Biden Family History of Tax Problems; Hunter hit with $450,000 tax lien (not "gainfully employed")

freebeacon.com ^ | Aug 8, 2020 | Alana Goodman

[Liz]

The latest in a series of tax problems for Biden family members. Hunter Biden was hit with a $450,000 lien in July over delinquent state income taxes, which he paid off in six days despite having no discernible income. Last year, he told the court judge in his paternity case that he was broke and unemployed.

The younger Biden owed $238,562.76 in state income taxes from 2017 and $215,328.16 in state income taxes from 2018, according to records from the District of Columbia’s Office of Tax and Revenue. The District of Columbia filed a $453,890 lien against him on July 9.

The lien is the latest in a series of substantial tax problems members of the Biden family have faced over the years, from Joe's brother James’s six-figure tax debt in 2015 to multiple liens filed against Joe's sister Valerie and her husband. It also raises new questions about Hunter Biden’s finances, which have been scrutinized during the election cycle. The lien follows controversy over Hunter's high-paying consulting work for companies in Ukraine and China, and a high-profile child support case in which the younger Biden claimed he was in "significant debt" and refused to turn over court-ordered financial records.

A spokesman for D.C.'s Office of the Chief Financial Officer confirmed that Hunter Biden’s lien was released on July 15 after the "tax issue was resolved."

The office declined to say whether Biden had paid off the debt. Harvey Bezozi, a tax expert who specializes in large-scale tax debt negotiations, said the only way to get a lien released is to pay the settlement in full—often through a payment plan, penalty abatement, or other compromise with the government—or to prove the lien was filed in error. He said liens can take months or years to resolve.

"It drags on," he said. "Six days had to be some kind of expeditious kind of process for this."

Bezozi said the government rarely files liens in error. "Generally the lien filing process is a very stringent and reviewed approach because it’s a serious thing when you file a lien. It’s public record," he said.

The Biden campaign did not respond to questions about how Hunter Biden settled the debt in less than a week and whether he has found gainful employment.

The Biden family has been hit with several tax liens over the past few decades.

James Biden has had at least five tax liens filed against him between 1995 and 2015, including one for $589,095 filed in 2015 and released one year later. Frank Biden, another brother of the presidential candidate, has had at least three liens for unpaid income taxes.

He said in 2011 that a $32,500 lien in Kentucky stemmed from his struggle with alcohol addiction and was being paid off through a monthly plan, according to the Broward Palm Beach New Times. Joe Biden’s sister Valerie and her husband John Owens have faced at least five tax liens, including one for $229,749 in 1990.

This is also not the first time Hunter Biden has been accused of owing back taxes. In 2018, the federal government filed a $112,805 tax lien against him. He resolved that matter in March, according to records.

Hunter Biden’s finances have come under scrutiny due to work the younger Biden did for foreign entities while his father was vice president. He has fought to keep his financial information out of the public record, defying a court order to turn over his full 2017 and 2018 tax returns and arguing that his financial records should be subject to a nondisclosure agreement and encrypted during a paternity lawsuit last year.

Lunden Alexis Roberts, the mother of Hunter Biden's two-year-old child, sued Biden for child support payments in Arkansas in 2019. Biden, a former lobbyist, claimed in a court filing related to that case that he was deeply in debt and had no source of income for more than six months.

"I attest that I am unemployed and have had no monthly income since May 2019," said Biden in a Nov. 27, 2019, affidavit. "I currently have significant debts (in part as a result of obligations arising from my divorce which was final in April 2017)."

Although Biden claimed that he was broke, he was living in a $12,000-per-month Hollywood Hills rental home and spotted driving a $129,000 Porsche Panamera in Beverly Hills. After a judge ordered Biden to turn over his financial records and travel to Arkansas for a deposition, the former lobbyist agreed to settle the case with Roberts.

Biden has held lucrative positions at foreign companies. He was reportedly paid up to $50,000 a month to sit on the board of directors for Ukrainian energy giant Burisma between 2014 and last year and served on the board of BHR Partners, the $1.5 billion international private equity arm of Chinese investment fund Bohai Capital.

Biden stepped down from both boards last year, according to his lawyer. He told the New Yorker last summer that as part of his 2017 divorce agreement he had offered to pay his ex-wife Kathleen $37,000 per month for a decade. He said he was living on about $4,000 per month and was forced to max out his credit cards, which the magazine described as an "adjustment."

Biden’s ex-wife said in a 2017 divorce filing that Hunter Biden had left the family in massive debt after blowing their money on "drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, strip clubs and gifts for women with whom he had sexual relations."

