The China Syndrome

Today was a really bad day for Hunter Biden.

First, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee said Republicans would be subpoenaing Hunter Biden and any documents related to his work with Burisma in Ukraine.

Next, news broke that DNA had conclusively proven that Biden was the father of a ten-month-old child of an Arkansas woman who had filed a paternity suit on behalf of her child.

Now, there’s more breaking out of Ukraine that doesn’t look good.

Ukraine Prosecutor-General Ruslan Ryaboshapka is expanding his probe into the founder of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky, to include suspicion of embezzling state funds, he announced on Wednesday.

Burisma is the firm that has come under question because of prior concerns about corruption. Hunter Biden, the son of Presidential candidate Joe Biden, was on the board from 2014 until April of this year.

According to Reuters:

After he took office in late August, Ryaboshapka launched a wide-ranging audit of criminal cases to see whether they had been conducted properly. Thirteen of them relate to Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky, Ryaboshapka told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday.

Burisma did not respond to a request for comment.

Ryaboshapka’s predecessors oversaw a series of investigations into Zlochevsky, a multimillionaire former minister of ecology and natural resources. The allegations concern tax violations, money-laundering and licences given to Burisma during the period where Zlochevsky was a minister.

Ryaboshapka said Zlochevsky was now suspected of the “theft of government funds on an especially large scale,” but did not provide evidence or details.

Ryaboshapka was responding to reports from three lawmakers earlier about their concerns in regard to the matter. The lawmakers were referencing a document which, according to Reuters, indicated it was believed Zlochevsky had embezzled about $33 million from the central bank.

The lawmakers posted on Facebook, making claims about Burisma corruption. The lawmakers said that Hunter Biden had received millions from Burisma, but alleged money paid to him hadn’t been earned properly by Burisma but had been taken from Ukraine. They said they were concerned about money being taken from Ukraine and about the damage that all this might be having on the relationship with the U.S. That’s why they said they came forward. The prosecutor did not confirm the claims made by the lawmakers.

There were reports on social media that there had been an indictment of Zlochevsky but Ryaboshapka did not confirm that, only noting that there had been an expansion of the investigation.

Kostiantyn Kulyk, the prosecutor pursuing the case has been investigating for two years, according to Reuters and sent Zlochevsky summons for questioning in January.

However, apparently no one is able to locate Zlochevsky — his whereabouts are unknown.

But Ukraine certainly confirms there is an active investigation ongoing that involves the Burisma founder which involves significant issues including embezzling millions of dollars from Ukraine and that, no, Democrats cannot claim that it is “conspiracy theory” or something propagated from the Trump team.