. Excluding the $4.2 million earned from touring and speaking, that yields $8 million of income that we are to assume came from book royalties (higher if we know his gross revenues before expenses).

For analysis purposes, consider that his book had a retail price of $27 for hardcover and $18 for paperback, and assume a reasonable mix of sales so the average price was $23 (with no discounting). On 300,000 books sold, gross revenues would’ve been just under $7 million. As an author, Joe would’ve likely received about 12 percent of that using a blended royalty rate (15 percent hardcover and 7.5 percent paperback typical from publishers), yielding about $800,000 income. Round it up to $1 million if you prefer. Double it. It’s still not close to $8 million.

Sure, he likely got an advance, but would a publisher have advanced that kind of money to an author whose prior work, “Promises to Keep,” sold only 49,000 copies?

So many questions.

Release the Full Tax Returns Rather than ask for proof of sources of income, the media has been stuck in a repeating cycle of reporting about whether Joe and Jill underpaid payroll taxes. That’s a valid question, but it may miss the much larger one: Where did all of that money come from after Biden left office?

To that end, tax returns are a valuable investigative source document. Since the days of Al Capone, the rule has been clear: Don’t ever fail to pay taxes on any income, even if shady. It’s the easiest conviction for a prosecutor. So it’s logical that all income would be reported, and for any potentially over the ethical or legal line, an upstream S-Corporation would serve as the perfect mechanism to obscure it from view.

On a matter of this importance, all possibilities must be fairly considered until proof is established one way or the other. The president may have completely valid sources for all of his income, and if so, he should demonstrate it, particularly given the evidence of foreign money flowing through his son and indirect references to himself.

In releasing Biden’s tax return last year, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki commented that the “release (of) the president’s tax returns … should be expected of all presidents.” Surely she would agree this means the full set of documents.

If this question involved former President Donald Trump and one of his sons, The New York Times and The Washington Post would already be howling for full disclosure, and they would be right to do so. So perhaps they will join now in saying, “Mr. President, please clear the air of all doubt — release your full tax returns.”

Bob Anderson is a partner and CFO of a hotel development company and a former aerospace engineer who worked on the International Space Station and interned in Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) at the Pentagon. He is also a licensed commercial pilot.

HUNTER BIDEN REPORT
U.S. SENATE RELEASES SCATHING REPORT
AGAINST BIDEN GRIFTER FAMILY CORRUPTION

“The records acquired by the Committees show that Hunter Biden and his family were involved in a vast financial network that connected them to foreign nationals and foreign governments across the globe.”

“Hunter Biden and Archer, in particular, formed significant and consistent financial relationships with the corrupt oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky during their time working for Burisma and their firms made millions of dollars from that association while Joe Biden was vice president and the public face of the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy.”

Posted on 10/30/2020, 2:39:01 PM by Enlightened1

HunterBiden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S.Government Policy and Related Concerns

U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

U.S. Senate Committee on Finance Majority Staff Report

https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/HSGAC_Finance_Report_FINAL.pdf
TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
II. INTRODUCTION

III. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

IV. THE VICE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE AND STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS WERE AWARE OF BUT IGNORED CONCERNS RELATING TO HUNTER BIDEN’S ROLE ON BURISMA’S BOARD.

V. SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY FALSELY CLAIMED HE HAD NO KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN’S ROLE ON BURISMA’S BOARD.

VI. STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS VIEWED MYKOLAZLOCHEVSKY AS A CORRUPT, “ODIOUS OLIGARCH,” BUT VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN WAS ADVISED NOT TO ACCUSE ZLOCHEVSKY OF CORRUPTION.

VII. WHILEHUNTER BIDEN SERVED ON BURISMA’S BOARD, BURISMA’S OWNER, ZLOCHEVSKY, ALLEGEDLY PAID A $7 MILLION BRIBE TO UKRAINE’S PROSECUTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE TO CLOSE THE CASE.

VIII. HUNTER BIDEN: A SECRET SERVICE PROTECTEE WHILE ON BURISMA’S BOARD.

IX. OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS AND A DEMOCRAT LOBBYING FIRM HAD CONSISTENT AND SIGNIFICANT CONTACT WITH FORMER UKRAINIAN OFFICIAL ANDRII TELIZHENKO.

X. THE MINORITY FALSELY ACCUSED THE CHAIRMEN OF ENGAGING IN A RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN AND USED OTHER TACTICS TO INTERFERE IN THE INVESTIGATION.

