INVESTIGATION: Hunter Biden Had Tentacles In Dark Corners Of the World Far Beyond China, Ukraine

PART 2 OF 3. The Hunter Biden Files Hunter Biden and his business partners were involved in discussions about possible deals in dozens of foreign countries, often corrupt backwaters, at times invoking official channels like ambassadors, emails reviewed by The Daily Wire show.

While most attention has focused on Ukraine, where a gas company paid the now-president’s son tens of thousands of dollars a month while he was in deep crack addiction, and China, Hunter and his partners at a consultancy called Rosemont Seneca were eager to do business in a vast array of other places.

The map below highlights the countries where deals were discussed or executed, according to a Daily Wire review of emails obtained from the laptop Hunter Biden reportedly left at a repair shop in Delaware and never paid for or picked up. Here is a sample of some of those dealings.

Mexico In 2015, Joe Biden’s brother Jim wrote to Hunter about the prospect of a payout for serving as a middleman in an “oil deal” with Carlos Slim, Mexico’s richest man:

Have a very real deal with Pemex (Carlos slim) need financing literally for a few days to a week. Have the seller (refinery /slims) and buyer major being delivered from pipeline in ( h/ USA) Nothing is simple but this comes very close. As always the devil is in the detail! Any interest on the long skirts part?… Hang in there hunt !! You can and will hold it together. I’m very proud of you and have the greatest respect, you are a great, sweet and incredibly strong man. I know you pal!!!

In February 2016, Hunter wrote to Miguel Aleman Magnani, a Mexican billionaire and son of a former Mexican governor, that he had set up a meeting for “Carlos” and Aleman Magnani’s father:

I haven’t heard from you since I got you a mtg for Carlos and your Dad. We have been talking about business deals and partnerships for 7 years. And I really appreciate you letting me stay at your resort villa…but I have brought every single person you have ever asked me to bring to the F’ing WHite House and the Vice President’s house and the inauguration and then you go completely silent.

A photo shows Joe Biden meeting in the White House with Aleman Magnani, his father, and Hunter in 2014.

Slim also owned TracFone Wireless, in 2015 the largest corporate beneficiary of the fraud-ridden federal benefits program popularly known as “Obamaphones.” The U.S. government paid Slim’s company $9 per phone line for a service that it sold to the public for $7.

Greece / Romania In 2014, Hunter permitted an American ex-con and Romanians to use the Biden name to add weight to a bid to buy a Greek railroad.

David C. Wittig wrote Hunter in December 2014: “I met with Yiorgos Nikitiades, the ex-Minister of Tourism… Yiorgos’s view is that a call from the Ambassador in Athens will go along way in getting us this deal. Give this some thought.”

The prospective buyer was a partnership that including Romanians. Later that month, Wittig added: “Hunter, The Romanians are rightfully asking that you do not object to having you name appear in the letter (I sent to you yesterday) that informally discusses the consortium.”

Hunter replied, “I have no objection and I am in fact comfortable with you using my name in connection with this project. Obviously we have many details to iron out before we finalize any proposal, but I am very interested participating in the project. ”

In February 2015, Wittig wrote Hunter: “I met with the bankers for the government on Monday of this week. Everything is moving forward, although we still have not ironed out the structure … hence the trip to Romania. We should have a good idea how things look on Monday. You might start thinking about a trip in March.”

Wittig was a Wall Street banker who posed for the cover of Fortune magazine holding a cigar in 1986 and became head of a Kansas utility firm in 1995. In Kansas, he bought a $230,000 Ferrari and allegedly used a corporate airplane for family vacations, spent $6 million renovating the mansion where he lived, believing the company would cover the cost, and spent $6.5 million upgrading his executive suite while the company laid off hundreds of workers.

In 2005, Wittig was convicted on 39 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, and circumventing internal controls. In 2007, the convictions were overturned, and hours after a new, Barack Obama-appointed U.S. attorney was sworn in in 2010, the prosecutor’s office announced it would not seek to retry him, citing a recent Supreme Court ruling affecting white-collar crime statutes.

