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Hunter Biden gifted $80,000 diamond in shady Chinese deal – book
29 Nov, 2021 13:51
(FILE PHOTO) © REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
A damning new book claims US President Joe Biden's son accepted an $80,000 diamond and $10 million a year to make introductions in Washington on behalf of a Chinese-linked energy consortium.
In her new book, ‘Laptop from Hell’, New York Post columnist Miranda Devine details Hunter Biden’s dealings with Ye Jianming, the chairman of CEFC China Energy, who had been tasked with expanding the reach of his consortium around the world.
In excerpts published in the New York Post on Sunday, Devine claims that the Chinese business leader teamed up with Hunter Biden in late 2015, while his father, Joe Biden, was serving as vice president of the United States. The book uses a trove of data and documents retrieved from a laptop believed to be Hunter’s, which was left in a Delaware repair shop in April 2019.
After the meeting and discussions with intermediaries, the parties pushed forward with the creation of an investment firm to be named SinoHawk, named after the favorite animal of Hunter’s late brother, Beau.
One of those enlisted to help drive the project was Tony Bobulinski, a naval officer turned wealthy institutional investor. Bobulinski apparently did not like the fact that Hunter Biden was kicked out of the navy for cocaine use. He asked who the decision maker would be and where the start-up capital was coming from for the new business.
Bobulinski was told it was a “new platform” and it would be best to discuss the details “face to face.”
In 2017, just weeks after his father left office, Hunter flew to Miami to meet Ye, who was there for the Miami International Boat Show, the columnist claims.
Biden later asserted in an email that he agreed to $10 million a year, for a minimum of three years, for “introductions alone.” Devine claims the new alliance was sealed with a 3.16-carat diamond worth $80,000. Photographs of the precious stone appear on Hunter’s laptop, accompanied by a grading report. It is noted as “round brilliant” of Grade F with prime “VS2” clarity and “excellent” cut.
Hunter would later claim the meeting with Ye was for charitable purposes.
Nine days after the meeting, $3 million in funds were wired from State Energy HK Limited, a Shanghai-based company linked to CEFC, into accounts owned by Biden family friend Rob Walker. A further $3 million was wired a few months later.
Both transactions were flagged by the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement network in a “suspicious activity report,” Devine claims.
The columnist says a former associate of Hunter claimed that Ye had been introduced to the now-president during a Christmas party at the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory. Devine also claims to have seen a WhatsApp message suggesting that Joe Biden would be actively involved in the deal when he left the office of the vice president.
Joe, apparently, enabling his son.
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Argentine ex-president charged in spying case
1 Dec, 2021 22:17
Former Argentine president Mauricio Macri has been charged with illegal spying in a case related to his government’s surveillance of grief-stricken families of a missing submarine’s crew.
Federal Judge Martíni Bava supported the indictment on Wednesday, saying that Macri was responsible for an online surveillance campaign on the relatives of the San Juan submarine sailors, who asked the government to continue searching for the submarine that went missing in November 2017.
The judge sequestered 100 million pesos (around $1 million) from Macri and banned him from leaving Argentina, local media reported, citing judicial sources. The defendant “led an unlawful spying” campaign targeting people affected by “one of the greatest tragedies” that occurred during his time in office, seeking to be in the loop of “movements” and “claims” they made, a 171-page court ruling seen by Infobae said.
Surveillance was allegedly conducted between December 2017 and the end of 2018. The former president supposedly initiated it because he was concerned about how the whole San Juan case could “affect the image of government.”
Macri’s lawyers said they would appeal this decision. The former president has repeatedly called the process political and said that his prosecution was linked to the legislative elections that were held in mid-November.
Politicians always say that, and, of course, it is often true.
Earlier, an Argentinian court also charged two former top officials of Argentina’s Federal Intelligence Agency, arguing that they could not have been unaware of the spying campaign and most likely had a hand in it.
The ARA San Juan (S-42) vanished in November 2017. The search for the diesel-electric submarine started immediately, involving ships and aircraft manned by personnel from 13 countries. After 15 days of the operation, the navy decided to end it. In late 2018, it was discovered “imploded” and lying at the bottom of the sea at a depth of 800 meters. The tragedy took the lives of all 44 sailors on board.
Macri could face a potential prison sentence of up to ten years if found guilty.
