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Middle Eastern countries are buying up Europe’s politicians? New report shows
Polish MEP Sikorski was paid $500,000 by United Arab Emirates
Liberal MEP Radosław Sikorski faces sharp criticism in Poland after it was revealed he is on the payroll of the United Arab Emirates
February 10, 2023
editor: REMIX NEWS
author: GRZEGORZ ADAMCZYK
The rich Gulf countries have been on a spending spree for years with Europe’s top politicians, and it was not just Qatar that was in on the action. In fact, many nations, such as the United Arab Emirates, are not relying on illicit bribes in suitcases full of cash, but instead are setting up entirely legal foundations and NGOs and then paying out politicians hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time.
He has earned this huge sum of money by being a member of the Advisory Council to the Sir Bani Yas Forum, an exclusive conference that is part of the UAE’s soft power diplomacy and is closed to the media.
In light of the Qatargate bribery scandal, money flowing from oil- and gas-rich Gulf countries into the pockets of EU politicians is being called into question, along with the various benefits and lobbying from a variety of countries within Europe’s institutions.
The ex-foreign minister has also traveled to the UAE at the Middle East state’s expense and has not declared this fact in his financial disclosure to the European Parliament, according to a report from Polsat News.
In his letter to NRC editors posted on Twitter, Sikorski argues that he had no obligation to report that travel, as it was not carried out in an official capacity. He also argued that he never made any secret of the fact that he was paid for being a member of the advisory council within the UAE’s forum and that he has paid his taxes in full on that income.
Sikorski says that the Sir Bani Yas Forum is a highly respected conference held in the Middle East and that the Advisory Council to the forum includes a former Australian prime minister, an ex-foreign secretary of Britain, and a former deputy of the secretary general of the United Nations.
He also refutes that his activities in the advisory council have in any way influenced the way he has been voting in the European Parliament. He points to the fact that on all matters relating to either the UAE or Saudi Arabia, he has always voted in line with positions taken by the European parliamentary caucus he is a member of, the European People’s Party (EPP).
The revelations about the MEP’s income have caused a storm in the media and in political circles in Poland. Senior leading Left MP Adrian Zandberg took to Twitter to criticize Sikorski.
“The UAE is an authoritarian state that does not respect freedom of speech and is embroiled in a dirty war in Yemen. Sikorski has in this way closed the door on being in a future government. A Polish minister cannot appear on such a payroll,” posted Zandberg.
Questions have been asked whether Donald Tusk, the leader of the opposition liberal Civic Platform (PO), knew about Sikorski’s involvement with the UAE. Sikorski was a foreign minister in a government led by Tusk and is an MEP elected on a Civic Platform ticket.
Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro has called for a full explanation of Sikorski’s involvement, especially now that foreign media have published the case. Sikorski has in the past few months also been under attack for some rather unguarded comments.
"Thank You, USA"
Sikorski made international headlines after the Nord Stream pipelines were blown up in a sabotage attack. After the pipelines were blown, Sikorski tweeted “Thank you USA,” implying the U.S. was behind the attack.
During a radio interview, he also claimed that the Polish government had in the early days of the Ukraine war considered taking part in a partition of Ukraine.
Both of these statements were used by the Kremlin regarding claims that the U.S. was responsible for the damage to the Nord Stream pipelines and that Poland was quietly attempting to seize Ukrainian land.
Sikorski is reported to have been attempting to lobby Donald Tusk for a place on the liberal’s list in the coming Polish parliamentary elections and is rumored to be interested in returning to his former post of foreign minister. Sikorski has also harbored ambitions to be an EU commissioner responsible for foreign policy or of being the head of NATO. He has also on two occasions attempted to become his party’s candidate for president of Poland.
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Biden’s brother was hired to broker secret $140M Saudi deal
when Joe was veep, docs reveal
By Emily Crane
February 14, 2023 7:04pm Updated
Now-first brother James Biden was hired to help a Philadelphia construction company resolve a decades-old dispute with the Saudi government because he was the sibling of then-Vice President Joe Biden, court documents reveal.
The 2017 admission by James Biden, referenced in two affidavits from May 2021, is certain to draw the attention of the GOP-led House Oversight Committee as it investigates the first family’s influence-peddling dating back years.
The affidavit, first obtained by DailyMail.com, was filed in a dispute between the construction company, Hill International, and one of three law firms it hired to help claw back approximately $140 million the Saudis owed for a desalinization plant built by a Hill subsidiary in the 1980s.