Wittig ultimately received a $36 million settlement from the utility company and moved to Greece, where he held a stake in a company called Euroconsultants.

He also served time for a separate fraud case for which he was convicted in 2004.

In 2015, Hunter was working on a “matter related to Romania” for a client. “Two approaches that I think would be most effective are one, visiting with the Romanian Ambassador to the U.S. and two, reaching out to our State Dept. on an information only basis,” he wrote.

Zimbabwe In 2018, a man named Bill McManus wrote to Hunter “regarding potential gold mine opportunities in Zimbabwe. The long and short of it is a long time friend’s uncle has been mining for gold in Zimbabwe” and believes, with investments, he could assemble claims of “up to 2 million ounces of gold.”

Additionally, though the government required state ownership of diamond mines, “we have a friend who has the right to desilt 160 miles of the Odzi river… This is interesting because the primary purpose is to desilt the river. Thus, apparently this is not technically a diamond mine that requires any type of government ownership. The gentleman has indicated he would like to sell or create a jv as he is struggling with access to capital.”

Hunter asked to talk on the phone and forwarded information about it to Joe Biden’s brother, Jim.

Taiwan / Colombia Hunter’s associates were seemingly so eager to do business with any foreign interest they came across that they sometimes stepped on geopolitical landmines.

One email appeared to mention Taiwan, the subject of a long-running dispute with China, to an associate while he was in China. Jim Bulger, a business partner of Hunter’s, appeared to assume the Chinese Communist Party might intercept the traffic.

“We cannot mention Taiwan in emails to Michael he is in Beijing for Gods sake… Please get him to not discuss our business with any Taiwanese person at all,” Bulger wrote.

Discussing Colombia, an associate wrote in November 2011: “Just to let you know a friend of mine Gustavo Petro won the elections in Bogota and this could be very important for our business there.”

Hunter replied: “Also- Petro is the guy that kidnapped the Aunt of the woman we met with two nights ago.”

Qatar In April 2014, Hunter’s assistant emailed that the “Qatari Ambassador called to speak with you.”

The next month, his partner Eric Schwerin emailed Hunter to muse about the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). He wasn’t sure what service they could provide it, but he thought there must be a way to make money. He proposed teaming up the Arab country, where 95% of the population lives in indentured servitude, with U.S. labor unions.

“What about a QIA, Mitsubishi, Western Conference of Teamsters US Infrastructure fund. In general if QIA is looking for opportunities in this sector we could find it for them,” he wrote.

Workers toiling to build Qatar’s World Cup stadium reportedly worked 18-hour days for $6 a day in temperatures of up to 118 degrees, and foreign workers’ passports were allegedly confiscated so they could not leave.

Qatar’s labor abuses brought condemnation from the International Trade Union Confederation, which predicted 4,000 workers could die by the time the 2022 World Cup begins.

Saudi Arabia In February 2011, Chuck Harple, the onetime Teamsters lobbyist, wrote to discuss possible billions in Saudi Arabia, and apparently tried to involve Joe Biden:

Hunter and Eric: Don’t know if you have been following the Saudi’s, but they met with the French and stated that they are going to invest $400 BILLION in nuclear and clean energy. Granted its going to be done in their country but there will be a lot of opportunity for American Companies. Should talk about this.

Also, Dr. Yumani, chairman of the King Abdullah City for Nuclear and Renewable Energy, will be in DC March 5-10. Shaw is We are hosting a dinner on Sunday March 6 maybe a drop by my favorite elected official in the world?

United Arab Emirates In 2011, Hunter wrote, “Did you know… That the GDP of UAE is only slightly larger than the state of Alabama? … Makes you wonder why we’d spend so much time chasing that.”

Schwerin replied, “if Alabama were sitting on top of 10% of the world’s oil reserves maybe we’d care more about them.”

Ivory Coast In May 2016, John Nevergole, the CEO of the ABD Group, a Philadelphia-based firm that invests in Africa and in which Schwerin holds a role, wrote to Hunter that “the Prime Minister [of the Ivory Coast] sent us as a follow up from the meeting the other week” and discussing a project with the foreign government.

