Replies

Rep. Comer: Joe Biden’s Brother Paid Him $200K in 2018
Newsmax ^ | 20th October 2023 | Solange Reyner
Posted on 10/20/2023, 6:37:02 PM by Ennis85

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., says the panel has obtained bank records showing James and Sara Biden paid Joe Biden $200,000 in the form of a personal check in March, 2018, claiming the document shows proof of the Biden family’s influence-peddling scheme.

The document “raises new questions about how President Biden personally benefited from his family’s shady influence peddling of his name and their access to him,” Comer said in a video released Friday on the Oversight website.

James Biden, the brother of Joe Biden, in 2018 received $600,000 in loans from Americore — a financially distressed and failing rural hospital operator.

“According to bankruptcy court documents, James Biden received these loans based upon representations that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’ and that he could obtain a large investment from the Middle East based on his political connections,” Comer said.

Americore on March 1, 2018, wired a $200,000 loan into James and Sara Biden’s personal bank account, according to the Oversight Committee.

On the same day, James Biden wrote a $200,000 check from this same personal bank account to Joe Biden.

“James Biden wrote this check to Joe Biden as a ‘loan repayment.’ Americore — a distressed company — loaned money to James Biden who then sent it to Joe Biden,” wrote Comer.

“Even if this was a personal loan repayment, it’s still troubling that Joe Biden’s ability to be paid back by his brother depended on the success of his family’s shady financial dealings.”

Comer said Biden must provide answers on the findings, including whether he has documents proving he lent $200,000 to his brother and what the terms of the financial arrangement was. “Did he have similar financial arrangements with other family members that led them to make similar large payments to him?” Comer

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

nypost.com
Opinion By Charles Gasparino
Published Oct. 23, 2012
Crony capitalism & Joe Biden’s brother

James Biden isn’t a big name in the business of residential housing development, so what exactly qualifies him to work at a construction company and share in the winnings of a $1.5 billion project to build affordable homes in Iraq?

If you said it has something to do with his last name, the one shared by his older brother Vice President Joe Biden, you wouldn’t be far off. At least that’s the guess of some Wall Street analysts who cover the Marlton, NJ-based company Hill International and think they’ve seen yet another sordid tale of crony capitalism.

Hill has been around for decades; its main business is managing construction projects in the Middle East and here in America. It’s built a good reputation over the years, as has the father-son team who run it, Irv and David Richter.

But the bursting of the real-estate bubble took its toll; Hill shares are down 80 percent since 2008. Since 2011, the company has reported losses. Its Middle East business has also been stymied by the Arab Spring uprisings; in Libya alone, Hill is out $60 million in payments that it’s still trying to recover.

But it got some good news not long after its housing subsidiary hired James Biden as an executive vice president in late 2010. Just six months later, Hill won one of its biggest contracts ever, a $1.5 billion deal to build at least 100,000 affordable homes in Iraq.

A good deal for Hill, a relative newcomer to building homes — and for James Biden, who as one partner will get a good share of that $1.5 billion.

The deal is contingent on the Iraqi government providing financing, which it has yet to do, but Hill execs tell analysts the money could start flowing by the end of the year. That’s when everyone involved, James Biden included, will start collecting on tens of millions of dollars in profits.

One friend of James Biden’s estimates his net worth at around $7 million, yet he seems to have a remarkable lack of concrete business experience. An attorney who’s done work for him called him a “serial entrepreneur,” but didn’t name the startups he was responsible for.

Hill chief Irv Richter called Biden a “good salesman” and the firm’s Web site describes “40 years of experience dealing with principals in business, political, legal and financial circles across the nation and internationally.”

(James Biden also had a relatively short and somewhat controversial run as a co-owner of a hedge-fund company with Joe’s son Hunter. The company, as it turns out, was marketed by companies controlled by now convicted Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford. Neither Biden was charged, but the fund company is now winding down its operations.)

No, James Biden’s obvious value comes from his connection to the Obama administration. Richter assures me that James’ ties to Joe played no part in landing the plum assignment in Iraq or any of the other government-related jobs Hill has received recently.

Really? Connect these dots: Both the Iraqi government and the Obama State Department played roles in helping Hill win the assignment, Richter concedes. And Joe Biden is President Obama’s point man on Iraq — a country where people expect politicians’ families to be “taken care of.”

Also key is TRAC Development, a South Korean firm that won the master contract for the Iraq work. And — huh! — James Biden and his wife were guests of President Obama and Michelle for last October’s state dinner honoring the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak.

All one big coincidence?

Well, Richter insists that, while Biden’s name and connections might open doors when government business is on the line, that doesn’t guarantee success. “If he had the name Obama, he would get in the door easier,” Richter joked.

During this month’s vice-presidential debate, Joe Biden told Americans to just ignore all that stimulus money that went to administration-connected failures like Solyndra. Crony capitalism, he insisted, hardly exists with Joe Biden and Barack Obama watching the store. Maybe that’s why the veep, after making that dopey statement, was laughing so much that night.

Charles Gasparino is a Fox Business Network senior correspondent.