When the SEC began investigating Hunter Biden, he invoked his father’s identity for leverage

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2016 declined to charge Hunter Biden alongside his business partners in a tribal bond scheme after he invoked his father’s position as Vice President of the U.S.

The House Oversight and Judiciary Committees are demanding answers from SEC Chair Gary Gensler after discovering that the agency tasked with investigating market manipulation left Hunter out of a sweeping indictment that befell his business partners shortly after he name-dropped his dad.

Hunter’s longtime associates including Devon Archer and Jason Galanais were indicted by the federal government in 2016 for violating several federal securities laws when they defrauded investors “in sham Native American tribal bonds.”

The vice president’s son was among several of the Biden family business associates and entities subpoenaed by the SEC in March 2016 to hand over relevant evidence about the scheme, specifically “concerning Rosemont Seneca Bohai, LLC,” by the end of the month.

When the time came for Hunter to hand over key documents and communications to the SEC, he delayed. Nearly one month after the subpoena deadline on April 20, 2016, Hunter’s lawyers responded to the SEC, begging the agency to “treat this matter with the highest degree of confidentiality, consistent with Commission policy and applicable law.”

“The confidential nature of this investigation is very important to our client and it would be unfair, not just to our client, but also to his father, the Vice President of the United States, if his involvement in an SEC investigation and parallel criminal probe were to become the subject of any media attention,” Hunter’s legal counsel wrote.

A few weeks later on May 11, 2016, the SEC publicly announced charges against several of Hunter’s business partners but did not mention the Second Son.

Republican investigators say there is no doubt that Rosemont Seneca Bohai LLC (RHB) “was directly implicated in the tribal bond scheme.” Yet Hunter has tried to falsely distance himself from the company despite documents and evidence confirming his history as RHB’s corporate secretary.

As the committees note in their letter, Hunter routinely used the RHB bank account to “funnel other foreign payments and benefits to [himself], including money from Ukraine and a new sports car from an oligarch in Kazakhstan” that he obtained during his international influence peddling.

“Mr. Biden’s response gratuitously invoked his father’s position as the Vice President in
what could be interpreted as an effort to discourage further SEC scrutiny,” the Republicans wrote.

To better understand the suspicious exchange between the SEC and Hunter, Republicans are demanding Gensler hand over “all documents and communications with the White House” about Hunter, his business partners, and the entities involved in the 2016 defrauding scheme. The investigators also said they require a transcribed audience with Tejal D. Shah, the former staff attorney who led the SEC’s probe.

Understanding why the SEC declined to include Hunter in the charges, the committees concluded, is “critical to the impeachment inquiry.”