He translated the letter: “The Prime Minister and the Ivorian delegation were happy to meet us in DC and exchange on investment opportunities in Cote d’Ivoire… In conclusion of our exchange they have noted that our group is engaged in 2 projects in Cote d’Ivoire… He thanks us again for our interest in Cote d’Ivoire and hopes to develop a good partnership between our company and the government.”

In September 2011, Nevergole wrote: “Hunter, Hope the trip to Kenya went well. Just as a heads up, one potential short-term opportunity that will be brought up in the meeting today is for a $700 million project that OAS just submitted for in Panama.” As of 2017, Rosemont Seneca held equity in Nevergole projects, according to the emails.

Oman In 2011, Hunter requested a meeting with the ambassador from Oman to the U.S., Her Excellency Hunaina Sultan Al Mughairy, to “get your advice on some projects that our firm is involved in and in particular, our affiliated investment firm, Rosemont Realty.”

In 2017, Jim Biden, Hunter, and others were included in an email chain started by James Gilliar about “a long term venture within The Sultanate that benefits all.”

Gilliar is the business partner who infamously wrote that there was a “a provisional agreement that the equity will be distributed as follows” — 20% for Hunter, 10% for Jim Biden, and 10% “held by H for the big guy ?,” which another recipient on the email, Tony Bobulinski, said referred to Joe Biden.

West Indies Foreign businessmen were at times transparent that they viewed Hunter’s firm as a direct route to the U.S. vice president.

On a potential deal with Nagi Ghawi of the Mercantile Investment Group Holding Ltd of the West Indies, Hunter asked “what do we need to do moving forward?”

The response from Sean Conlon indicated a potential $10 billion deal, but also implied that Devon Archer, Hunter’s since-convicted business partner, knew so little about the actual finances that he asked a professor how it worked:

So we have engagement letter if they get other 10 bonds they have a face value of 10b. While it is far fetched Devon said he talked to his professor and these get traded. We get 10% in fees. We need to get these guys to an event or something where they get to just formally meet your Dad . For follow on they can talk to Chief of Staff . Let me know how soon we can do that. V brief. If Nagi gets that done we get more bonds to move. Regards your hard working partner in Positano! Sean

The direct request to meet with Joe Biden for the business deal angered Hunter. “WTF is he talking about. Mtg with JRB chief of staff????” he wrote. “Tell him I’ll do the mtg.”

Access Hunter’s crew appeared to enjoy easy access to Obama administration officials with jobs relevant to their globetrotting money-making.

“Did you see POTUS named Norm Eisen to be Ambassador to the Czech Republic? We should all take a trip to visit him. Really nice Ambassador’s residence,” Rosemont Seneca partner Eric Schwerin wrote in 2010.

Archer wrote to a Chinese business partner that “the meeting with Hunter and myself with Chinese Ambassador has been requested and is in motion and agreed to.”

“Mr. Ambassador – Hope you had a nice time on the boat. I just wanted to confirm our meeting tomorrow,” to include an energy executive, Hunter wrote to the ambassador from the United Arab Emirates in 2012.

In a 2011 email, a correspondent wrote to Hunter to discuss the pair bringing a “Gift for Ambassador Al-Sabah for tomorrow,” referring to the ambassador from Kuwait to the U.S.:

Regarding our meeting tomorrow, what time do you want to meet beforehand (and where) to discuss strategy? I’ve met him before and gone to him for access to the Kuwait Investment Authority before (he put me in touch with KIA and I met with them in NYC) but what I didn’t get from him (which he kindly offered) was access to private investors inside Kuwait as well as government sources. We will want that as well.

In March 2010, an associate wrote that “I was speaking to the Ambassador” from Serbia and “Vladimir said he met with you last week and there may be some interest in following up on your discussion. He did not want you to think he forgot about it.” Serbia’s ambassador to the U.S. at the time was Vladimir Petrovic.

