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President Biden’s younger brother, James, confirmed during his impeachment inquiry testimony that a $40,000 check made out to President Biden in 2017 used funds that came from a Chinese company with ties to the nation’s communist government.
James Biden, 74, told House investigators that he did not believe the company, CEFC China Energy, was controlled by the Chinese government. Instead, he claimed that he “misspoke” when he told an IRS agent in 2022 that Hunter Biden, who was partnering with his uncle, had described CEFC executive Ye Jianming as a “protégé” of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Where did you believe the source of the money that was going into (Hunter Biden’s company) Owasco, prior to being sent to you, was coming from?” one House investigator asked the president’s brother during the February 21 interview, according to a report from the New York Post.
Paul Fishman, an attorney for James Biden, attempted to argue that “money’s fungible” before being reminded by a House staffer that the president’s brother “did not have sufficient funds” to make the $40,000 payment to his brother, which has been described by the White House as a “loan repayment.”
The interview also confirmed that James Biden received a total of $840,000 over four wire transfers made between November 2022 and July 2023. The payments came from Argentinian businessman Jose Luis Manzano, who allegedly decided to sell half his stake in Manzano’s holding of Argentinian natural gas company Metrogas, the First Brother claimed.
“It was sweat equity, mainly, in dealing with him in terms of his other ventures,” James Biden told investigators, adding that Manzano asked him to approach Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim about investing in 4G in Argentina.
Manzano was also “at one point” in discussions about working with CEFC.
The Biden family’s lucrative relationship with CEFC has been under the microscope since the first trove of emails from Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop were released by the New York Post in 2020. The partnership ended in 2018, when CEFC chairman Ye Jianming disappeared after being accused of corruption in China.
Ye’s firm is widely believed to have been part of China’s “Belt and Road” initiative, through which Beijing builds infrastructure and controls markets in developing nations in order to gain political control.
The president’s brother also detailed other business ventures, some of which involved foreign nationals. James told the committee that around the time, he used a $200,000 loan from struggling rural hospital chain Americore to repay funds from another alleged loan to Joe Biden in 2018. “I was looking for investments from Qatar, again, in infrastructure projects. They were building hotels in Miami,” he said.
The alleged loan repayment from James Biden to his brother has become a major point of interest in the House impeachment inquiry. Republicans have cited it as evidence that President Biden benefited from the overseas business ventures of his relatives, something the White House has repeatedly denied.
Previously released bank records revealed that the bank account used by James Biden to wire the $40,000 alleged loan repayment to his brother had just $46.88 before receiving a $50,000 deposit just days before on August 28, 2017.
The $50,000 had come from funds withdrawn from the James Biden-owned entity Lion Hall Group, which had received a $150,000 wire from Owasco on August 14. That account had just $2,000 in it prior to the infusion from Owasco.
James Biden further testified that he scouted out potential natural gas investments for CEFC along the Gulf Coast, adding that none of the deals ever came to fruition. Both James and Hunter Biden netted millions from the venture, however.
President Biden himself has been accused of having direct knowledge of and benefited from his family’s business dealings, including those with CEFC. Former Biden family business partner Rob Walker testified in January that he netted roughly $3 million from the CEFC partnership, about a third of which went to the Bidens.
He also testified that President Biden held a meeting with Ye Jianming in 2017.
