Earlier today a rumor hit Twitter that a gentleman named Bevan Cooney had been removed from the federal prison facility in Oregon where he was serving a 30 month sentence for securities fraud.

I have referenced Cooney a few times in stories I’ve written about the Indian Tribe bond fraud scheme involving Devin Archer, the main business partner of Hunter Biden in his business ventures in Ukraine and China.

You can find my earlier stories on this subject here, here, here, and here.

What is the significance of the news today that Cooney has suddenly been moved?

As a general matter, federal prison inmates get no notice from the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) that they are going to be moved.  They may be informed in advance that they are going to be transferring to another facility, but they get no information about the timing of such a move.  Essentially, when the time arrives, the BOP staff appears at their cell and tells them “Time to go.”  The staff will back up their belongings and send them along.

This is done for security reasons.  No notice to the inmate means no notice to the outside world that the inmate is on the move.  Pretty much the first notice the family has will come simply from the fact they are not able to make contact with the inmate in the normal manner. Inmates have BOP based email called “CorrLinks”.  An inmate’s CorrLinks account is terminated as soon as the inmate leaves the facility.  The next chance an inmate will have to communicate with third parties is when they can re-establish a CorrLinks account at their next facility.  By that point the move is complete, and the inmate is once again secure.

Cooney’s move could be routine and planned completely independent of his newfound celebrity.  But I think serious consideration needs to be given to the thought that that is not the case.

Seventy-two hours ago it was publicly announced by author Peter Schweizer that Cooney had been in touch with him in the past about information Cooney possessed about Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, who were one topic of interest in Schweizer’s book “Secret Empires.”  With the discovery of Biden’s laptop, the public release of documents from that laptop, and the claims by pro-Biden partisans in protecting the Biden campaign by claiming information from the laptop was Russian disinformation, Cooney decided to release his emails that cast some light on Hunter Biden’s involvement with Devon Archer, Cooney and others. He gave Schweizer his “Gmail” account username and password, and written authorization to publish emails and documents that could be found there.

Cooney’s reason?  The suggestion is that Hunter Biden was involved in the fraud that Cooney is serving prison time for – as are most others who were involved – and Biden has escaped responsibility for his role.

Forty-eight hours ago, documents started to drop onto Twitter that is from Bevan Cooney’s email account.  And now Bevan Cooney is on the move with the BOP.

Who is Bevan Cooney, and what might he have to offer?

Cooney made his mark in Los Angeles when he, along with a couple of others, acquired an ownership interest in The Viper Room in Hollywood, a trendy hangout for Hollywood A-Listers, previously owned in part by Johnnie Depp.  Cooney wasn’t an owner at the time, but on the street outside The Viper Room is where talented young actor River Phoenix died of a heroin overdose in 1993.

The main perpetrator of the Indian Tribe bond fraud scheme was an individual named Jason Galanis, who told law enforcement that Cooney was “my best friend for more than 20 years and an equity owner in every one of my businesses.”

Two days ago an email string dated October 5, 2013, from Cooney’s account set out a three-way communication between Cooney, Galanis, and Archer, in which the three discussed and agreed to bring Hunter Biden into their group and to “put a little honey in his pocket.”  That was seven months before Archer suggested to the Chairman of the Board of Burisma Holdings that Biden would be a good choice to fill an open seat on the Burisma board, and 10 months before they executed the first substantive actions in the Indian Tribe bond fraud scheme.

This criminal complaint charging Galanis, Archer, Cooney, and others with securities fraud was filed on May 9, 2016.  Barack Obama was still President, Joe Biden was still Vice President, and Preet Bharara was the US Attorney in SDNY.

According to the complaint, Galanis kept Archer and Cooney up to date on his progress in arranging the “purchase” end of the Indian Tribe bond fraud.

The basics are that Galanis and his father convinced the Indian Tribe to sell bonds to investors, and the proceeds from that sale would be used for public works projects on tribal land in South Dakota.

The bond transaction needed a “selling” entity and a “purchasing” entity to complete the transaction.  Archer and Cooney seem to have been more involved in acquiring the “selling” enterprise — Burnham Financial Group — and Galanis and others were more involved acquiring a “purchasing” enterprise, two investment advisor companies who managed investment portfolios for clients.  Archer and Cooney had Burnham “sell” the bonds to the clients of the companies Galanis had taken control of, and Burnham then transferred the proceeds to a shell corporation rather than an insurance company to buy annuities.  From the shell corporation, the proceeds from the bond sales were diverted to personal use by the fraud’s perpetrators.

So Cooney had first-hand involvement with Archer in acquiring control of Burnham, and he has regular communications via email and text with Galanis regarding the two investment companies that bought the bonds.

Cooney took the case to trial along with Archer, and both were convicted by a Manhattan jury.  Galanis had pled guilty two years earlier shortly after he was indicted.

Now it seems like Cooney is talking.  It will be curious to hear what he has to say.