The firm appeared conscious of how Hunter’s work could appear unsavory for the son of an elected official. After Barack Obama selected Bill Daley as his chief of staff, despite a supposed ban on lobbyists in the administration, Hunter’s partner Eric Schwerin wrote in 2011:

“Daley was never a ‘registered’ lobbyist although he directed SBC and JP Morgan’s lobbying efforts. Also, the article noted that he was registered as Foreign Lobbyist under FARA at one point (in 1979 when he was at Mayer Brown). Again, you are different at this point and time, but sometimes I wonder why we stress about this so much.”

Part 1: Hunter Biden Discussed Plans For A Business That Would Include Joe Biden, Emails Show

Part 3: Hunter Biden Was Just One Spawn Of The Powerful Who Occupied A Network That Might Be Called ‘Family, Inc.’

The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.

Grassley web site
10.20.2020

Johnson, Grassley Use Secret Service Records To Verify Content From Alleged Hunter Biden Laptop, Request More Travel Records

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter Tuesday to United States Secret Service Director James Murray highlighting references to Hunter Biden’s travel from recently published emails that appear to align with Secret Service records previously produced to the committees.

The chairmen have also requested records to verify whether the Secret Service traveled with Hunter Biden after he apparently discontinued his protective detail.

“USSS records indicate that Hunter Biden’s first scheduled trip as a Secret Service protectee was January 29, 2009 to New York City. USSS informed the Committees that Hunter Biden declined USSS protection after a scheduled July 8, 2014 trip to Michigan City, Indiana,” the senators wrote.

“However, another recently published email chain referenced travel plans for Mr. Biden involving USSS one year after Mr. Biden’s protection apparently ended. … It appears that USSS was planning to travel with Mr. Biden in August 2015, which would have been well after the USSS reported to the Committees that Mr. Biden ended his protection.”

The full text of the letter can be found below and can be viewed here.

Chairman Johnson’s and Chairman Grassley’s report detailing Hunter Biden’s scheduled travel as a Secret Service protectee can be found on page 31 here.

October 20, 2020

Mr. James M. Murray
Director
United States Secret Service

Dear Mr. Murray:

On February 5, 2020, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Senate Committee on Finance (“the Committees”) requested United States Secret Service (“USSS”) records of “all the dates and locations of travel, international and domestic, for Hunter Biden while he received a protective detail.” [1]

As detailed in the Committees’ September 23, 2020 report titled, “Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns,” USSS records indicate that Hunter Biden’s first scheduled trip as a Secret Service protectee was January 29, 2009 to New York City. USSS informed the Committees that Hunter Biden declined USSS protection after a scheduled July 8, 2014 trip to Michigan City, Indiana. [2]

Recent reports have published emails allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden, some of which include references to Mr. Biden’s travel. [3]

As the Committees continue to assess the validity of these emails, Committee staff have found that several of the references to Mr. Biden’s travel align with the travel records USSS produced to the Committees. For example, in one email allegedly sent from Hunter Biden to Devon Archer on April 13, 2014 at 12:43 AM, Mr. Biden referred to traveling to Houston “tmrw.” [4]

Secret Service records show a travel entry for Mr. Biden from April 13, 2014 – April 14, 2014, to Houston, TX. [5] In another published email, Burisma official Vadim Pozharskyi allegedly wrote to Mr. Biden and Mr. Archer on May 12, 2014 at 8:29 AM. Mr. Pozharskyi wrote, “Following our talks during the visit to the Como Lake and our further discussions, I would like to bring the following situation to your attention.” [6]

Although this email did not provide a specific date for the “visit to the Como Lake,” USSS records show a travel entry for Hunter Biden to Lake Como, Italy, on April 3, 2014 – April 6, 2014. [7] Other reports also indicate that, in May 2014, Mr. Biden and Mr. Archer may have been in Doha, Qatar. [8] USSS records contain a travel entry for Hunter Biden to Doha, Qatar on May 11, 2014 – May 14, 2014. [9]

These emails concern Mr. Biden’s travel prior to July 2014, a period of time when Mr. Biden received USSS protection. However, another recently published email chain referenced travel plans for Mr. Biden involving USSS one year after Mr. Biden’s protection apparently ended.

