White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined to say who bought Hunter Biden’s recently sold stake in a Chinese company – and dismissed whether she now believes the son’s infamous stolen laptop of the president was real.
Psaki visibly restrained himself when the New York Post asked him on Monday who bought Biden’s stake in the Bohai Harvest RST (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company, a private equity firm headquartered in Shanghai.
“The president’s son is not a federal government employee,” Psaki replied.
“Then I will point out its representatives to you. ”
She added: “You can go to the representative of the person who is not an employee of the federal government.” Biden sold his share of the company last month.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki asked on Monday about Hunter Biden’s disengagement from BHR
Hunter Biden was seen in 2010 meeting with Chinese leaders at the offices of the Thornton Group. Hunter had long sought business opportunities in China, and in 2013 he was one of the founders of BHR, a Chinese private equity firm.
The New York Post then asked Psaki if she believed Hunter Biden’s laptop was real, with the reporter referring to a new book published by his colleague Miranda Devine titled The Laptop From Hell.
In October 2020, she tweeted that the claims about the laptop and its contents were “stolen disinformation” – but was significantly less shrill when asked if her position had changed on Monday.
Psaki replied, “Regarding the book, I have neither the time nor the interest to explore or read the book.”
The story of the laptop was first exposed by the New York Post in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. It has been ignored by much of the liberal media and has been defamed as bogus online. Twitter notoriously suspending the Post’s account because of the story.
The company Hunter Biden was related to specializes in making investments and then making them profitable.
He and two other Americans served on the board of directors and controlled 30% of BHR, with the rest of the company owned or controlled by Chinese investors, including the Bank of China, according to files filed with Chinese regulators obtained by The New York Times.
Biden’s involvement in the company has been very controversial, and for months Psaki was asked if he had divested, as President Joe Biden and Hunter had promised.
Hunter Biden, a Harvard-trained attorney who detailed his battles with drug and alcohol addiction, announced in October 2019 that he would step down from BHR’s board of directors due to the scrutiny of the presidential candidacy of his father.
Hunter Biden is seen with his father Joe and his niece Natalie – daughter of Hunter Beau’s late brother – in Nantucket for Thanksgiving
Hunter is seen in Nantucket during the Thanksgiving break with the rest of the family
Hours later that same day, Joe Biden said at a campaign rally in Iowa: “No one in my family will have a White House office, attend meetings as if they were a member of cabinet. , will have, in fact, no business relationship with any person related to a foreign company or a foreign country. Period. Period. End of story. ‘
Yet Hunter then struggled to part with BHR, which was revealed by The New York Times to have played a key role in 2016 in transferring one of the world’s largest sources of cobalt to a Chinese government-backed mining conglomerate.
Chinese records show Biden was no longer on BHR’s board of directors as of April 2020, but he retained his stake in the company long after his father’s inauguration in January 2021.
Psaki has been asked regularly about Biden’s progress on divestment.
In February, Psaki told a White House press briefing: “He has been trying hard to unwind his investment.
“As a private citizen, I would point you to him or his outside lawyers for any updates.”
Asked again in October, Psaki replied, “You should speak to his representatives. That remains his policy. He worked to calm it down.
“Beyond that, I would speak to its representatives.
Last month, Biden’s attorney, Chris Clark, told the New York Times that he “no longer has any interest, directly or indirectly, in BHR or Skaneateles.”
Skaneateles is a Washington-based company through which Biden managed his stake in the company, which is named after the city in upstate New York where his mother Neilia was born.
Hunter Biden was identified as the sole governor of Skaneateles in the company’s latest two-year report submitted to the Washington DC Department of Consumer Affairs and Regulation (DCRA) on October 20 – obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Hunter Biden is seen in the bath in a photo from his infamous laptop
The 51-year-old has been outspoken about his struggles with drugs, alcoholism and prostitution – much of which has been detailed in his laptop
Psaki’s refusal to discuss Biden’s BHR divestiture comes as new report points to potential for corruption in murky art industry – at a time when Hunter exhibits his expensive artwork in galleries sumptuous.
Walter Shaub, who headed the Office of Government Ethics during the Obama administration, highlighted the problem in a tweet on Monday.
“The White House just released a report that said money laundering is a problem in… wait… the art sales industry,” he wrote.
He quoted the report as saying, “The art and antique markets – and the market players who facilitate transactions – are particularly vulnerable to a range of financial crimes.
White House released new report on tackling corruption, including art and land sales
He went on to quote the report, which also indicated that real estate was an area of potential fraud.
“The built-in opacity, the lack of stable and predictable prices and the inherent cross-border transportability of the goods sold make the market optimal for illicit value transfer, evasion of sanctions and corruption,” he said.
Shaub has previously pointed out the potential for conflict to arise for the system the White House has put in place to deal with Hunter’s works.
According to the arrangement, the gallery owner exhibiting Hunter’s work, George Bergès, provides information to White House attorneys ahead of a sale for potential disputes, without revealing to the public who purchased the art.
It is meant to protect the identity of buyers to avoid any potential attempts to influence the administration – although it is still unclear who is spending tens of thousands of dollars on the president’s son’s work.
Hunter has held exhibitions for his work in Los Angeles and New York.
Under a White House arrangement, lawyers will examine buyers of Hunter’s work for potential conflict, but do not release the names to the public.
Hunter Biden has now reinvented himself as an artist
Hunter’s works are exhibited at the Georges Berges Gallery in New York.
Former head of the Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub pointed out the report and the Hunter Biden issue
The George Berges Gallery in New York exhibits the work of Hunter Biden
This fall, after DailyMail.com published photos from Hunter’s chic Los Angeles opening, the New York Post reported that Hunter had sold five prints for $ 75,000 each.
Shaub questioned the ethics of transactions at the time.
“These are legitimate questions,” he said, when Psaki was asked about it and pushed back.
The report, titled United States Anti-Corruption Strategy, discusses art and antiques in its second section, on Combating Illicit Financing.
It is listed under Strategic Objective 2.1: “Addressing Deficiencies in the Anti-Money Laundering Regime”.