Covid fraudsters steal billions from UK government
3 Dec, 2021 10:34
The UK’s National Audit Office (NAO) has found that the government’s failure to implement anti-fraud measures allowed fraudsters to steal £4.9 billion ($6.51 billion) of taxpayers’ money from the Covid Bounce Back Loan scheme.
Established during the pandemic, the scheme offered loans of up to £50,000 ($66,378) to small and medium-sized businesses to help them cope with and recover from the pandemic. Having now closed, it handed out 1.5 million loans to a quarter of UK businesses, totaling around £47 billion ($62.39 billion).
An investigation by the NAO has discovered that “high levels of estimated fraud” was carried out by criminals after anti-fraud measures were “implemented too slowly.”
Out of the loans handed out, 11% have been deemed to be fraudulent, as of March, costing the UK government nearly £4.9 billion.
“The true level of fraud will become clearer over time,” Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, stated, adding “it is clear government needs to improve on its identification, quantification and recovery of fraudulent loans within the scheme.”
The NAO’s assessment warns the UK government that more than a third of the loans, valued at £17 billion ($22.57 billion), might never be repaid due to both a combination of criminals fraudulently claiming money and businesses defaulting on their debt.
Among the criticisms levelled at the scheme, the NAO accused the government of establishing it with “limited verification and no credit checks on borrowers,” making it “vulnerable to fraud and losses.”
The report confirmed a warning issued shortly after the scheme began. In May 2020, the British Business Bank claimed the loan scheme was susceptible to a “very high risk of fraud.” Similarly, a BBC investigation found that criminals had established fake firms to steal tens of thousands of pounds.
Responding to the report’s findings, a UK government spokesperson said that officials will “not tolerate” any attempts to defraud taxpayers by falsely claiming money from Covid support schemes, arguing that it has robust anti-fraud measures in place.
‘Ukraine’s richest man’ faces criminal prosecution
over Zelensky's claims
3 Dec, 2021 11:30
By Layla Guest
Hundreds of criminal cases will soon be launched against companies linked to one of Kiev's most high-profile businessmen, Rinat Akhmetov, after he was accused of being behind a failed bid to oust the Ukrainian government.
Writing in a Facebook post on Thursday, the country’s Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova said that “an unusual show” had been playing out in recent weeks, with President Volodymyr Zelensky accusing Akhmetov of plotting to stage a Russian-backed coup attempt. “I don’t think that in a public and political storm, the office of the Attorney General should sit aside,” she went on.
“I will repeat and emphasize,” Venediktova wrote, “I am not calling anyone an assailant, an oligarch or an offender, but I do have the right at such a pivotal moment for the country to activate the investigation of a whole number of criminal proceedings…regarding entities from the orbit of the owner of several famous TV channels, coal enterprises, and energy companies.”
“We have conducted a preliminary analysis of the whole array of criminal proceedings and now it turns out that we are talking about more than 200 cases. This figure is just a superficial estimate, I am convinced that there are more,” she added.
Akhmetov oversees a steel and coal empire worth a purported $7.6 billion, as well as owning Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club and several TV channels that backed opponents of Zelensky in the last presidential election. The business tycoon has been one of the most high-profile critics of the government in recent years.
The remarks from the top prosecutor come shortly after Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky accused Akhmetov of backing a bid to oust his government. The power-grab, however, did not materialize in early December, which is when the head of state had claimed it would take place.
Last month, Zelensky held a marathon press conference in Kiev to tell reporters that his country’s officials had “received information that a coup d’état will take place in our country on December 1-2. We have audio recordings in which representatives of Russia and Rinat Akhmetov discuss the coup.”
While the purported power-grab failed to materialize, large crowds descended on the streets of the capital on the day Zelensky had identified to demand the impeachment of the president. The rallies are understood to have included members of Ukrainian nationalist parties, supporters of former President Petro Poroshenko, and activists representing small business owners.
Zelensky has come under fire from several international observers for his crackdown on critical media and opposition in recent months. Earlier this year, Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of the largest opposition party in the country’s parliament, was detained on charges of high treason. Although the details of the allegations have not been publicly disclosed, they are believed to relate to business interests in Crimea. Medvedchuk, however, insists that his prosecution is politically motivated and accused Zelensky of attempting to establish a “dictatorship.”
There is undoubtably corruption all over Ukraine; it may be the most corrupt country in the world. While it is impossible to tell how much of this is political power grabbing and how much is genuine oligarch corruption. I fully suspect there is lots of blame on both sides.
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