Thursday May 11, 2023
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have accused President Joe Biden's family of making more than $10 million in dubious business deals while he was vice president.
The committee alleged that Biden's son Hunter received $1 million linked to a business deal with a Romanian tycoon while the former vice president managed relations with the country. The deal was allegedly orchestrated by Rob Walker, one of Hunter Biden's business partners.
Republicans on the committee released a detailed report saying Walker began receiving funds from Gabriel Popovicia, a Romanian tycoon, soon after Joe Biden welcomed Romanian President Klaus Iohannis to the White House in 2015. Popoviciu's company in Cyprus, Bladon Enterprises, paid Walker's private company more than $3 million between November 2015 and May 2017.
Republicans alleged that after receiving the money from Bladon, Walker's company deposited over $1 million into accounts belonging to Hunter Biden, Hallie Biden (Hunter's sister-in-law) and James Gilliar (another Hunter business partner). The committee argued that this pattern reflected a previous business deal that Hunter Biden and Walker made with a Chinese energy firm.
After Walker received money from the company in 2017, he paid Gilliar and the Bidens more than $1 million, Republicans said.
James Comer, chairman of the oversight committee, alleged that the Romanian funds were part of more than $10 million that Hunter Biden, his family and business associates received from dealings with foreign entities in China, Ukraine and elsewhere during Joe Biden's stint as vice president in 2009. and 2017. Comer held a press conference and said: "Hunter Biden and his associates have done business in countries that are directly related to Joe Biden's work as vice president. This is not normal and it is not ethical."
Republicans have presented no evidence that Joe Biden directly benefited from or knew about the trade deals and money transfers. However, they believed that he must have been aware of all the companies that Hunter and his associates had set up to do business.
Republican Representative Byron Reynolds said: "No one in this room can logically sit here and say that the President of the United States had no idea that these companies were created while he was Vice President of the United States."
Biden has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing regarding his son's actions and defended Hunter's business tactics. "My son has done nothing wrong. I trust him. I believe in him," he said last week.