"Mr. Biden has created financial concerns for the family by spending extravagantly on his own interests … while leaving the family with no funds to pay legitimate bills," said Kathleen Biden in the court filing.

She said the family’s debts were "shocking and overwhelming," including a $313,000 tax delinquency, maxed out credit cards, unpaid medical bills, and bounced checks to housekeepers.

[Liz]

Biden Faces Pressure From Left Over Influence Industry Ties.
Many aides and close allies are veteran Washington hands who have profited from advising big corporations.
The Sanders-Warren wing of the party is not happy.
New York Times ^ | August 1, 2020 | Kenneth P. Vogel and Glenn Thrush
FR Posted on 8/1/2020, 8:07:53 PM by karpov

WASHINGTON — It was one of the few issues on which President Barack Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. disagreed — how far to go in limiting the influence of lobbyists in government.

The vice president privately complained that his boss’s effort to slam shut the revolving door between K Street and the administration would deprive it of experienced talent, and he bristled when Mr. Obama’s aides tried to block him from hiring a well-connected Washington operator who had lobbied for pharmaceutical and insurance companies, credit agencies and others.

Eight years later, that same confidant, Steve Ricchetti, is helping to run Mr. Biden’s presidential campaign. Also involved to varying degrees are other advisers, operatives, fund-raisers and allies with deep connections to Washington’s lucrative lobbying, communications and strategic consulting industry.

That puts Mr. Biden at odds with powerful elements of his party’s liberal base. Increasingly, they are expressing concern that the military contractors, Wall Street banks and other major corporations that paid members of Mr. Biden’s inner circle while they were out of government could hold disproportionate power in a Biden administration.

Politically, it could limit Mr. Biden’s ability to cast himself as the antidote to the anything-goes access peddling that has proliferated in President Trump’s administration. Under Mr. Trump, lobbyists and campaign donors have not only enjoyed access to the highest levels of the administration, but have been tapped to lead cabinet departments and have exerted remarkable influence over policies of intense interest to their former employers.

“It’s worrisome, broadly speaking, that a Biden administration could end up abiding by the unfortunate bipartisan norms of putting people in posts where they oversee industries or employers they just left,” said David Segal, co-founder of the liberal group Demand Progress.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...

[Liz]

There's at least nine "incidences" among Joe Biden’s close family, and followed incidents involving his brother Frank, his son Hunter and his daughter Ashley. The cases - ranging from felony theft to drug possession - were all either thrown out, or resulted in light sentences with no jail time, according to a Post review of public records and published reports.

<><> The trouble for Ashley Biden, 39, started with a pot bust when she was a student at Tulane University in 1999. New Orleans police confirmed the possession arrest of the daughter of the then-Delaware senator, but no conviction was recorded in court records.

<><>Ten years later, during her father’s vice-presidency, video circulated showing a woman resembling Ashley snorting what appeared to be cocaine at a party. Joe Biden refused to comment on the reports, and there were no legal consequences.

<><> A second misdemeanor arrest for the Biden daughter was reported in 2002 after she allegedly attempted to obstruct a police officer - making “intimidating statements” - after a bottle-throwing brawl outside a Chicago bar. The charges were dropped.

[Liz]

RYAN PARRY WEST COAST EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 16:03 EDT, 11 June 2020

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8406427/Joe-Bidens-brother-Frank-just-29-bank-account-despite-owing-dead-mans-family-1M.html

EXCLUSIVE: Joe Biden’s brother wriggles out of $1M he owes to car crash victim’s family by having just $29 in his bank account - despite life of luxury as a law firm’s frontman
Joe Biden’s brother Frank, 66, owes the family of Michael Albano $1M, stemming from a car crash in 1999 where the single father died

Biden, then 43, was riding shotgun when he shifted the 290hp car into manual and told the driver to ‘punch it,’ just before hitting Albano

Biden fled California leaving a trail of unpaid bills and never even turned up in court when Albano’s family sued him, according to court documents

Despite earning a hundreds of thousands of dollars from executive positions he’s held at firms, he hasn’t paid the family a cent

He lives with partner Mindy in a $600k home in a gated community in upmarket Atlantis, Florida and drives a $40,000 Range Rover

But when an attorney for the Albano family garnished Biden’s Wells Fargo bank account in February, he found it just had $29.16

Recently filed court docs are the first step in compelling Biden to subject to a debtor’s examination, which have him testify to his full income and assets

[Liz]

Biden’s campaign has committed to issuing an executive order on his first day in office to “address conflicts of interest of any kind,” and has repeatedly said he and his family have never discussed private business interests. (cue laugh machine here)

Kinship-as-currency is hardly a new phenomenon in Washington. But as Joe Biden makes his third run at the nation’s highest office, he has already confronted a sustained political attack on the decision by his son, Hunter, to accept a position on the board of directors for a Ukrainian energy firm – a decision that has figured prominently into the debate over President Trump’s impeachment. The president has repeatedly called the Bidens “crooked,” particularly with regard to Hunter Biden’s business activities.

