Hunter Biden Falling Deeper Into Chinese Payment Controversy – New details are emerging about the payment of over $1 million from a Chinese energy company and one of Hunter Biden’s business associates who disbursed the funds to President Joe Biden’s son, his brother, and daughter-in-law. It’s now been revealed the business partner in question, Rob Walker, visited the White House more than 16 times when Joe Biden was vice president.
Visits to the White House
Fox News Digital said it obtained White House visitor logs that showed Rob Walker appeared at the White House on 16 dates between 2009 and 2016. Walker’s wife worked for the Vice President’s second lady. Walker also visited the vice president’s residence, Fox found.
The House Oversight Committee has wire transfer records it obtained from a Bank of America subpoena that showed that Rob Walker was the main conduit of the money wired from CEFC Energy in China in 2017.
Business Associate of Hunter Biden Worked at the White House
Fox journalists discovered after analyzing the visitor data that Walker met in the White House with a mid-level staffer named David Lane. Lane was a prior business associate of Walker and Hunter Biden. Before that meeting, an email found by Fox News Digital showed that Lane and Hunter were to meet for a social engagement at Hunter’s house, showing the two had a friendly relationship. Lane later became the UN Ambassador for Agencies in Rome.
An email detected by Fox showed that Walker was “acting as a surrogate for H[unter] around the country and abroad pursuing opportunities.”
The President Has Denied Hunter’s Links to China
President Joe Biden had said that he denied the wire transfers were true and had earlier claimed that he was not privy to any details about Hunter’s business relationships with overseas companies. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Republicans were telling “inaccuracies and lies” about Biden family business relationships in China.
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said, “In the beginning, the White House denied having any knowledge or the fact that their family was involved in any sort of way, shape or form with the CCP. But now we have bank records that reveal otherwise,” Comer explained to Fox Business News anchor Maria Bartiromo on March 26. “We don’t know what the Bidens did in return for this money. The lawyer said that it was seed capital for a business. We haven’t been able to find a business. Right now, it looks like the Biden family just pocketed this money.”
There Should Be Plenty of Records to Show a Seed Money Transaction
If the funds were really seed money for a new firm run by Hunter, James Biden, and Hallie there would be records associated with any investment, especially if the business arrangement consisted of a cash for equity deal. Companies must have a C-Corp incorporated IRS designation to issue stock. This document would be on file with the IRS. The Securities and Exchange Commission requires company directors to file a Schedule 13D or 13G form that is available for review with the SEC.
Also, there would have been a contract or some type of deal memorandum necessary for the seed money transaction. Rarely does a million dollar deal take place without these records. Finally, CEFC would have likely conducted due diligence on Hunter and his family members should the seed money injection have been legitimate. There would have been email records associated with this step to consummate the investment deal.
Comer and investigators at the Oversight Committee may not have found these documents yet. If they exist, Hunter’s attorneys could readily make them available to the committee to show that the money from CEFC transferred to Rob Walker and sent to members of the Biden family was legal and aboveboard.
As it stands now, no-one knows what the CEFC payments were for – if they were related to seed money for a new company – or for other reasons.
The Rob Walker White House visits do not appear to be illegal or improper and it is unclear if he met with Vice President Biden. Some of the visits were innocuous such as Walker celebrating at the White House on July 4 in 2011 and 2014 for Independence Day festivities. But this is another example of how Hunter’s business associate engineered ways to get close to people who worked in the White House. It has raised an additional level of inquiry for Hunter’s business dealings that could someday be linked to President Biden if he is indeed involved.
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Author Expertise and Experience: Serving as 19FortyFive’s Defense and National Security Editor, Dr. Brent M. Eastwood is the author of Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare. He is an Emerging Threats expert and former U.S. Army Infantry officer. You can follow him on Twitter @BMEastwood. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and Foreign Policy/ International Relations.
