Chinese firm still lists Hunter as part owner, despite President Biden divestment assurance

Despite divestment assurances from President Joe Biden and lawyers, Hunter Biden was revealed to still be listed as part-owner of a Chinese firm on Tuesday.

Chris Clark, an attorney representing Hunter Biden, had said in November that Biden “no longer holds any interest, directly or indirectly, in either BHR or Skaneateles.” At the time, business records indicated that the younger Biden was still the only governor of the LLC Skaneateles.

Now, the Washington Examiner has pointed to China’s National Credit Information Publicity System that shows Skaneateles maintains its 10 percent stake in BHR in their business records.

According to the Washington, D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA), the last filing for Skaneateles was Oct. 20, 2021. That two-year report indicated Biden remained the only governor of Skaneateles, demonstrating the continued connection to the Chinese firm.

Furthermore, DCRA’s business registry lists Skaneateles’ status as “revoked” for failure to pay a $300 “reinstatement fee.” Neither Clark nor George Mesires, another attorney for Biden, responded to inquiries on the matter and the White House instructed investigators to speak with Biden’s attorneys.

Hunter Biden, who was removed from the list of members in April 2020, was among the board of founders of BHR in 2013 and acquired his 10 percent stake through his Skaneateles LLC in 2017 at a value nearing $420,000. Mesires claimed that Biden received no compensation for his time on the board.

However, emails from one of Biden’s business associates, Eric Schwerin, had indicated a significant windfall for BHR after they sold their stake in CATL, a Chinese battery manufacturer. The nature of BHR’s dealing with CATL led to an investigation that revealed a broad network of interconnected companies and subsidiaries.

Peter Schweizer has been at the forefront of unraveling these business deals and called the $420,000 stake in BHR “absurd.” Schweizer communicated with Steven Kaplan from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and the researcher agreed.

“It is difficult to imagine, if not incomprehensible, that a 10% stake in those economics is worth only $420K,” Kaplan said via email. “The distinction they appear to be making is they capitalized the management company with $42.M even if the fund manages $2B. The value of that management company is likely far in excess of $4.2M if they are managing $2B.”

BHR was also invested in Megvii, a Chinese facial recognition company sanctioned by the U.S. in 2019 after allegations of involvement of “China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.”

Special Presidential Envoy John Kerry was also revealed to have a stake in a Chinese firm dealing with facial recognition software used against the Uyghurs. This is of particular note as Kerry’s stepson, Chris Heinz was a longtime business partner of Biden.

President Biden had promised on the campaign trail, “No one in my family will have an office in the White House, will sit in on meetings as if they are a cabinet member, will, in fact, have any business relationship with anyone that relates to a foreign corporation or a foreign country. Period. Period. End of story.”