Hunter Biden’s prosecutors make shocking claim he was hired by Romanian oligarch to influence US government

Hunter Biden was hired by a Romanian oligarch in an “effort to influence U.S. government agencies,” earning about $1 million for work designed to avoid “political consequences” for then-Vice President Joe Biden.

The shocking claim was revealed Wednesday in court documents related to the younger Biden’s federal tax case, and it’s the closest prosecutors have ever come to linking President Biden to his son’s foreign business dealings.

Gabriel Popoviciu, a real estate magnate, was facing bribery and corruption charges in his home country. In an attempt to avoid charges, Popoviciu hired Hunter Biden and his business associates to help his cause in late 2015.

However, Hunter was “concerned that lobbying could have political implications” for his father, so the deal was structured to “hide the true nature of the work he was doing.”

Prosecutors allege that Hunter and Popoviciu signed an agreement stating that Hunter’s law firm would “provide management services for real estate in Romania” in order to circumvent the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

But “that wasn’t really” what Popoviciu was paying for. He and Hunter had a “verbal” agreement about what Hunter Biden would actually do: influence U.S. agencies on the tycoon’s behalf.

The deal was structured to avoid FARA because Hunter was concerned about “political fallout” for his father, the documents say. In 2016, Biden was vice president and considered a presidential run, which he ultimately did not pursue until the 2020 election.

Under the FARA law, the Justice Department requires any American who lobbys for a foreign government to register as a foreign agent.

Hunter engineered the deal so that he did not have to register, even though he and his business partners did contact government officials, specifically the U.S. State Department.

Hunter Biden’s law firm received $3.1 million in the deal, with Hunter getting about a third of that money, the documents show.

Ultimately, in 2016, Popoviciu was found guilty of bribing a university official to purchase a 550-hectare plot of government land at a bargain price.

Prosecutors from Special Counsel David Weiss’s office are investigating Hunter Biden’s work with foreign entities and whether Hunter should have registered his work abroad.

But he performed “virtually no work in return for the millions of dollars he received” from Popoviciu, a Chinese energy company, or Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company, the documents show.

Gabriel Popoviciu, a real estate magnate in Romania, hired Hunter

Hunter Biden served on the board of Burisma Holdings Ltd., an oil and gas company in Ukraine, beginning in May 2014. He left in April 2019. He served from his father’s time as vice president until he ran for president.

He and his business partners also did work for Chinese companies such as State Energy HK Ltd. and CEFC China Energy Co. Ltd.

A document filed with Hunter Biden’s rejected settlement shows that in 2017, he earned “just under $1 million” from a company he co-founded with a Chinese CEO, $664,000 from a Chinese infrastructure company and $500,000 in director fees from Burisma.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have repeatedly tried to link Joe Biden to Hunter’s work.

The president has stated on several occasions that he does not interfere in his son’s affairs.

Hunter Biden faces three counts of tax crimes and additional misdemeanors for allegedly failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2020

Hunter, who was convicted of gun possession earlier this summer, is due in court in September to discuss his taxes.

The president’s son faces three counts of tax evasion and additional misdemeanors for allegedly failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2020. The back taxes and penalties were previously paid in full by a third party, Hunter Biden’s attorney Kevin Morris.