The presidential candidate has also faced questions about endeavors by another brother, James Biden, who is fighting a lawsuitin which he stands accused of feigning interest in investing in a medical device company as a ploy to steal the company’s business model.

According to plaintiffs, James Biden said during investment negotiations that the firm’s “psychiatric care model would be used by Joe Biden as part of his campaign for President of United States.” A spokesperson for James Biden called allegations in the lawsuit “a seriously misleading version of the events,” meant to “[take] advantage of Jim Biden’s public profile as the brother of a presidential candidate,” adding that “[Frank Biden] does not, and has never, discussed his business ventures with his brother.” The lawsuit remains ongoing.

And now the issue is resurfacing once more with the former vice president’s younger brother, Frank.

Frank Biden declined to be interviewed for this report, but over the past decade, during the years he was involved in the charter school business in Florida and afterward, he has spoken frequently in public about his prominent family ties. In an interview with The Washington Post in late 2011, Frank Biden said of his last name, “I enjoy automatic acceptance or at least listening to what I have to say.” Several press releases put out by Mavericks in Education advertise “brother of Vice President Joe Biden” as one of his credentials.

For his part, Joe Biden’s campaign for president does not support government funding for for-profit charter schools, setting him at odds with his brother’s work with Mavericks.

Biden sought to avoid conflict of interest before 2008 campaign: link to Court records. Biden ‘out front’ for the company – in presidential seal cufflinks

Frank Biden’s chance encounter in 2009 with a Mavericks executive launched his years-long effort to place the for-profit business in several Florida school districts. Charter schools are heavily regulated and depend on approvals by school boards and other government officials to operate, so convincing school board members of the company’s viability was a critical step for nascent charter management outfits. That was Frank Biden’s job for Mavericks.

As the project’s public face and biggest advocate, Frank Biden undertook efforts to win over school board members who were responsible for approving charter school applications. He did so, in both media interviews and school board meetings, in part by invoking the name of his brother, who was vice president at the time.

“Joe is my hero. My older brother is the best man I know,” Frank Biden said during a 2016 promotional interview, adding, “Barack ain’t bad either, trust me.”

[frank ballenger]

Tax fraud investigator to Hunter Biden:
“Are you employed, Mr. Biden?”

Hunter: Uh, well it’s not really a regular job but I was on the board of Burisma Holdings, a major Ukrainian natural gas producer, from 2014 to 2019.

“You don’t go out looking for a job dressed like that, do ya? On a weekday?”

Hunter:”C’mon... man! I’m not tryin’ to scam anybody here, uh, y’know, I’m, I’m just uh-”

Tax guy: “You’re just looking for a handout like every other....Just take any rug you see and leave, please.”

[Verginius Rufus]

Hunter got “up to $50,000 a month” from Burisma? I thought it was more like $83,000 a month.

[Liz]

He probably divvied it up between Joe and Obama.

[Verginius Rufus]

Yes, it seems likely that Hunter was just a conduit.

[simpson96]

Amazing.

A Republican’s kids would be raked over the coals in the MSM for a fraction of those things. Biden’s kids, and Biden, get a pass.

[tennmountainman]

We have been told Hunter has no money.
Where did he get the money?

[wac3rd]

So the people who want 60-70-80-90% of your income like good Marxists cannot pay theirs...?

Just like Gavin Newsom....https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/gov-newsoms-chronically-delinquent-property-taxes-and-unreported-income-must-be-investigated/

Hypocrites and thieves....

[Lockbox]

illegal campaign contributions - great thought!

[Ann Archy]

TYPICAL DEMOCRAT!!! TAX CHEAT!!

WHEN are the feds going to look into the Biden CRIME FAMILY??

[poconopundit]

poconopundit's FR vanities & memes

[Vaduz]

I attest that I am unemployed and have had no monthly income.

However I have a few bitching looking freezers in the basement loaded with cash.

[Liz]

Possibly Hunter’s countless trips on US govt aircraft always w/ SS details were to deposit money in numbered accounts for Obama/Biden and their grifting families......

......and/or to withdraw a bundle here and there so the boys could distribute graft to get votes, payoff insiders, the clintons, etc,for favors.

[Vaduz]

BINGO

[demkicker]

Who all in the IRS is protecting these sobs? This is crap!!!