Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden pays for his order at a Krispy Kreme following a campaign town hall on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019, in Spartanburg, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)
A Ukrainian member of parliament held a press conference on Wednesday at Interfax-Ukraine’s press center in Kiev and made a rather startling announcement.
MP Andriy Derkach told reporters that former Vice President Joe Biden had received $900,000 for lobbying activities from Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas company founded and owned by Mykola Zlochevsky. The notation on the funds transfer allegedly said, “for consultative services.”
Derkach revealed documents which “describe the mechanism of getting money by Biden, Sr.” He said:
This was the transfer of Burisma Group’s funds for lobbying activities, as investigators believe, personally to Joe Biden through a lobbying company. Funds in the amount of $900,000 were transferred to the U.S.-based company Rosemont Seneca Partners, which according to open sources, in particular, the New York Times, is affiliated with Biden. The payment reference was payment for consultative services.
Rosemont Seneca Partners is the company owned by Hunter Biden and his business partner Devon Archer. It’s inaccurate to say it is affiliated with Biden.
According to the Interfax release, Derkach also announced funds that had been transferred to others, specifically the former vice president’s son, Hunter Biden.
According to the documents, Burisma paid no less than $16.5 million to [former Polish President, who became an independent director at Burisma Holdings in 2014] Aleksander Kwasniewski, [chairman of the Burisma board of independent directors] Alan Apter, [Burisma independent director] Devon Archer and Hunter Biden [who joined the Burisma board of directors in 2014].
Using political and economic levelers of influencing Ukrainian authorities and manipulating the issue of providing financial aid to Ukraine, Joe Biden actively assisted closing criminal cases into the activity of former Ukrainian Ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky, who is the founder and owner of Burisma Group.
Biden’s fifth visit to Kyiv on December 7-8, 2015 was devoted to making a decision on the resignation of [then Ukrainian Prosecutor General] Viktor Shokin over the case of Zlochevsky and Burisma. Loan guarantees worth $1 billion that the United States was to give to Ukraine was the point of pressure. Biden himself admitted exerting pressure in his speech at the Council of Foreign Relations in January 2018, calling Shokin ‘son of a bitch who was fired.’
The timeline of events proves that the U.S. linked the Zlochevsky case to loan guarantees.
After the decree dismissing Shokin was published on April 3, 2016, the governments of the United States and Ukraine signed a loan guarantee agreement worth $1 billion, several months later, on June 3.
In this case, there are facts should be subject to investigation. There is an agency that has powers to investigate them; the U.S. Department of Justice. If the Ukrainian Prosecutor General signs documents and send them to U.S. Department of Justice without any requests, he will accomplish his mission.
Considering international corruption in public is a way-out for President Zelensky. I am certain that he is not involved in international corruption.
Derkach told reporters he is creating a “parliamentary investigative commission and has already requested launching a criminal case against Ukrainian officials into interference into U.S. elections.” He also stated that a court hearing was scheduled for October 21st.
Ukraine is well-known for its corruption and it’s naive to take anything one hears from their media and even members of the Ukrainian government at face value.
It sounds rather incredible that Joe Biden himself would become involved in such a shady deal. He is on tape threatening to withhold U.S. aid unless Shokin was fired. We have evidence of that. Biden denies he wanted Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin fired because he was about to question his son. Rather, he claims that Shokin was corrupt.
But accepting funds from a foreign corporation, or any corporation, sounds a little over the top, especially given the tremendous risks associated with it. Would Biden gamble his reputation and his future on a payment of $900,000? It seems unlikely.
On the other hand, why would a member of parliament make a completely unwarranted accusation against a former U.S. Vice President?
In the meantime, Rudy Giuliani discussed this story on “Hannity” last night. Predictably, he appeared to find the accusation to be somewhat credible. Here’s what he told Sean:
Let me tell you who Mykola Zlochevsky is. He’s a major oligarch. He stole $5 billion from his people. He very suspiciously was allowed to come back [to Ukraine]. His case got dismissed when they dismissed Hunter Biden’s case [involving Burisma]…He the one who paid the $16.5 million and the $900,000…It wasn’t $16.5, it was more like $8 million to the Biden group. This guy’s one of the major criminals in the Ukraine and he’s now walking around free because Joe Biden got the case dismissed.
This gentleman has said that this information should be turned over to the Justice Department. And for their own purposes, they should investigate it. I’m going to tell you why Sean. Because they suspect that the President of the Ukraine received a very major bribe in order to tank this case.
I’m not saying Biden was involved in that bribe, but it was the only thing he wasn’t involved in.
This case stinks. They can run away from it all they want.
Update, 12:00 pm: Word is that investigative reporter John Solomon, who follows this story closely, says it’s not true.
Watch the video. (Relevant segment starts at 26:00.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbcQu2wLtTI
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