In a late July 2015 email chain, Mr. Pozharskyi, Mr. Biden, and Rosemont Seneca employees Katie Dodge and Joan Mayer allegedly discussed plans for Mr. Biden to travel to Europe between August 2, 2015 and August 6, 2015. In that email chain, Ms. Mayer asked Mr. Pozharskyi, “Secret Service is wondering how many seats would be available for them on the charter flight from Paris to Norway? They would prefer 2 if that is at all possible.” [10] Mr. Pozharskyi responded, “We can definitely make room for 2 SS agents on board, no problem at all.”

Two days later, Ms. Mayer wrote, “Are the tickets booked? SS needs Hunters’s [sic] seat numbers as well.” Based on this email chain, it appears that USSS was planning to travel with Mr. Biden in August 2015, which would have been well after the USSS reported to the Committees that Mr. Biden ended his protection.

As part of the Committees’ efforts to validate these recently-published emails allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden, and in order to resolve any apparent discrepancies with USSS’s prior response to the Committees, we request the following information and records:

Does USSS have any Hunter Biden travel records from August 2015? If so, please provide them to the Committees.
Did any USSS agents accompany Hunter Biden on travel after July 2014? If so, please provide those records and explain why those records were not produced to the Committees in response to the February 5, 2020 letter.

Please provide all records [11] among and between USSS, Hunter Biden, Katie Dodge, or Joan Mayer regarding Hunter Biden’s travel while his father was Vice President.

Please provide this information as soon as possible but no later than October 26, 2020. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Ron Johnson
Chairman
Senate Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs

Charles E. Grassley
Chairman
Senate Finance Committee

[1] Letter from Chairman Ron Johnson, S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. & Governmental Aff., and Chairman Charles E. Grassley, S. Comm. on Fin., to James M. Murray, Dir., U.S. Secret Serv., Feb. 5, 2020, https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2020-02-05%20CEG%20RHJ%20to%20Secret%20Service%20%28Biden%20Travel%29.pdf.

[2] S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. and Governmental Aff. & S. Comm. on Fin. , Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns (Sept. 2020), https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/HSGAC_Finance_Report_FINAL.pdf.

[3] Emma-Jo Morris and Gabrielle Fonrouge, Hunter Biden emails show leveraging connections with his father to boost Burisma pay, NY Post (Oct. 14, 2020), https://nypost.com/2020/10/14/hunter-biden-emails-show-leveraging-connections-with-dad-to-boost-burisma-pay/.
[4] Id.

[5] Protectee Visits Detail Reports for Robert H. Biden, U.S. Secret Serv., Date Range: January 1, 2008 - January 31, 2017. According to the USSS report, “The U.S. Secret Service cannot confirm that the trips occurred or if protection was provided for the entirety of the trip due to the age of the records at issue.”

[6] Emma-Jo Morris and Gabrielle Fonrouge, Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad, NY Post (Oct. 14, 2020), https://nypost.com/2020/10/14/email-reveals-how-hunter-biden-introduced-ukrainian-biz-man-to-dad/.

[7] Protectee Visits Detail Reports for Robert H. Biden, U.S. Secret Serv., Date Range: January 1, 2008 - January 31, 2017.

[8] Quinn Hillyer, Media risks malpractice by dismissing alleged anti-Biden bombshell, Washington Examiner (Oct. 15, 2020), https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/media-risks-malpractice-by-dismissing-alleged-anti-biden-bombshell; Emma-Jo Morris and Gabrielle Fonrouge, Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad, NY Post (Oct. 14, 2020), https://nypost.com/2020/10/14/email-reveals-how-hunter-biden-introduced-ukrainian-biz-man-to-dad/.

[9] Protectee Visits Detail Reports for Robert H. Biden, U.S. Secret Serv., Date Range: January 1, 2008 - January 31, 2017.

[10] Alleged emails between Joan Mayer and Vadim Pozharskyi (July 24-27, 2015).

[11] “Records” include any written, recorded, or graphic material of any kind, including letters, memoranda, reports, notes, electronic data (emails, email attachments, and any other electronically-created or stored information), calendar entries, inter-office communications, meeting minutes, phone/voice mail or recordings/records of verbal communications, and drafts (whether or not they resulted in final documents).
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