Joe and Hunter Biden's commingling of finances shows no 'absolute wall' of separation

With the release of the latest Hunter Biden bank records, there is increasing evidence—both direct and circumstantial— that first son commingled his finances with President Joe Biden during his time in and out of the White House.

Hunter Biden’s lawyer—Abbe Lowell—on Monday pushed back on new House Oversight Committee evidence showing Hunter Biden sent direct payments to his father from a business account. Yet, Lowell’s explanation for the payments does not address questions about the origin of the funds or about the possible flow of foreign funds between son and father.

The House Oversight Committee released new bank records from Hunter Biden that show a recurring $1380 payment from his Owasco PC business account to Joe Biden. The first recorded payment, on September 17, 2018, coincided with what is likely one of Hunter Biden’s final payments from Hudson West III, a joint venture he started with Chinese energy tycoon Ye Jianming.

House Republicans are expressing concerns about alleged commingling of funds between Hunter Biden’s business and Joe Biden’s personal accounts.

“[He] was paying his Father, we have direct evidence of checks, Hunter Biden paid to his father from Owasco. And that money came directly from China, we've linked it to the CCP. Joe Biden claims that this was loan repayment. Everybody knows what this is,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., told John Solomon Reports podcast on Tuesday.

“It is literally the most simplest form of money laundering. And it's all because he's spelling out his father's influence,” she continued.

Records released last week from House Oversight showed that a major bank had concerns that money flowing from China to the Biden family resembled money laundering and may have been connected to an effort by the communist government to gain influence with Joe Biden through his son.

Some lawmakers said the transactions could also raise issues involving taxes.

“I think that the commingling of the corporate accounts and the personal accounts is going to raise issues with the IRS," Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., told "Just the News, No Noise" TV show on Tuesday night. "And with you know, you have the banks issuing red flags on the Biden's to the degree that if you asked your local banker, if they had 100 red flags on an account like the Biden family has, over the years, what would that tell you about the activities that they were engaged in?”

“I think your local banker would agree that there's some corruption. At the very least, the commingling of the funds, would raise concerns with the IRS and potentially put make you eligible for some liability there,” he continued.

In a statement, Hunter Biden’s attorney pushed back on the House Republicans’ characterization of the $1,380 payments, suggesting they were reimbursement to his father for a Ford Raptor truck that his son was using during a period of financial struggles.

“There Chairman Comer goes again - reheating what is old as new to try to revive his sham of an investigation,” Abbe Lowell said in a statement, according to the Washington Post. “The truth is Hunter’s father helped him when he was struggling financially due to his addiction and could not secure credit to finance a truck. When Hunter was able to, he paid his father back and took over the payments himself.”

But, as Just the News reported, the funds that Hunter Biden used to reimburse his father came directly from Hudson West III, a joint venture he had established with former Chinese energy tycoon Ye Jianming. Lowell did not address this.

Even Hunter Biden’s bank appeared to be concerned about the commingling of funds between personal and business accounts and the source of the funds.

Shortly before Hunter Biden sent the first payment to his father, the Wells Fargo corporate compliance team inquired about the significant money flows between Hudson West III and Owasco PC around the same period, Just the News reported yesterday, according to an email obtained from Hunter Biden’s laptop. The team specifically inquired about the use of Owasco PC funds for personal expenses.

“The accounts for Owasco PC and Owasco appear to fund primarily personal expenses — what is the purpose of the accounts?” the compliance team asked, through one of Hunter Biden’s investment managers.

You can read that email below:

Joe Biden also received at least one other payment from funds transferred to the Biden family through the same Hudson West III joint venture, according to a document released by the House Oversight Committee early last month.

Hunter Biden sent a $150,000 wire to Lion Hall Group, a company owned by Joe Biden’s brother, James Biden, and his sister-in-law, Sara Biden. Sara Biden then withdrew $50,000 in cash and deposited it into the couple’s personal bank account. One week later, Sara Biden sent a $40,000 check to Joe Biden labeled “loan repayment.”

