Newly uncovered documents that had been hidden from the American public for eight years show the FBI knew in 2016 that Hunter Biden and his business partners eyed a venture in tax-friendly Liechtenstein that would have capitalized on a $120 million investment from the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings.
The evidence concerning the Liechtenstein deal were among the 3.39 million documents seized by the FBI from Hunter Biden and his business partners in 2016.
The documents, viewed by Just the News, were turned over by Hunter Biden's former business partner Devon Archer to the House Oversight Committee as part of the Joe Biden impeachment inquiry.
They were not referenced in the data recovered from Hunter Biden's laptop. "What Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were up to is clearer, however, based on the testimony of an ex-partner and emails obtained from the laptop," according to a Just the News report.
"The new evidence shows the major investment plan was being built at the time when Hunter Biden was serving on Burisma's board of directors and Joe Biden was still serving as Barack Obama's vice president in charge of U.S.-Ukraine policy," John Solomon and Steven Richards reported for Just the News on Monday.
The documents show that Hunter Biden was also set to serve on the board of a new company called Burnham Energy Security LLC, that was going to be capitalized in 2015 by Burisma owner Nykola Zlochevsky, who was facing corruption allegations in his home country.
Zlochevsky's top lieutenant, Vadym Pozharskyi, wrote in an August 2015 email that it was important to his boss for Hunter Biden to be involved with Burnham Energy.
"You mentioned to me that it's also you and HB [Hunter Biden] who will be the founders of the Llc in Delaware. Cliff mentioned only yourself,” Pozharskyi wrote Archer in August 2015 in one email obtained by Just the News. “For credibility ‘Ukrainian’ purposes you both would be better."
Another partner, Jason Galanis, testified to Congress that he believed Archer and Hunter Biden were placed on the board to protect the company from Ukrainian investigations and prosecutions.
Pozharskyi also communicated directly with Hunter Biden about the venture. "Burnham Energy Security Fund: we started a legal discussion between our lawyers and legal counsels from your side (through Devon's kind introduction). At the moment, we're working on structure and all related issues," Pozharskyi wrote in an Aug. 12, 2015, email to Hunter Biden and Archer.
That email was sent just a few months after Joe Biden met with Pozharskyi and other Hunter Biden foreign business partners at a dinner at the Cafe Milano restaurant in Washington, D.C., according to evidence released by Congress in the Joe Biden impeachment inquiry.
Nearly 200 documents among the evidence gathered by the FBI in 2016 mentioned Burnham Energy Security LLC (BESL), almost all of them referencing Hunter Biden or his role at the parent firm Burnham Asset Management (BAM).
Galanis testified that he worked with Archer and Hunter Biden to build the Burnham group into a global, multibillion-dollar hedge fund marrying foreign investors with the “globally known political name” Biden.
The plan focused on building global cooperation between prominent investors from all continents, including deals with high-powered oligarchs from Russia and Kazakhstan, Chinese government-linked businessmen, and politically connected Mexican tycoons, among others, Just the News previously reported.
The first event which spelled trouble for the proposed venture was the arrest of Galanis.
In his testimony to Congress earlier this year, Galanis mentioned the proposed Burisma investment in Burnham and how his arrest and subsequent conviction related to it.
"Burnham also reached an agreement with a Ukrainian oligarch, Mykola Zlochevsky, for a $120 million investment into a new Burnham entity. The financial arrangement documented by the U.S. and Ukrainian lawyers laid out a 25 percent profit participation for the Burnham partners," Galanis told the impeachment inquiry.
"The Burnham partners were not required to put up 25% of the capital. Instead, Burnham was putting up the relationship capital of the Biden name in foreign markets like Kazakhstan and Mexico and elsewhere where oil concessions were sought from government," he added. Galanis testified the venture was set to begin with pursuing a production sharing agreement to take over the gas field from the Shell oil company in Eastern Ukraine.
The Burnham plan would eventually fall through after Galanis and Archer were charged in a fraudulent tribal bonds scheme.
Both were ultimately convicted for their role in the scheme. Archer appealed his conviction, and the conviction was overturned and then reinstated. Archer eventually appealed to the Supreme Court, which affirmed the conviction.
Recently, a federal judge ordered Archer to be re-sentenced after he was originally ordered to prison for one year. Archer had argued that a sentencing guidelines calculation error warranted a second look from the judge because of “ineffective assistance of counsel."
Hunter Biden was not charged.
In 2016, attorneys within the SEC’s Enforcement Division investigated the tribal bond scheme and subpoenaed individuals and entities for documents and communications, including Archer and RSB, an entity utilized by Hunter and Archer, Comer and Jordan told Breitbart News.
"Two days after the SEC issued the Archer Subpoena in March 2016, the SEC subpoenaed Hunter, requiring him to provide information concerning Rosemont Seneca Bohai, LLC," according to the report.
In response, Hunter’s counsel asked the commission to treat Hunter’s information with “the highest degree of confidentiality,” citing Hunter’s father as the vice president of the United States, according to Jordan and Comer. The counsel wrote:As a threshold matter, we request that you treat this matter with the highest degree of confidentiality, consistent with Commission policy and applicable law. The confidential nature of this investigation is very important to our client and it would be unfair, not just to our client, but also to his father, the Vice President of the United States, if his involvement in an SEC investigation and parallel criminal probe were to become the subject of any media attention.Galanis told Congress the tribal bonds scheme was executed in order to raise funds for the Burnham enterprises, of which Hunter Biden was a part.
"In an effort to build this financial platform, I engaged in unlawful conduct. Our companies were entrusted with $11 billion of union members' pension fund money, whose trust I betrayed. I pleaded guilty, and I had 8 years in Federal custody to reflect on my actions, and I'm profoundly sorry for my role in these actions," Galanis told congressional investigators in his opening statement.
