The Biden family in 2017 cashed in on a zero-interest, forgivable loan from an energy company in communist China, according to an Oct. 18 report which cited evidence in the possession of the FBI and from Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.
Emails show that Chinese energy firm CEFC Beijing International Energy Company Limited understood the $5 million transaction would benefit Joe Biden's family (referred to as "BD family" in the emails), Just the News, which obtained documents confirming the transaction, reported.
A July 26, 2017 email from a CEFC official to Tony Bobulinski, a Hunter Biden business partner at the time, stated that the Chinese company's leaders "fully support the framework of establishing the JV (joint venture), based on their trust on BD family."
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 Joe Biden's son Hunter and brother James.
"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 transaction was raising concerns 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.
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 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.
"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.
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