President Joe Biden has made waves this fall with his plan to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars of student loans, shifting the burden to taxpayers. Five years earlier, his family cashed in on a zero-interest, forgivable loan of its own from an energy company in communist China, according to evidence in the possession of the FBI.
The loan arrangement, confirmed in documents obtained by Just the News and also new information released by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), shows the Chinese energy firm CEFC Beijing International Energy Company Limited understood the transaction would benefit Joe Biden's family (referred to as "BD family" in the emails), but it also was creating heartburn with its own compliance/risk management officers.
The Chinese company's leaders "fully support the framework of establishing the JV (joint venture), based on their trust on BD family," stated a July 26, 2017 email from a CEFC official to Tony Bobulinski, a Hunter Biden business partner at the time. The email was written in part to explain why there had been a delay in getting the money to a firm called SinoHawk associated with the future president's son and brother, Hunter Biden and James Biden, respectively.
"The delay of wire is caused by the details on the JV building, as follows: 1) the positioning and strategy of the JV are not made fully clear to CEFC 2) 5 million is lent to BD family in the 10 million charter capital. How will this 5 million be used (or the 10 million as a whole)? This 5 million loan to BD family is interest-free," the email stated.
"But if the 5 M is used up, should CEFC keep lending more to the family?" the email inquired. "If CEFC lends more, they need to know the interest rate for the subsequent loan(s)."
The CEFC official went on to explain the nebulous transaction was raising worries with the company's compliance officers. "Because of the reasons above, the risk management department of CEFC is showing concerns on the operation of SinoHawk, hence the delay of the wire," CEFC's Raymond Zhao wrote.
At the time of the transaction, Joe Biden had already left the White House as vice president, was a private citizen and was planning for his eventual 2020 presidential run. Bobulinski has said in media interviews that Joe Biden was a silent partner in the Chinese transaction, identified in internal documents as "the big guy" who might get 10% of the deal.
Grassley on Monday released a letter he sent to the FBI that contained a summary of an October 2020 interview Bobulinski gave to the FBI concerning the Chinese loan transaction.
According to Grassley, the $5 million Chinese transaction was paid to a Hunter Biden-connected firm in August 2017, one month after the email obtained by Just the News. Bobulinski told the FBI that some of the Chinese money paid in 2017 was actually deferred compensation for work Hunter and James Biden had done while Joe Biden was still vice president, Grassley wrote. Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson previously have said some $6 million paid in spring 2017 was appeared to be for pre-2017 work.
"In that interview, Mr. Bobulinski stated that the arrangement Hunter Biden and James Biden created with foreign nationals connected to the communist Chinese government included assisting them with potential business deals and investments while Joe Biden was Vice President; however, that work remained intentionally uncompensated while Joe Biden was Vice President," Grassley wrote, culling information from the summary of Bobulinski's FBI interview.
"After Joe Biden left the Vice Presidency, the summary makes clear that Hunter Biden and James Biden worked with CEFC and affiliated individuals to compensate them for that past work and the benefits they procured for CEFC," the senator wrote.
Grassley said the scheme "to compensate the Bidens was supposed to consist of an unsecured $5 million loan, intended to be forgivable, from CEFC in 2017." The senator said his office has information that a few months before the $5 million was paid "Hunter Biden yelled at CEFC officials at a meeting for failing to fund the joint venture" and that "James Biden considered calling CEFC officials and threatening to withdraw Biden family support from future deals."
Grassley's letter said that when the money was finally paid it did not go to the SinoHawk firm involving Bobulinski as originally conceived. Rather, it was sent to a Biden family-connected firm called Hudson West III before being transferred to entities tied to Hunter Biden and James Biden, the senator related.
Lawyers for Hunter Biden and James Biden have denied their clients have done anything wrong, but have declined to answer specific questions from Just the News.
President Biden has also defended his family. "I am proud of my son," he said in a recent CNN interview.
Grassley said the evidence his team has assembled from whistleblowers and other sources suggests the FBI "possesses significant, impactful, voluminous evidence of potential criminality in Biden family business arrangements."
"Based on allegations provided to my office," Grassley wrote, "the information provided by Mr. Bobulinski formed a sufficient basis to open a full field investigation on pay-to-play grounds; however, it is unclear whether the FBI did so and whether the information is part of the ongoing criminal investigation" of Hunter Biden in Delaware led by U.S. Attorney David Weiss.
