James Biden Told FBI He Tried to Help Chinese Official Buy US Facility: Memo
The president's brother courted the Chinese energy firm in a 'life-changing' deal to sell them a gas facility.
By Catherine Yang
9/27/2023
Updated:
9/28/2023
James Biden told the FBI he had presented Chinese investors with a deal to develop a port in Louisiana and when he was interviewed as part of an investigation last year. The Chinese ultimately did not go through with the deal.
The report of the interview was made available after the Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee voted on Wednesday to release a new batch of documents obtained through two IRS whistleblowers.
"James B. recalled that the life-changing meeting was the deal with Monkey Island," the memo reads (pdf).
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IRS special agent Joseph Ziegler, one of the whistleblowers, had been present at the interview and prepared the report along with IRS special agent Christine Puglisi.
Mr. Biden explained in the interview that he had a close personal relationship with his nephew, and his business relationship consisted of minor ventures, beginning when Hunter Biden asked him for hedge fund recommendations after joining a law firm straight out of Yale Law.
Monkey Island Deal
According to the interview Mr. Biden gave in 2022, he was introduced to the Chinese energy firm CEFC by Hunter Biden in 2017.An executive of the firm, Jianming Ye, referred to as "Chairman Ye" in the memo, had "a very close relationship" with Hunter Biden, and Hunter Biden portrayed him as a "protégé of President Xi" to Mr. Biden.
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Monkey Island is a liquid natural gas company that has a 246-acre site in Louisiana, about two miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico.
Mr. Biden said that there was room for a port to be developed, and properties were pre-approved in the project, and the island had a clear passage to offload natural gas. He approached Mr. Ye with the opportunity to buy that energy facility from Monkey Island's CEO, Greg Michaels.
In the interview, Mr. Biden said he had spoken with the appropriate people in the governor's office about permits and the deal was supposed to be on a "fast track." Drills would be built in China and shipped to the port.
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He said he had brought the deal to both Hunter Biden and Chairman Ye, and "the Chairman was committed to the project," according to the memo. "James B recalled that Chairman Ye was also sending his people to look at Monkey Island."
But later, after months of negotiation, the relationship with CEFC had begun to "unravel" for other reasons, and the Chinese investors became uncommunicative and dropped the deal, Mr. Biden told the FBI. No deal was signed, and he was not provided with an explanation.
Money From China
President Joe Biden has repeatedly claimed, including while he was campaigning for the presidency in 2020, that his family has not received money from China.According to the FBI interview memo, James Biden said the Chinese energy firm was paying Hunter Biden and his business partner Rob Walker "several hundreds of thousands of dollars." James Biden said he was not paid by CEFC, but was paid by Hunter Biden through Owasco PC.
He told the FBI he did not remember a 2017 payment from Mr. Walker after they showed him a text sent to him by Mr. Walker referencing it in 2017. He said any money paid by Mr. Walker would have been on the behalf of Hunter Biden.
James Biden also said that Hunter Biden had told him he was making $100,000 from the Hudson West III deal formed with Mr. Ye's CEFC, and that he would pay James Biden $60,000 and additional fees. He also said he was still getting paid even after the Monkey Island deal fell through, and he was no longer sourcing deals.
By 2017, Hunter Biden was struggling with addiction amid his divorce. James Biden said he thought his nephew's only source of income at the time was money from the Chinese. Then, in 2018, he was informed Mr. Ye had been arrested.
Other documents released by the House committee include an email Hunter Biden sent Chinese business partners in 2017 about the Hudson West III deal. He had written (pdf) that the initial agreement with Mr. Ye was for $30 million in consulting fees over three years "based on introductions" he would make and that they had changed this to a "much more lasting and lucrative arrangement" to create a holding company they would each take 50 percent stake in.
The company was dissolved in 2018 after Mr. Ye's arrest and the conviction of another CEFC official.
The Biden family's financial dealings are being investigated by several Republican-led House committees. Hunter Biden has already been indicted on felony gun charges but is not facing any charges for tax crimes.