That firm, Lankford & Reed, claims that Hill International also hired James Biden, now 73, in 2011 to negotiate a secret deal with the Saudis to settle the dispute – and get out of paying Lankford the 40% cut outlined in their contract.
In July 2017, Thomas Sullivan, a former Treasury Department official-turned-private investigator hired by Lankford, drove to James Biden’s home in suburban Philadelphia to discuss his role with Hill.
President Joe Biden’s brother Jim Biden was allegedly hired to help negotiate a $140 million settlement between
a private US company and the Saudi government because of his ties to his older sibling, a new report said.
NBC Newswire/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
According to Sullivan’s sworn statement, James Biden said he was hired to handle Hill’s “business development” and had been assigned to help with the company’s interests in Saudi Arabia.
The first brother added that he was often tapped to represent Hill in meetings “because, of course, the name didn’t hurt,” Sullivan recalled.
James Biden also told Sullivan he had attended a February 2012 meeting with Saudi officials at which Hill would receive “final payment” for the desalination plant. Biden added that he had attended the meeting “because of his position and relationship” with his older brother, then Barack Obama’s No. 2.
According to the president’s sibling, Hill’s payment for its subsidiary’s work “would be made in both cash and ‘a very large amount'” of future business, Sullivan said.
After the meeting, Sullivan alleged, James Biden’s wife Sara walked him to his car and revealed that her husband and his older brother Joe were very close, and that they told each other everything.”
A private investigator said he spoke to Jim and Sara Biden at their Pennsylvania home in July 2017 about the Saudi deal.
AP
Sara Biden also told Sullivan that “he doesn’t like us talking to people,” the ex-Treasury man recalled.
“I didn’t ask for a further explanation,” Sullivan said, “since I was looking at two large men in dark suits, in a big black sedan parked on a side street looking directly into their house down the walkway I had just exited. I thought they were some type of security, probably Secret Service.”
In a separate affidavit, Lankford & Reed partner Thomas Lankford alleged that his firm and the Saudis had tentatively agreed on a settlement of Hill’s claims worth around $100 million by November 2011. However, after James Biden’s February 2012 meeting with Saudi officials in Riyadh, Hill initially “went dark” — then claimed that the Saudis had backed off on the settlement.
According to Lankford, Hill International CEO Irvin Richter had told him that he had retained James Biden because the Saudis “would not dare stiff the brother of the Vice-President who would be instrumental to the deal.”
Lankford’s affidavit does not elaborate on why Richter believed Joe Biden would be “instrumental” to any settlement.
After James Biden’s February 2012 meeting, Lankford said, Richter “seemed indifferent” to the ongoing dispute and communicated with the law firms “only infrequently.”
In addition, Lankford claimed, US government officials, “who had previously been helpful, became guarded and emphasized that Hill was doing lots of business in Saudi Arabia.”
At some point after 2014, when Lankford said Richter declined his offer to sue the Saudis to settle the debt, James Biden revealed that Hill and Riyadh “had secretly agreed to settle … through the award of future contracts.”
According to Lankford, James Biden “also stated that the settlement may have involved a cash payment to Richter.”
Congressman James Comer had asked Treasury for information about any transactions flagged as suspicious
involving James Biden’s activities in the Middle East.
Rod Lamkey – CNP/Sipa USA
As of May 2021, Lankford claimed, Hill International and its affiliates had been awarded $358 million from the Saudis in construction management contracts since February 2011 after doing “virtually no business” with Riyadh prior.
It is unclear from the affidavits how much James Biden was paid for his work on Hill’s behalf.
A rep for the first brother denied that any negotiations took place.
“This entire story is yet another attempt to smear Jim Biden,” the rep said in a statement to The Post. “Mr. Biden never negotiated with the Saudi Government on behalf of Hill or any other entity.”
President Biden has long denied having any knowledge of his family’s foreign business deals – including those involving James and first son Hunter Biden.
James and Hunter were previously linked to a planned multimillion-dollar deal with Chinese state-backed energy conglomerate CEFC, which is currently being probed by federal investigators.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) asked the Treasury Department in July of last year for information about transactions flagged as suspicious that involve the first brother’s activities in the Middle East, specifically in Saudi Arabia and Qatar “where James Biden acquired relationships over the course of Joe Biden’s time in elected office.”
“Evidence continues to mount that the Biden family used Joe Biden’s name to secure deals around the world to enrich themselves,” Comer told The Post Tuesday. “The Treasury Department must provide the suspicious activity reports generated for the Biden family and their associates to inform our investigation about the Biden family’s business schemes and Joe Biden’s involvement. If Joe Biden is compromised by his family’s deals, this is a national security threat.”
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