Hunter Biden entered into a consulting contract with China’s largest private energy company that initially earned him $10 million a year “for introductions alone,” according to leaked emails.
In an email chain from Aug. 2, 2017, Biden discussed a deal with the former chairman of CEFC China Energy, Ye Jianming, saying Ye agreed to change the terms of Biden’s three-year consulting contract with CEFC, which initially promised Biden $10 million per-year “for introductions alone,” to make it “much more lasting and more lucrative,” the New York Post reported, although the authenticity of the Biden emails has not been independently confirmed.
The new deal included a 50 percent equity stake in a holding company created by Ye rather than the $10 million in annual cash that had been previously negotiated.
“The chairman changed that deal after we me[t] in MIAMI TO A MUCH MORE LASTING AND LUCRATIVE ARRANGEMENT to create a holding company 50% percent [sic] owned by ME and 50% owned by him,” Biden wrote in one email.
In the same email chain, Biden discussed deals with the CEFC that he said were “interesting to me and my family.”
Another email sent to Biden on May 13, 2017 had the subject line “Expectations” and identified Biden as “Chair / Vice Chair depending on agreement with CEFC.”
CEFC reportedly went bankrupt this year. Ye, who was connected to Chinese military and intelligence, has been missing since 2018, when he was arrested by Chinese authorities.
The leaked emails and other data were found on a MacBook Pro laptop that was dropped off at a Delaware computer repair shop in April of last year, according to the owner of the shop.
The FBI has seized the laptop. The shop owner made a copy of the data, which former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani provided to the Post.
Biden is also under scrutiny for his lucrative position on the board of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma. In leaked emails from 2014, Biden appears to try to leverage his influence with his father, then-vice president Joe Biden, who was heavily involved in U.S. policy on Ukraine, referring to the elder Biden as “my guy.”
“The announcement of my guys [sic] upcoming travels should be characterized as part of our advice and thinking- but what he will say and do is out of our hands,” Hunter Biden wrote in an email dated April 13, 2014.
In one 2015 email to Biden, one of Burisma’s top executives, board advisor Vadym Pozharskyi, wrote to Hunter Biden and Biden’s business partner Devon Archer that Burisma’s “ultimate goal” was to recruit U.S. policy makers to help “close down” any “cases” or “pursuits” against the company.
Biden resigned from Burisma’s board last year.
