Chinese company that Hunter Biden invested in may have profited from a brutal, deadly crackdown at an African mine
01/03/2020 / By JD Heyes
As the 2020 presidential election cycle intensifies, the hits just keep on comin’ for former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
As President Trump defends himself from a bogus impeachment led by Democrats who claim he ‘abused his office’ by threatening to withhold military aid from Ukraine, most rational, clear-thinking Americans know that in reality, it was Joe Biden as President Obama’s point man for that country who actually threatened Kiev’s leaders.
And why? Because a Ukrainian prosecutor was investigating corruption allegedly linked to a company — Burisma Holdings — in which Hunter Biden was serving as a board member for something like $83,000 per month. That’s great work if you can find it.
But Hunter’s problems don’t start and end in Ukraine. In fact, new evidence has emerged linking him to a Chinese company that invested in a Congolese mine which became the site of massive human rights violations and at least one death.
The Washington Free Beacon reported:
Biden, son of Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden, joined the board of Chinese investment firm BHR in 2013, while his father served as vice president. He purchased a 10 percent stake in the company in 2017 and maintained that stake even after he resigned from the board in October.
Among BHR’s investments was the largest cobalt and copper mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Tenke Fungurume mine, where the Congolese military in June executed a brutal crackdown on illegal mining viewed as a threat to the mine’s bottom line.
After that initial crackdown, the Congolese military has burned houses and targeted dissent in the region, which drew the attention of — and complaints from — human rights organizations.
“Given the long history of excessive use of force by the Congolese army and its lack of appropriate training in managing public order, the DRC government must immediately withdraw its armed forces from the mines to avert unlawful killings,” said Amnesty International spokeswoman Sarah Jackson in a statement.
Agence France Presse added that the violence reached a peak in August when the military shot and killed a woman.
Foreign corruption is the only thing in DC that’s bipartisan
In September, BHR finalized the sale of its share in the mine to a different Chinese firm, which netted the company $1.1 billion. Hunter Biden’s legal team has said that BHR shares have not yet paid any dividends, but nevertheless, he will benefit financially upon selling those shares, the Free Beacon reported.
This isn’t the only Chinese firm in which Hunter Biden has invested or otherwise had dealings with, in addition to his VP father. (Related: Ukrainian lawmaker reveals Joe Biden was paid $900K in laundered “lobbying fees” while son Hunter made millions as “adviser” to corrupt gas company.)
As NewsTarget reports, investigative author Peter Schweizer in October documented what he says is a pattern of multi-year corruption by the Bidens, both in Ukraine and in China, calling on the federal government to investigate and, if evidence is found, to indict the former VP.
“In December 2013, Joe and Hunter Biden flew aboard Air Force Two to China; less than two weeks after the trip, Hunter’s firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners, which he founded with two other businessmen in June 2013, finalized a deal to open a fund, BHR Partners, whose largest shareholder is the government-run Bank of China, even though he had scant background in private equity,” Schweizer wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times.
The same was true for Burisma, which is an energy company; before becoming a board member, Hunter had no experience in the energy industry.
For the record, its not just the Bidens, either, whom Schweizer has exposed. He noted that President Trump’s transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, and her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have also been accused of profiting from commercial ties with firms in China (Chao is Taiwanese).
The point is, says Schweizer, there should be a law against such self-enrichment by politicians. But since they have to pass one, fat chance.
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Tagged Under: 2020 election, bribery, business dealings, China, Congo, Congolese army, corruption, deep state, democrats, Elaine Chao, fraud, Hunter Biden, investment firm, Joe Biden, kickbacks, mine, Mitch McConnell, Peter Schweizer, Rosemont Seneca Partners, Ukraine