XI. HUNTER BIDEN’S AND HIS FAMILY’S FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS WITH UKRAINIAN, RUSSIAN, KAZAKH AND CHINESE NATIONALS RAISE CRIMINAL CONCERNS AND EXTORTION THREATS.

XII. CONCLUSION

Where Have Hunter Biden and Joe’s Brothers Traveled to? Posted on 2/7/2022, 8:43:12 PM by TigerClaws

Having Secret Service protection most likely means someone in Congress could track down these travel records.
·——————————————————————————

Now the Secret Service says they lost the Biden travel records?

So where are the manifests?

49 U.S. Code § 44909 - Passenger manifests
U.S. Code

(a)Air Carrier Requirements.—
(1)The Secretary of Transportation shall require each air carrier to provide a passenger manifest for a flight to an appropriate representative of the Secretary of State—
(A)not later than one hour after that carrier is notified of an aviation disaster outside the United States involving that flight; or
(B)if it is not technologically feasible or reasonable to comply with clause (A) of this paragraph, then as expeditiously as possible, but not later than 3 hours after the carrier is so notified.

(2)The passenger manifest should include the following information:
(A)the full name of each passenger.
(B)the passport number of each passenger, if required for travel.
(C)the name and telephone number of a contact for each passenger.
(3)In carrying out this subsection, the Secretary of Transportation shall consider the necessity and feasibility of requiring air carriers to collect passenger manifest information as a condition for passengers boarding a flight of the carrier.
(b)Foreign Air Carrier Requirements.—
The Secretary of Transportation shall consider imposing a requirement on foreign air carriers comparable to that imposed on air carriers under subsection (a)(1) and (2) of this section.
(c)Flights in Foreign Air Transportation to the United States.—
(1)In general.—
Each air carrier and foreign air carrier operating a passenger flight in foreign air transportation to the United States shall provide to the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection by electronic transmission a passenger and crew manifest containing the information specified in paragraph (2). Carriers may use the advanced passenger information system established under section 431 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1431) to provide the information required by the preceding sentence.
(2)Information.—A passenger and crew manifest for a flight required under paragraph (1) shall contain the following information:
(A)The full name of each passenger and crew member.
(B)The date of birth and citizenship of each passenger and crew member.
(C)The sex of each passenger and crew member.
(D)The passport number and country of issuance of each passenger and crew member if required for travel.
(E)The United States visa number or resident alien card number of each passenger and crew member, as applicable.
(F)Such other information as the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, in consultation with the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, determines is reasonably necessary to ensure aviation safety.
(3)Passenger name records.—
The carriers shall make passenger name record information available to the Customs Service upon request.
(4)Transmission of manifest.—
Subject to paragraphs (5) and (6), a passenger and crew manifest required for a flight under paragraph (1) shall be transmitted to the Customs Service in advance of the aircraft landing in the United States in such manner, time, and form as the Customs Service prescribes.
(5)Transmission of manifests to other federal agencies.—
Upon request, information provided to the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration or the Customs Service under this subsection may be shared with other Federal agencies for the purpose of protecting national security.
(6)Prescreening international passengers.—
(A)In general.—
The Secretary of Homeland Security, or the designee of the Secretary, shall issue a notice of proposed rulemaking that will allow the Department of Homeland Security to compare passenger information for any international flight to or from the United States against the consolidated and integrated terrorist watchlist maintained by the Federal Government before departure of the flight.
(B)Appeal procedures.—
(i)In general.—
The Secretary of Homeland Security shall establish a timely and fair process for individuals identified as a threat under subparagraph (A) to appeal to the Department of Homeland Security the determination and correct any erroneous information.
(ii)Records.—
The process shall include the establishment of a method by which the Secretary of Homeland Security will be able to maintain a record of air passengers and other individuals who have been misidentified and have corrected erroneous information. To prevent repeated delays of misidentified passengers and other individuals, the Department of Homeland Security record shall contain information determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security to authenticate the identity of such a passenger or individual.

(Pub. L. 103–272, § 1(e), July 5, 1994, 108 Stat. 1211; Pub. L. 106–181, title VII, § 718, Apr. 5, 2000, 114 Stat. 163; Pub. L. 107–71, title I, § 115, Nov. 19, 2001, 115 Stat. 623; Pub. L. 108–458, title IV, § 4012(a)(2), Dec. 17, 2004, 118 Stat. 3717; Pub. L. 114–125, title VIII, § 802(d)(2), Feb. 24, 2016, 130 Stat. 210; Pub. L. 115–254, div. K, title I, § 1991(d)(8), Oct. 5, 2018, 132 Stat. 3633.)

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