Hunter Biden suspicious activity reports can now be reviewed by House GOP Oversight Committee
Jerry Dunleavy
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A top Republican investigator announced the Treasury Department will allow his committee to review suspicious activity bank reports generated by Hunter Biden and his associates.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, had spent much of 2022, when he was ranking member, and early 2023, when he obtained the gavel, repeatedly pushing Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to hand over the suspicious bank reports linked to Biden family businesses, as he argued that the Treasury Department’s meager responses continued to block his efforts to get answers on the financial transactions of President Joe Biden’s son linked to China, Russia, and elsewhere.
HUNTER BIDEN BUSINESS ASSOCIATES HAVE BANK RECORDS SUBPOENAED
The Treasury Department only relented after Comer threatened to schedule a public hearing focused on Yellen’s intransigence and after the Republican chairman ordered a now-postponed transcribed interview with Treasury Department assistant secretary for legislative affairs Jonathan Davidson. The committee can now review the suspicious activity reports “in camera,” meaning behind closed doors.
“After two months of dragging their feet, the Treasury Department is finally providing us with access to the suspicious activity reports for the Biden family and their associates’ business transactions,” Comer said Tuesday. “It should never have taken us threatening to hold a hearing and conduct a transcribed interview with an official under the penalty of perjury for Treasury to finally accommodate part of our request. For over 20 years, Congress had access to these reports, but the Biden administration changed the rules out of the blue to restrict our ability to conduct oversight.”
Comer had asked that Yellen hand over “all SARs generated in connection with” Hunter Biden, his uncle James Biden, the younger Biden’s business partners (including Eric Schwerin and Devon Archer), and his businesses. Comer also asked Treasury to provide any Financial Crimes Enforcement Network records tied to any banks related to Hunter Biden, James Biden, and others.
It was also revealed this week that the Republican chairman recently subpoenaed Bank of America for access to the bank records of Hunter Biden business associate Rob Walker and others.
Hunter Biden controversially held a lucrative position on the board of Ukrainian energy giant Burisma while his father was vice president. The president’s son also pursued business deals in China and elsewhere during and after his father’s tenure as vice president, raking in millions thanks to these associations.
Comer added on Tuesday that “according to bank documents we’ve already obtained, we know one company owned by a Biden associate received a $3 million wire from a Chinese energy company two months after Joe Biden left the vice presidency” and that “soon after, hundreds of thousands of dollars in payouts went to members of the Biden family.”
The renewed push for access to the suspicious activity records came after a Washington Examiner investigation in 2022 found Hunter Biden disclosed in text messages to a woman named Eva, the go-between who served as his primary point of contact for the UberGFE escort service, that his accounts were frozen temporarily after his attempted payments to her “girls,” who had Russian-linked email accounts, raised a “red flag” with his bank.
“We are going to continue to use bank documents and suspicious activity reports to follow the money trail to determine the extent of the Biden family’s business schemes, if Joe Biden is compromised by these deals, and if there is a national security threat,” Comer said Tuesday. “If Treasury tries to stonewall our investigation again, we will continue to use tools at our disposal to compel compliance.”
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Hunter Biden and his associated businesses received at least $5 million in payments from Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC in 2017 and 2018, and CEFC deputy Patrick Ho also agreed to pay Hunter Biden a $1 million retainer. Hunter referred to Ho as “the f***ing spy chief of China” in a May 11, 2018, voice recording.
Ho was sentenced to three years in prison in March 2019 for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He was deported to Hong Kong in June 2021 after serving his sentence.
U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware is running a criminal investigation into Hunter Biden.