Hunter Biden complained to sister-in-law and one-time lover Hallie Biden about feeling 'alone' while dealing with the stress of his personal finances, his missing Chinese business partner, and his 'suspected involvement' in arranging a multibillion-dollar oil deal with Russia, DailyMail.com can reveal.
In a December 2018 text sent to his lover and brother's widow, Hallie Biden, the First Son said he was feeling pressure over his 'suspected involvement in brokering a deal with Vladimir Putin directly for the largest sale of oil [and] gas assets inside Russia to China'.
The deal was a failed purchase of a $9.1billion stake in Russian state oil firm Rosneft by CEFC, a Chinese oil giant Hunter partnered with.
And his alleged hand in the China-Russia oil deal was far from his only concern at the time.
A December 2018 text message exchange obtained by DailyMail.com show Hunter whined about finding himself 'very alone' in rebuilding an income to support himself and his family, as well as dealing with the arrest of his client, the abduction of his business partner, and his 'suspected involvement in brokering a deal with Putin', all while his father was running for president.
He told Hallie his Chinese oil billionaire business partner had been abducted and possibly assassinated; that the billionaire's right hand man, Hunter's client, was the Chinese 'chief of intelligence' and had been convicted in the US; and that Hunter had a giant tax bill 'hanging over' him.
This house of cards was falling in just as his father Joe was deciding to run for president, he told Hallie.
It would make a national security nightmare for the intelligence services who would have to share classified information with the deeply compromised Hunter's father when he won the 2020 race.
'I find myself (because I've chosen to alienate all my friends and family and employees and you and the kids and my kids etc..) very alone in dealing with rebuilding an income that can support an enormous alimony and my kids costs and myself,' he wrote to his brother's widow in the December 14, 2018 text.
Hunter added that he was 'dealing with the aftermath of the abduction and likely assassination (that's what NYT's [the New York Times] suspects) of my business partner the richest man in the world, the arrest and conviction of my client the chief of intelligence of the people's republic of China by the US government, the retaliation of the Chinese in the ouster and arrest of US suspected CIA operatives inside China, my suspected involvement in brokering a deal with Vladimir Putin directly for the largest sale of oil gas assets inside Russia to China, a tax bill that Eric [Schwerin, Hunter's colleague] left hanging over my business… and Dads running for president.'
His 'business partner' was Ye Jianming, the chairman of CEFC who had disappeared after Chinese media reported in February 2018 his arrest in China over 'economic crimes'.
The 'chief of intelligence' was Ye's right-hand-man Patrick Ho, who hired Hunter as his lawyer for a $1million retainer in September 2017 when he was arrested over bribery charges. He was convicted the following year.
Court records reveal there was a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant against Ho showing federal law enforcement suspected he had links to the Chinese intelligence services, though he was not charged with any espionage offenses.
In the frantic text to his lover, Hunter did not admit to taking part in an oil deal with Putin, or say who suspected him of doing so.
But previously published documents and messages reveal Hunter's potential links to the deal.
In August 2017, Reuters reported that CEFC was in talks to buy a $9.1billion slice of Rosneft from a consortium including the Qatari sovereign wealth fund and Swiss mining company Glencore.
The same month, CEFC wired $5million to Hudson West III, a company linked to Hunter.
And on September 8, the day CEFC officially announced the Rosneft deal, Hunter and his uncle Jim – who was involved in Hunter's Chinese dealings – went on a $100,000 spree buying airline tickets, Apple products, and hotel rooms using credit cards set up from a joint account with their Chinese business partners.
All the purchases were flagged for potential 'criminal activity' in bank reports, according to a Senate investigation.
But the Rosneft deal fell apart when Ye was arrested in China and CEFC reportedly stopped responding to the sellers' communications.
The same month, reports emerged of the deal's termination, the credit cards used for the Bidens' spree were closed, according to the August 2020 Senate Security and Finance Committees' report.
In a 2017 text exchange with Tony Bobulinski, a partner in Hunter's CEFC joint venture, the president's son claimed he wasn't involved in the Rosneft deal but that he 'discussed' it with Ye.
In a 2017 text exchange with Tony Bobulinski, a partner in Hunter's CEFC joint venture, the president's son claimed he wasn't involved in the Rosneft deal but that he 'discussed' it with Ye.
When Bobulinski said created a mess with the Rosneft deal, Hunter replied: 'Well that's actually good for us. Chinese bailing out feckless Putin'.
'I've simply stayed out of that Russian mess,' he said in the texts Bobulinski shared with the media last year.
'Zang create[d] a mess w[ith] that rosneft deal. Pics of him [with] Putin all over the place,' Bobulinski replied in the October 2017 conversation.
'Well that's actually good for us. Chinese bailing out feckless Putin,' Hunter replied. 'Ze sticking it to him through the pictures along with Xe.'
'So u 1000% didnt reach out to Chairman Ye or [his CEFC colleague] Director Zang and create parallel noise?' Bobulinski asked.
'No I've been talking to the Chairman on a regular basis. I was his first guest in his new apartment/he cooked me lunch himself and we ate in the kitchen together. He has me helping him on a number of his personal issues (staff visas and some more sensitive things) but I was told not to engage with Zhang by you James and the Chairman,' Hunter said.
'He and I discussed the Roseneft [sic] deal and he is p***ed off but only by the execution which I guess was Zhang's deal. Anyway, he and I are solid so when and if you or James feel like I'm capable of telling him about your Oman or Luxembourg or The Russian guys deal just let me know.
'We have a standing once a week call as I am also his personal counsel (we signed an attorney client engagement letter) in the US.'
Hunter's spending around the announcement of the ill-fated Rosneft deal was not his only link to the Kremlin.
He got his job at controversial Ukrainian gas firm Burisma through Alex Kotlarsky, a consultant at TriGlobal Strategic Ventures, owned by close Putin ally Ara Abramyan.
Hunter had breakfast with Abramyan at his home in Moscow when he visited in February 2012.
He also met with another Putin ally Sergey Chemezov, head of state firm Rostec, and three other billionaires and oligarchs during his trip, his calendar and emails show.
Hunter's company also received $3.5million in wire transfers from Elena Baturina, the richest woman in Russia and widow of former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov, in 2014 according to the Senate report.
The reason for the transfers, labeled as part of a 'consultancy agreement' is still unclear.