The funds from this check came from a $5 million loan from Northern International Capitol Holdings (HK) Limited, a firm tied to CEFC China Energy and Ye Jianming, to Hudson West III—which was established as a joint venture with the Bidens and Ye Jianming’s funding, House Oversight said.

This transaction was flagged by money laundering investigators, who labeled the entity as “high risk,” Just the News reported last week. The investigators also expressed concerns about the lack of documentation for the loan and the erratic nature of payments to the Hudson West III accounts.

Neither the White House nor Hunter Biden’s attorney responded to requests for comment from Just the News.

These payments are not the only evidence that Joe and Hunter Biden were commingling their finances, at times even using Hunter Biden’s business infrastructure to organize payments. Several such transactions and arrangements were reported by Just the News in April 2022 and show payments sent back and forth between father and son.

In one of the earliest instances, in 2010, Hunter Biden and his partner Eric Schwerin at Rosemont Seneca assisted the White House with documents for Joe Biden's tax returns after his first year in office. After facilitating this, the younger Biden and Schwerin then decided to divert the vice president’s Delaware tax return into Hunter Biden’s accounts in June of 2010.

“I am depositing it in his account and writing a check in that amount back to you since he owes it to you," Schwerin wrote in June 2010 about Joe Biden's tax refund. "Don't think I need to run it by him, but if you want to go ahead.”

About one month later, Schwerin sent another email entitled “JRB bills”—using Joseph Robinette Biden’s initials. In the email, Schwerin listed a series of expenses from Joe Biden's lakefront home in Wilmington, Del., that Hunter Biden had paid.

The expenses included $1,239 for air conditioner repairs at "mom-mom's cottage," and another $1,475 to paint the "back wall and columns at the lake house." There was also a $475 payment "for shutters" and $2,600 for building or repairing a "stone retaining wall at the lake.”

Additionally, there is circumstantial evidence that Hunter Biden at least intended to provide benefits to his father through his business deals.

In October 2020, the New York Post published a story citing a bombshell email it obtained from Hunter Biden’s laptop. It memorialized a discussion among Hunter Biden and his business partners hammering out the details of a proposed joint venture with Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC China Energy. The proposal contained the tentative equity split among the partners and one of the entries was revealing.

“10 held by H for the big guy ?” the email reads. Though who the “big guy” is is not explained further in the email. Hunter Biden’s former business partners, including Tony Bobulinski and Devon Archer have both confirmed that the term was often used as a reference to Joe Biden.

In a revealing exchange with his daughter Naomi, Hunter Biden also complained that his father made him give up half his salary. No evidence has surfaced to corroborate this claim or determine if this was just an exaggeration. However, given the evidence above, it is certain that Hunter Biden sent at least some payments directly to his father.

“I hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family for 30 years,” Hunter Biden complained to his daughter in January 2019. “It’s really hard. But don’t worry, unlike pop, I won’t make you give me half your salary,” he continued, according to the text obtained by the New York Post.

“There will be an absolute wall between the personal and private, and the government,” then-candidate Joe Biden told reporters in August of 2019 when he was asked about his son’s overseas business dealings.

“There wasn’t any hint of scandal at all when we were there. And I will impose the same kind of strict, strict rules. That is why I have never talked with my son or my brother, or anyone else in the distant family about their business interests, period,” he continued.

The mounting evidence indicates that the wall may not be so absolute. The evidence of direct payments have concerned House Republicans, who have promised to continue their investigation.

“Payments from Hunter’s business entity to Joe Biden are now part of a pattern revealing Joe Biden knew about, participated in, and benefited from his family’s influence peddling schemes,” the chairman of the Oversight Committee, James Comer, said in a statement.

“We will continue to uncover the facts and provide transparency about the findings of our investigation,” he continued.