by Andrew Kerr
Hunter Biden continues to hold a minority stake in a Chinese private equity firm 100 days into President Joe Biden’s term, business records show.
Hunter Biden holds a 10% equity stake in BHR Partners through his company, Skaneateles LLC, according to Qixinbao and Baidu, two independent services that provide business records on Chinese corporations based on China’s National Credit Information Publicity System.
Joe Biden promised in October 2019 that if elected president, nobody in his family would have any business relationship with any foreign corporation or country.
“No one in my family will have an office in the White House, will sit in on meetings as if they are a cabinet member, will, in fact, have any business relationship with anyone that relates to a foreign corporation or a foreign country,” Joe Biden told reporters in Iowa. “Period. Period. End of story.”
BHR is co-owned by the Chinese state-controlled Bank of China, the business records show, and manages the equivalent of $2.1 billion in assets, according to its website. Hunter Biden acquired his 10% stake in the firm with a $420,000 investment in October 2017, according to a statement released by his lawyer in October 2019.
BHR’s business file was last updated on July 28, 2020, the records show.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in early February that Hunter Biden was in the process of divesting his ownership stake in the equity firm.
“He has been working to unwind his investment but I would certainly point you — he’s a private citizen — I would point you to him or his lawyers on the outside,” Psaki said.
It’s unclear if Hunter Biden expects to receive a return on his investment in the company after his divestment is complete.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer, George Mesires, and BHR have not returned requests for comment.
Mesires said in his October 2019 statement that Hunter Biden had not received any return on his investment in BHR.
Hunter Biden is the sole beneficial owner of Skaneateles LLC, the business entity that holds his 10% stake in BHR, according to Washington D.C. business records.
However, emails located on a copy of Hunter Biden’s alleged laptop show that he was told on multiple occasions by his business partner Eric Schwerin that he could expect to receive significant payments from BHR beginning in 2019, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported.
“BHR is due to have a significant distribution in 2019 because of the CATL exit,” Schwerin told Hunter Biden in a November 2018 email.
In another email the following month Schwerin told Hunter Biden that he can expect BHR to generate income for him “over the next couple of years.”
Joe Biden altered his promise in regards to his family’s foreign business dealings following his election victory, saying in December that nobody in his family will “be involved in any business, any enterprise, that is conflicted with or appears to be in conflict, with the appropriate distance from, the presidency and government.”
The White House did not return a request for comment.
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Andrew Kerr
