Republicans and others started raising concerns during President Biden's successful 2020 White House campaign, if not earlier, that Hunter Biden used the family name and influence while his father was vice president to make millions in overseas business deals, which also could have compromised U.S. national security.
Johnson told The Washington Times the records show the Biden family involved with the now-defunct CEFC China Energy, which had connections to the Chinese Communist Party.
The firm gave $1 million to Hudson West III, which was a joint venture owned by Hunter Biden and Gongwen Dong, who is a business associate of CEFC’s founder and chairman, Ye Jianming, reportedly according to the bank records.
"In my mind, it's the Chinese government telling Joe Biden, 'We got the goods on you, buddy. And we’re willing to dish it up,'" Johnson said.
The records provided by the bank also include those from the president's brother, James Biden.
Cathay Bank has offices in Los Angeles and China.
Johnson says the bank turned over the records to him and fellow GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, of Iowa. Other banks have denied the senators' requests for the records.
Cathay Bank, which is based in Los Angeles but has offices in China, voluntarily turned over bank records requested by Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Charles E. Grassley of Iowa while every other American bank denied the two Republicans’ requests for financial records.
“In my mind, it’s the Chinese government telling Joe Biden, ‘We got the goods on you, buddy, and we’re willing to dish it up,’” Mr. Johnson told The Washington Times.
The records showed deep financial ties between the president’s son and brother and the now-defunct CEFC China Energy, which had ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The energy giant wired $1 million to Hudson West III, a joint venture owned by Hunter Biden and Gongwen Dong, a business associate of CEFC’s founder and chairman, Ye Jianming.
A second Chinese energy company, Northern International Capital Holdings, which is associated with the communist-backed CEFC, wired $5 million to Hudson West III, the Cathay Bank records show. The money sent from the two companies funded a $4.8 million wire transfer from Hudson West III to Hunter Biden’s companies Owasco P.C. and Owasco LLC, and Lion Hall Group, a company owned by the president’s brother, James Biden.
The Cathay records show Owasco P.C. sent 20 wire transfers totaling nearly $1.4 million to the Lion Hall Group. Hudson West III paid Hunter Biden a $500,000 retainer fee plus $100,000 per month, while James Biden was paid $65,000 per month.
The transactions took place between August 2017 and October 2018, after Mr. Biden left the Obama White House. At that time, Mr. Biden was considered a top contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
“This is $5 million from a company connected to Ye Jianming and CEFC and its affiliates, which are essentially arms of the communist Chinese regime,” Mr. Grassley said during a Senate floor speech.
The Cathay Bank records provide a detailed look at just one segment of the Biden family foreign business network, which has yielded millions of dollars from deals with Russia, Ukraine and other countries that date back to Mr. Biden‘s term as vice president in the Obama administration.
Mr. Biden has denied having any involvement or knowledge of his family’s business entanglements, but House and Senate Republicans are investigating potential influence peddling and how the transactions may pose a threat to national security.
They said that the Chinese business deals and Cathay Bank’s willingness to make them public raises red flags about Mr. Biden’s involvement and vulnerability.
“We just requested the records and no questions asked, they just turned them over to us,” Mr. Johnson said. “That’s not by accident.”
The bank records reveal Hunter Biden and Gongwen Dong opened a $99,000 line of credit for Hunter Biden to use along with James Biden and his wife, Sara Biden. The credit cards were used to make purchases from airlines, Apple stores, hotels and restaurants, according to an investigative report by Mr. Jonson and Mr. Grassley.
The bank records showed other payments from Hudson West III. The company sent CEFC Infrastructure, an affiliate of CEFC Energy, payments totaling more than $381,000. Gongwen Dong received roughly $123,000 and Hunter Biden’s Chinese-American assistant, JiaQi Bao, was paid nearly $30,000. Coldharbour Capital LLC, a company associated with Hunter Biden’s business partner, Mervyn Yan, received $318,000.
Republicans said the business deals with China could be leading the president to soften his stance against the country’s creeping threats to the U.S.
Mr. Johnson pointed to the Justice Department’s decision in February 2022 to disband the China Initiative. The program was implemented under President Trump to combat China‘s efforts to steal cutting-edge technology and other U.S. innovations. The Justice Department dropped the program due to concerns from civil rights groups.
Mr. Biden also suspended tariffs on Chinese solar panels.
The president’s supporters say he has been tough on China and point to his decision to limit the export of some semiconductor chips critical to national security.
Republicans want the Cathay Bank records to be included in an ongoing investigation of Hunter Biden‘s tax filings.
Mr. Johnson and Mr. Grassley sent the bank records to U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who is Delaware’s top prosecutor. Mr. Weiss is in charge of a team investigating Hunter Biden for tax crimes and making false statements regarding a gun purchase.
“If you are conducting a full and complete investigation, you should already possess these records,” Mr. Johnson and Mr. Grassley wrote to Mr. Weiss in October. “In the case that you are not and do not possess these records, we suggest that you review them in detail.”
House Republicans, meanwhile, are following a trail of suspicious activity reports at the Treasury Department to gain access to bank accounts related to the Biden business deals that other financial institutions have so far declined to voluntarily provide.
The GOP controls the majority in the House, which gives the House Oversight and Accountability Committee greater access to Treasury records and the power to subpoena bank records.
The panel chairman, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, began seeking bank records nearly a year ago. He wrote to Cathay Bank President Chang M. Liu, “The American people deserve to know the president’s connections to his son’s business deals, which have occurred at the expense of American interests and may represent a national security threat.”
The pedo death cult is embedded deeply in all the worlds governments, including China. Only Russia has seemingly made inroads against them. Xi has his own deep state called the CCP.
The question is why would Xi allow Cathay Bank to turn over records that prove the Biden crime syndicates treason, if Xi himself is a cabal asset?
In my mind, this is Xi telling Biden that my deep state is now controlled, I had the leader carted away and humiliated in front of the entire CCP Congress meeting, and I will not be fucking around when I take out your pedo death cult trafficking and biolabs haven in Taiwan.
Basically FAFO. I got the goods on you and you will do nothing.