House GOP asks Hunter Biden business associate for testimony, documents about links to Chinese execs
WASHINGTON – The head of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee asked a business associate of Hunter Biden to give testimony about scheduling a dinner with the president’s son and a Chinese energy executive.
The chairman, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., asked Serbian business consultant Vuk Jeremic for the transcribed interview so he could ask about Hunter Biden’s business deals in China. The 2015 dinner apparently never happened, but Biden and the Chinese executive later planned to share office space in Washington, according to the panel.
Comer’s request for more details is part of wide-ranging inquiries by House Republicans into President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and brother James about their business deals overseas potentially influencing the administration. Comer has already held a hearing with former Twitter executives about Hunter Biden’s laptop and demanded testimony and documents about art sales from a gallery owner who deals with his paintings.
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The White House has denied wrongdoing and called Comer’s inquiries a hyper-partisan fishing expedition.
What prompted the latest inquiry?
Jeremic testified about the dinner plans during the 2018 trial of Patrick Ho, a Chinese national and the former head of CEFC China Energy’s U.S. operation. Ho was convicted of international bribery and money laundering.
Jeremic testified he tried to arrange a dinner Dec. 6, 2015, with CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming and someone whose name was redacted. In an email to a mutual business associate, Jeremic invited Hunter Biden to attend the dinner. The dinner never happened and Jeremic later told The Washington Post he was "not involved in their mutual introduction."
By 2017 Biden planned to share office space with Ye at House of Sweden in Washington, according to Comer. But the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter found Hunter Biden never occupied the office space administered by the Swedish National Property Board.
Comer asked Jeremic for documents and communications he’s had with Hunter Biden and any associates of CEFC since 2014. Comer also asked for him to answer questions by March 14.
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Who is Vuk Jeremic?
Jeremic is a former foreign minister of Serbia who served as president of the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 and 2013.
He testified at the Ho trial CEFC paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars as a consultant to open doors to business and political leaders in various countries.
Who is Patrick Ho?
Ho was sentenced in 2019 to three years in prison and fined $400,000 for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He was convicted of trying to bribe two African leaders to obtain business advantages.
Ho offered $2 million to Chad President Idriss Deby, who initially refused and later accepted it as a charitable contribution to his country, according to the U.S. Justice Department. CEFC never got the business advantages it sought, so Ho turned to Uganda.
Ho paid $500,000 each to Uganda President Yoweri Museveni and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sam Kutesa to partner in future business deals, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
“Patrick Ho schemed to bribe the leaders of Chad and Uganda in order to secure unfair business advantages for the Chinese energy company he served,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said after sentencing, calling the effort “brazen.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hunter Biden investigation: House GOP wants to talk to Vuk Jeremic
