Hunter Biden’s controversial stint at Burisma has a Mumbai connection too!

Americans under the garb of its Ukraine policy that sought to help the natural gas rich Eastern European country in its anti-corruption and transparency bid, seem to have dangerous liaisons with Ukraine and corruption. A whistleblower had accused Trump of soliciting interference from Ukraine in the 2020 elections.

@prashanthamine

Mumbai: As Republican and Freshman Congresswoman from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene plans to move impeachment motion against Democrat Joseph Robinette Biden @ Joe Biden on January 21, a day after he is Inaugurated as the 46^th US President, the shady ties that the Americans tend to have with Ukraine, the natural gas rich Eastern European country seem to have reared its ugly head once again. And this time it has a Mumbai connection attached to it too!

Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is basing her impeachment articles on the probe report of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs (HSAC) and Senate Committee on Finance during the Barrack Obama presidency from 2009 to 2017. Biden was then the 47^th vice president of America.

The Senate committee report had probed whether the Obama Ukraine policy could have been affected by Hunter Biden’s (Joe Biden’s son) position on the board of Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company, and that the family members (of Joe Biden) may have improperly sought to benefit from their relationship with the Vice President.

Also Read: Revenge politics in full swing on Capitol Hill, as Republicans now vow to impeach Biden

The report titled “Hunter Biden, Burisma and Corruption: The Impact on US Government policy and Related Concerns” was released by the Senate on December 9, 2020. In its findings the report had concluded that “former Vice President Joe Biden allowed Hunter Biden and other members of his family to enrich themselves through links with foreign companies and governments while he was in office.

According to the Senate committee report after February 21, 2014 when then Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled the country following an uprising in Kyiv, significant events involving the Biden’s unfolded.

On April 16, 2014, Vice President Biden met his son’s business partner, Devon Archer at the White House. Five days later, Vice President Biden visited Ukraine and was later described in the media as the “public face of the administration’s handling of Ukraine”. A day later on April 22, Archer joined board of Burisma and six days later British officials seized US $23 million from the London bank accounts of Burisma’s owner Mykola Zlochevsky.

Fourteen days later, on May 12, Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma, and over the course of the next several years, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were paid millions of dollars from a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch for their participation on the board, states the HSAC report.

During the Obama administration, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) approved a transaction that gave control over Henniges, an American maker of anti-vibration technologies with military applications, to a Chinese government-owned aviation company and a China-based investment firm with established ties to the Chinese government.

One of the companies involved in the Henniges transaction was a billion-dollar private investment fund called Bohai Harvest RST (BHR), BHR was formed in November 2013 by a merger between Chinese government-linked firm Bohai Capital and a company named Rosemont Seneca Partners. Rosemont Seneca was formed in 2009 by Hunter Biden, the son of then Vice President Joe Biden, by Chris Heinz, the stepson of former Secretary of State John Kerry, and others.

The HSAC report further states that the Chairman of the Senate committee on Finance Charles Grassley discovered during the course of this investigation is that the Obama administration knew that Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board was problematic and did interfere in the efficient execution of policy with respect to Ukraine. The Obama administration ignored the warning signs when the vice president’s son joined the board of a company owned by a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch.

As per the key findings of the HSAC report, “the presence of Hunter Biden on the board was very awkward for all US officials pushing an anticorruption agenda in Ukraine.

Former acting deputy chief of mission at US embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, George Kent had raised the concerns with the Vice President’s office that Mykola Zlochevsky was an “odious oligarch”. However, in December 2015, instead of following US objectives of confronting oligarchs, Vice President’s office staff advised him (Kent) to avoid commenting on Zlochevsky and recommended he say, “I’m not going to get into naming names or accusing individuals”.

The findings further reveal that while Hunter Biden was serving on the Burisma board, Zlochevsky allegedly paid a US $7 million bribe to officials in Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Vitaly Yarema, to “shut the case against Zlochevsky”. Kent testified that the bribe occurred in December 2014, seven months after Hunter Biden joined the Burisma board. Kent and resident legal adviser reported the allegation to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

According to the HSAC report Hunter Biden was a Secret Service protectee from January 29, 2009 to July 8, 2014. During these years Hunter Biden received Secret Service protection on trips to multiple foreign locations (28) that included – Moscow, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei and Mumbai.

In addition to the over US $4 million paid by Burisma for Hunter Biden’s and Devon Archer’s board memberships, Hunter Biden, his family, and Archer received millions of dollars from foreign nationals with questionable background. Hunter Biden received a US $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the wife of the former Mayor of Moscow.

According to the HSAC report, Hunter Biden opened a bank account with Gongwen Dong to fund a US $100,000 global spending spree with James Biden and Sara Biden.

Hunter Biden had business associations with Ye Jianming, Gongwen Dong and other Chinese nationals linked to the Communist government and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Those associations resulted in millions of dollars in cash flow.

The more damning, scandalous finding according to the HSAC report is that, “Hunter Biden paid nonresident women who were nationals of Russia or other Eastern European countries and who appear to be linked to an “Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring”.