According to DOJ records, the Department of Justice (DOJ) accused a crucial witness on Monday in the investigation into suspected corruption within the Biden family for receiving funds from the same Chinese company that gave Hunter Biden’s businesses and allies millions of dollars.
Gal Luft, a dual citizen of the United States and Israel, allegedly “willfully” disregarded the requirement to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) while attempting to “advance the interests of China” in the United States by arranging the shady export of Iranian oil and Chinese weapons, claims the DOJ. According to the DOJ, Hunter Biden and his associates, including James Biden, received at least $700,000 from CEFC China Energy beginning in 2015, according to a Senate committee report and a Washington Post review of Biden documents. The Chinese company is also said to have sent millions of dollars to accounts linked to Hunter Biden and his associates, including James Biden, in 2017.
“For years, Gal Luft, the defendant, a dual U.S.- Israeli citizen, and others known and unknown, engaged in multiple international criminal schemes, including a scheme to act within the United States to advance the interests of the People’s Republic of China (“China”) as agents of China-based principals, without registering as foreign agents as required under U.S. law,” the DOJ indictment states.
On August 4, 2017, a CEFC subsidiary wired $100,000 to Hunter Biden’s company Owasco P.C., just days after Hunter texted CEFC partner Raymond Zhao threatening to “forever hold a grudge” if specific business was not completed. President Joe Biden was indicated as being close in the text message as being Hunter’s “father”; images from Hunter Biden’s laptop demonstrate that Joe was with Hunter on the day the text message was received.
A Senate investigation found that on August 8, 2017, the CEFC subsidiary transmitted payments worth more than $5 million to Hudson West III, a company connected to Hunter. Then, Hudson West III made a roughly $5 million payment to Hunter’s own corporation, Owasco.
The DOJ’s indictment cites as evidence against Luft behavior also allegedly exhibited by Hunter Biden.
The DOJ claims that Luft knowingly violated FARA by seeking to influence U.S. foreign policy toward China and “concealed these efforts by creating the false appearance that they were simply the sharing of sincere opinions of an independent expert on national security and international relations,” according to the DOJ indictment.
Meanwhile, Republicans lawmakers, like Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, have previously called on the DOJ to assess whether or not Hunter Biden may have willfully failed to register under FARA.
In May 2017, Hunter Biden sent a message to his business associate Tony Bobulinski about setting up a shell company apparently in order to avoid registering as a foreign agent.
“We don’t want to have to register as foreign agents under the FCPA which is much more expansive than people who should know choose not to know,” Hunter’s message to Bobulinski stated. “No matter what it will need to be a U.S. company at some level in order for us to make bids on federal and state funded projects.”
Hunter Biden’s message seemingly referred to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and FARA. Legal experts say Hunter almost certainly violated FARA.
The DOJ indictment alleges that Luft agreed to “covertly recruit and pay” a former “high-ranking U.S. government official” to “publicly support” certain policies on behalf of Chinese handlers.
For example, in 2015, Luft allegedly promoted China’s Belt and Road Initiative to an individual who he also invited to a “private meeting” in Washington, D.C., with the “then-chairman of CEFC China.”
Luft allegedly told the individual he’d invited to the private meeting that CEFC’s chairman had “very close relations with President Xi Jinping.”
At the same time, the House Oversight Committee has recently alleged that CEFC and its chairman, Ye Jianming, sought to cultivate a relationship with the Biden family between 2015 and 2018. The Biden family allegedly received over $10 million from companies controlled by foreign nationals through a complex money-laundering scheme, the committee claims.
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