volkswagen sbu

What is the full story of the Biden family’s involvement with the Ukraine?

Hunter Biden’s adventures in China caught the attention of intelligence services within the pro-Russian government in Ukraine. Russia’s control over Ukraine was in flux as Viktor Yanukovych, the Russian-backed president, was forced into exile in Russia. Yanukovych’s Deputy Secretary for Economic and Social Security on the National Security and Defense Council, Mykola Zlochevsky controlled Burisma Holdings, the largest oil, and gas company in Ukraine and was under intense scrutiny by investigators in the European Union and from the new anti-Russian Ukrainian government. The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU) had a vested interest in ensuring that any and all investigations into Zlochevsky ended favorably as Burisma was one of Russia’s last sources of power and influence in Ukraine. At some point, it was suggested that Zlochevsky expand Burisma’s board of directors to include various influential and connected Westerners including the sons of the vice president and secretary of state. The hope was that the European Union and the new Ukrainian government would be reluctant to implicate their allies in the west. President Obama tasked Vice President Biden with supporting the Ukrainian effort to rid themselves of Russian control and influence. This put the vice president in a uniquely powerful position and made his son a very sought after asset of influence. Before his son joined the board of Burisma, the largest private oil and gas company in Ukraine, Biden knew that the company and it’s founder Mykola Zlochevsky were the target of anti-corruption activities by the new Ukrainian government. Zlochevsky was under investigation for money laundering, tax evasion, corruption of his public office, and more than $5 billion of his assets were frozen in the EU, London, and in Ukraine. The billionaire was placed on Ukraine’s ‘most wanted’ list, but was assisted by the Russian GRU in his escape and was living in exile in Europe and Russia when he invited Hunter, Chris, and Devon to join his board. It is common in Eastern Europe to hire relatives of powerful people in order to help a company’s image  and the sons of the United States vice president and secretary of state fit the bill. Ultimately Zlochevsky offered Biden and his partners almost five million dollars to join the Burisma board of directors. The size of the compensation package should have concerned Biden and his partners because the typical board compensation package is significantly more modest—around $50,000 a year. Zlochevsky’s offer was more than $83,000 per MONTH for each director. This lucrative package was designed to reflect the value Zlochevsky placed on clearing his name and freeing up more than $5 billion of his frozen assets. The Russian GRU was confident that Biden would accept the deal but was less certain that the secretary of state’s son would be as accepting. They were right. Christopher Heinz, Secretary of State John Kerry’s stepson, was unwilling to trade his father’s influence for a few million dollars. In fact, he was so uncomfortable with Zlochevsky’s offer that he reported the offer to the United States Department of State and ended his partnership with Hunter Biden. Hunter, on the other hand, given his recent discharge from the Navy and a very similar deal with China, determined the reward was worth the risk. Hunter would eventually receive more than $1.7 million from Burisma. Ironically, both President Obama and European Union anti-corruption advocates encouraged the vice president to counsel his son against getting involved with Zlochevsky. Against their advice, Biden gave his son the green light to join the Burisma board. In an attempt to ease President Obama’s concerns Biden dispatched Obama’s recently departed Deputy Assistant Attorney General, John Buretta, to represent Burisma and Zlochevsky in an effort to remove the company and the billionaire from the anti-corruption advocate’s crosshairs. Buretta was partially successful as he was able to convince the district court in Kyiv to vacate Zlochevsky’s criminal conviction for issuing oil and gas licenses to his own companies while he was the Ecology Minister from 2010 to 2012. However, he was less successful in getting Ukraine to drop the other criminal and tax evasion investigations into Burisma and Zlochevsky. Officials in the Obama administration remained concerned and kept tabs on the Biden’s involvement with Burisma. Years later when Vice President Biden was asked about his son’s involvement with Burisma and Zlochevsky he claimed he had never discussed the company or the billionaire with anyone. The truth is that President Obama, State Department officials, and anti-corruption advocates each had all attempted to convince the vice president to keep his son away from Burisma and Zlochevsky. In fact, since his father’s denials, even Hunter has admitted discussing the Burisma with his father. Buretta was only partially successful primarily because the Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was doggedly pursuing Burisma and Zlochevsky. The Russian GRU was applying maximum pressure on Shokin and his staff, but Shokin was unwilling to stand down. Despite claiming to this day that he never knew that Shokin was investigating his son’s company, the vice president publicly bragged about blackmailing the Ukrainian president to fire Shokin. During a videotaped talk Biden gave at the Council of Foreign Relations the vice president goes into detail how he threatened to withhold a billion dollars in aid if Shokin wasn’t fired within six hours—the scheduled departure time of his flight with Hunter on Air Force 2. According to sworn testimony by Viktor Shokin, the vice president had asked the Ukrainian president on multiple occasions to close the investigation into Burisma and Zlochevsky. Biden’s final threat to withhold a billion dollars in aid was successful and Shokin was forced to resign. The new prosecutor dropped all of the charges against Burisma and Zlochevsky and unfroze their assets. Within a year of hiring Hunter Biden to join his company’s board Zlochevsky’s fortunes had changed drastically. He was removed from Ukraine’s most wanted list, $5 billion of his assets were unfrozen, and he was free to return to Kyiv to live a billionaire lifestyle. On the other hand, the former prosecutor that Biden had fired still lives in the same middle-class neighborhood he grew up in and drives the same five-year-old Volkswagen he’s been driving for years. The prosecutor who replaced Shokin was driven to work in a brand new Bentley (albeit with a ding in the windshield) and vacations in his dacha located on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, Russia. Most recently