James Biden confirmed during his impeachment hearing testimony that a $40k payment made to brother Joe Biden used funds he had received from a Chinese government-linked company, also revealing that he had received income from abroad as recently as last year.
James asserted that he had no idea that Beijing owned the business, CEFC China Energy, and that he had misled the IRS when he claimed Hunter Biden, who was working with his uncle, had described CEFC chairman Ye Jianming as a “protégé” of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
When an investigator asked James during the Feb. 21 interview where he believed the source of the money going into Hunter’s company Owasco was coming from, prior to it being sent to him, James stated ‘CEFC’.
This admission followed an extended back-and-forth where James’ lawyer tried to argue that the money was fungible, before being reminded by a House staffer that James did not have enough money to make the $40,000 alleged loan repayment himself, noting that the payment would therefore be traceable.
Joe’s brother also disclosed other international business attempts that ended up being fruitless, saying that around the time he used a $200,000 loan from the hospital company Americore to repay funds from another alleged loan to his brother Joe in 2018 he was looking for investments from Qatar in infrastructure projects.
Subpoenaed bank records showed that the bank account owned by James where the $40,000 check to Joe Biden came had a balance of less than $47 before receiving a $50,000 deposit days before, on Aug. 28, 2017.
The $50,000 deposit came on the same day from withdrawn funds from James’ entity Lion Hall Group, which had received a $150,000 wire from Owasco in August, after a balance below $2,000, according to the records provided by the House Oversight Committee.
James explained that he was repaying a personal loan to hos brother when his wife wrote the $40,000 check to the future president in September of 2017. He said there was no loan paperwork or interest.
The initial transfer of funds to James weeks prior was from a law firm that worked with multiple business associates, as well as Biden family members.
