Hunter Biden’s business associate Eric Schwerin received a $40,000 loan from President Biden to his brother James, even though he had access to the current president’s checking and business accounts as a bookkeeper and tax preparer. He said in an interview with Congress that he did not mention anything about what was called a . transcript Monday’s program has been released.
Schwerin, 54, said in a Jan. 30 deposition with House impeachment investigators that he “doesn’t remember” Joe Biden loaning him money between 2009 and 2016. During that time, Schwerin said he was helping the then-vice president prepare tax and financial disclosure documents. .
“Certainly, I don’t remember any loans he took out during the 2016 tax season,” Schwerin said, adding that the loans Biden made in 2017, when Schwerin “was still helping,” were “potential.” He added that there was no “target”. [Biden] His family finances…because he was becoming a civilian. ”
James Biden and his wife Sarah say they cut Joe a check for $40,000 on September 3, 2017, after James and Hunter received $5.1 million from Chinese state-owned energy company CEFC. He admitted this to a House committee in a deposition on May 21st. The check was marked as “loan repayment” from the July 28, 2017 wire.
Mr. Schwerin said in the interview that he had “some access” to Mr. Biden’s business accounts after becoming vice president, but gave it up “at the end of 2017 when I stopped this role with him.”
James Biden also cut a $200,000 “loan repayment” check to Joe Biden on March 1, 2018. That same day, a similar amount was wired to James in the form of a loan from Amecore, a now-defunct local hospital chain, for which Biden received payment. He was looking for investors in Qatar.
James Biden told a House committee that there were no documents commemorating either “loan” and that he was not charged interest by his brother. A second cable for $200,000 to James Biden arrived on January 12, 2018.
When the “loan repayments” were first revealed in November, White House Counsel Ian Sams said: “When the president was a civilian, he lent money to his brother, and his brother quickly paid it back. [Oversight Committee] chairman [James] Comer [R-Ky.] They are suppressing these records as part of a politically motivated effort to attack the president with baseless lies. ”
James Biden also requested money from Joe’s account to pay “unpaid bills” through the Wilmington, Delaware-based law firm Monczak Mursky & Browder, but the money was used by the current president. He claimed that he did not know whether the money came from a private bank.account, or Joe Biden’s so-called “S-corp” Celtic Capri, which received his funds Lectures and writing activities.
Rep. Dan Muser (R-Pa.), former Pennsylvania revenue secretary from 2011 to 2015, later argued that “notional loan income” was considered ordinary income if it wasn’t marked as a loan. They asked the IRS to investigate the validity of the claim. Biden’s repayments or gifts on his 2017 and 2018 tax returns.
The House Oversight and Judiciary Committees held a closed-door conference two days before fellow former Hunters Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis were scheduled to appear in public hearings as the committees move forward with their impeachment inquiry into the president. The records were made public.
Devon Archer, another former business partner of Hunter Biden, said he did not have enough time to prepare a statement and plan his subsequent testimony because an earlier letter requesting his appearance was apparently not received. , will not appear in court, according to a letter from his attorney to the supervisory board reviewed by the Post.
Schwerin also stated multiple times in his affidavit that he either “can’t remember” or “doesn’t know” that he has no detailed knowledge of the millions of dollars his eldest son received from foreign business associates in China, Kazakhstan, Russia and other countries. He denied it. Ukraine.
Hunter Biden and some of his former business partners previously testified before a House investigating committee that the president spoke by phone and met with foreign officials during and after Obama’s presidency.
The witness said Joe Biden asked Schwerin for help “as a favor,” and that Schwerin received no money for his services and that Biden did not promote his son’s business or seek “political favors.” He added that he had never seen any official action taken to do so.
This includes Ukraine, where Joe Biden pushed for the firing of prosecutor Viktor Shokin.
Shokin, who was fired in March 2016, was investigating Burisma Holdings, a natural gas company where Hunter Biden was a director from 2014 to 2019 and earned about $1 million a year.
Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s former partner, said in an interview after his House testimony last summer that Shokin was a “threat” to Burisma after seizing some of owner Mykola Zlochevsky’s assets. He said it was considered.
Mr. Schwerin boasted to a Council on Foreign Relations committee three years later that he had threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees in exchange for Mr. Shokin’s removal in late 2015, a move Mr. He declined to say whether this would pose “ethical difficulties.”
“I didn’t think about that at the time, no,” he said.
However, Schwerin acknowledged in his testimony that Joe Biden had exchanged emails with Hunter associates from personal accounts labeled “Robinware456” and “Robert.L.Peters.” Ta. However, Mr. Schwerin was not asked about the content of those messages.
While helping the vice president with his personal finances, Mr. Schwerin also served as president of Mr. Hunter’s investment firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners.
Hunter’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle wrote in her 2022 memoir that our relationship was awkward because Schwerin “controlled nearly every aspect of our financial lives.” ing.
While running for president in 2020, Biden vowed to “erect an absolute wall between me and myself.” [business] and the government,” as he argued during Obama’s presidency.
The newspaper has reached out to the White House and the White House Counsel’s Office for comment.
