President Joe Biden’s brother does not have any documentation to back up his claim that payments he and his wife made to his brother in 2017 and 2018 were loan repayments, a source familiar with James Biden’s closed-door testimony on Wednesday told National Review.
James Biden testified in his opening statement that although his brother provided short-term loans, he was not involved in and did not benefit from his family’s business dealings, which are the main focus of the Republican impeachment inquiry into the president.
James Biden said he repaid his brother within weeks when he obtained the money to pay him back. His brother also did not charge him interest on the loans James Biden said he provided, according to the source.
James Biden testified that he called a law firm to obtain money for the loans from his brother’s bank account. He said he didn’t know if the money came from Joe Biden’s personal account or from CelticCapri, the president’s corporation, according to the source.
In 2017 and 2018, James Biden and his wife, Sara, then wrote two checks to Joe Biden for a total of $240,000. The checks were classified as loan repayments, though critics of the president have suggested that they show that Joe Biden benefited from the foreign business deals.
“The Committees have asked about those loans from my brother. They were short-term loans that I received from Joe when he was a private citizen, and I repaid them within weeks,” James Biden said. “He had no information at all about the source of the funds I used to repay him. The complete explanation is that Joe lent me money, and I repaid him as soon as I had the funds to do so.”
Sara Biden wrote a $40,000 check in September 2017 to Joe Biden from her and her husband’s personal bank account. Before she sent it, their personal account received a $50,000 cash infusion from their business account, bank records show.
Sara and James Biden’s business account received $150,000 from Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, shortly after he transferred $400,000 into his own business account. The funds to Hunter Biden came from Hudson West III, the joint venture Hunter and James Biden set up in August 2017 with Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC.
Before the Hudson West III agreement, CEFC, the Bidens and their business associates negotiated a proposal known as “SinoHawk” that was supposed to launched with $10 million of seed capital, former business partner Tony Bobulinski testified earlier this month.
James Biden also testified that Hunter Biden received a diamond from CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming during Joe Biden’s vice presidency and another one in February 2017, the source familiar told National Review. James Biden denied participating in the “SinoHawk” deal until he was shown his signature on a business agreement. Afterwards, he changed his story to say he could not recall signing the agreement.
James Biden characterized Bobulinski as a bully and disgruntled business partner upset about the Hudson West III deal. Bobulinski contested this characterization when he testified.
The second check in question is connected to James Biden’s business dealings with defunct rural hospital provider Americore. James Biden made his brother central to his pitch to Americore and even floated adding him to its board, Politico reported Sunday based on interviews, internal documents, court filings and other public records.
On March 1, 2018, Americore wired James Biden $200,000 and he proceeded to write his brother a $200,000 check on the same day. A complaint filed against James Biden by U.S. Trustee Carol Fox classifies the $200,000 payment and another $400,000 payment from Americore as loans.
Fox testified in December and could not specify James Biden’s role at Americore. The firm wired Biden an additional $10,000 in June 2018 for consulting and marketing purposes. Fox told lawmakers she could not find documentation of any consulting or marketing agreement between Americore and James Biden.
During his testimony, James Biden disputed Fox’s characterization of the $600,000 payments from Americore and listed the services he provided for the company. He noted that he eventually agreed to a settlement and paid back $350,000 of the Americore money.
However, James Biden does not seem to have paid back substantial loans given to him by other business associates. Michael Lewitt, a former Americore associate being investigated for fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission, loaned James Biden $225,000 and forgave the entire sum.
Similarly, former Biden fundraiser Joseph Langston loaned James Biden $800,000 and only got half the money back, Langston testified, a source familiar told National Review. Langston was sentenced in 2008 to three years of prison time for conspiring to bribe a judge in Mississippi. James Biden also still owes $100,000 of a $900,000 loan from longtime Biden associate John Hynansky.
James Biden defended the CEFC venture and his business dealings with Americore in his opening statement. He insisted Joe Biden and his name had no influence over his business dealings with either company.