recordings of calls between John Kerry, Joe Biden, and former Ukrainian President Poroshenko were leaked (transcript at the end of this chapter). These recordings show that Biden was well aware that Shokin was innocent of corruption and that the only reason he was being removed was to help Zlochevsky at Biden’s request. While many of the details of Vice President Biden’s involvement with Hunter’s adventures in China are still unreported by the media, the broad strokes of his involvement with Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine are well known in the media. Most worrisome is the fact that the Russian FSB and GRU as well as the Ukrainian SBU have closely monitored both Bidens in their interactions with anyone and everyone related to Mykola Zlochevsky. Both intelligence organizations likely have the fullest picture and there is little doubt they will leverage their knowledge. Transcript of phone call between then-Vice President Joe Biden and then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in 2016: Petro Poroshenko: (00:00) Yesterday, I met with the general prosecutor, Shokin. Joe Biden: (00:04) Yes. Petro Poroshenko: (00:04) And despite of the fact that we didn’t have any corruption charges, we don’t have any information about him doing something wrong, I especially asked him … No, it was the day before yesterday. I especially asked him to resign in his position as a state person, and despite of the fact that he has support in the public, and as a finish of my meeting with him, he promised me to give me the statement of his resignation, and one hour ago he bring me the written statement of his resignation. Joe Biden: (01:06) Great. Petro Poroshenko: (01:10) This is my second step for keeping my promises. Joe Biden: (01:15) I agree. Speaker 4: (01:17) [inaudible 00:01:17] Poroshenko? Petro Poroshenko: (01:17) Yes? Speaker 4: (01:21) One moment for Vice President Biden. Speaker 4: (01:31) Introducing President Poroshenko. Joe Biden: (01:35) Hey, Mr. President. Joe Biden. How are you? Petro Poroshenko: (01:38) Very well indeed. All the time when I hear your voice- Joe Biden: (01:41) Good. Petro Poroshenko: (01:42) It’s a great pleasure for me. Joe Biden: (01:45) Well, I’m on Air Force Two, and I think we’re going to stay connected. We just took off and I’m hoping this connection with stay open … Tell me that there is a new government, and a new Prosecutor General. I am prepared to do a public signing of the commitment for the billion dollars. Again, I’m not suggesting that’s what you want or don’t want, I’m just suggesting that’s what we’re prepared to do, and again, it wouldn’t be finalized until the IMF pieces are written. Petro Poroshenko: (02:28) Extremely strong motivation. One of the possible candidates was leader of my fraction, Lutsenko, who is the public figure. If you think that the political motivated figure would be not very good, from your point of view, I recall this proposal and I do not propose, because nobody knows that I want to propose Lutsenko. In this situation I take all the political motivated figures out from this process. Joe Biden: (02:57) All right. Well, look, let me, when you and I finish speaking let me huddle with my team, talk over what you and I just talked about. I agree with you, there is a sense of urgency here. Joe Biden: (03:15) Hey, Mr. President. Joe Biden. How are you? Petro Poroshenko: (03:18) Very well indeed, as usual when I hear your voice. Thank you very much. Joe Biden: (03:23) Well, you are doing very well. Congratulations on getting the new prosecutor general. I know there’s a lot more of that that has to be done, but I really, I really think that’s good, and I understand your working with the Rada in the coming days on a number of additional laws to secure the IMF, but congratulations on installing the new prosecutor general. It’s going to be critical for him to work quickly to repair the damage Shokin did, and I’m a man of my word, and now that the new prosecutor general is in place we’re ready to move forward in signing that new one billion dollar loan guarantee. I don’t know how you want to go about that? I’m not going to be able to get to Kiev anytime soon, I mean, in the next month or so, and I don’t know whether you could either sign it with our ambassador, or if you came here we could sign it, or if you want, we’re inviting Groysman here later, I’m going to be talking to him later this morning, not for that purpose, we’re inviting him to Washington, and so it’s, I’ll leave it up to you as to how you want that done and when you want it done. Petro Poroshenko: (04:40) First of all, thank you very much indeed for these words of support. Believe me that it was a very tough challenge, and a very difficult job, and Mrs. Tymoshenko and Mr. Lyahsko fraction tried to break this, because we not only voted for the new prosecutor general, which we do in a very short period of time, within one day we changed the law. By the way, in this law we’re presenting the new structure of the General Prosecutor Office, including the general inspection, as we agreed to do. Joe Biden: (05:22) Yes, that’s brilliant. Petro Poroshenko: (05:22) And the second thing, I immediately invited Lutsenko and said that he should contact your embassy, and I would be very pleased if you will have a certain person who can come either from Washington or whatever. We have here, I don’t remember his name, the Ukrainian origin American prosecutor. He is a little bit old. I sent to the, Jeffery his name, and he was ready to come and to be assistant and advisor. Joe Biden: (06:01) Got it. Petro Poroshenko: (06:01) He has very good experience in the American system, and he can be the person of trust with the new prosecution system. I think this is exactly the right time to do that, and if he’s still ready to come and to cooperate from the very first step, from the very first meeting of the new prosecutor, that is exactly what I’m looking for. Joe Biden: (06:25) Well, let me get in contact with the Justice Department and pursue that. I’ll get his name, and let me find out where that is, because it is in our interest obviously to provide professional assistance as quick as we can so this gets up and started in the right direction. So I will move on that as soon as we hangup. I’ll put that in train and I’ll get back to you as to what we, what I’m able to do. Petro Poroshenko: (06:52) Excellent. The second thing … Thank you very much indeed, this is exactly what I’m looking for. The second thing is that I want to thank you that you gave me your word that immediately when we change legislation and I appoint the new prosecutor general, and it would be Yuriy Lutsenko was we agreed in our previous meeting in Washington, and when it happened we can have this loan guarantee, and thank you very much …