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EXCLUSIVE: The $250,000 wire Hunter Biden received from his Chinese business partners was labeled as a "personal investment," despite his legal team claiming the funds were part of a loan and previously saying he never "received any return on his investment," Fox News Digital has learned.
Fox News Digital first reported Tuesday that Hunter Biden received wires that originated in Beijing totaling $260,000 from Chinese business partners during the summer of 2019 — wires that listed the Delaware home of Joe Biden as the beneficiary address for the funds.
The revelations come after Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell told CNN that the wires were "a documented loan (not a distribution or pay-out) that was wired from a private individual to his new bank account which listed the address on his driver’s license, his parents’ address, because it was his only permanent address at the time."
Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, arrives at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, D.C., on June 25, 2023. (Julia Nikhinson/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The wires for the funds originated from Beijing and were linked to BHR Partners.
BHR Partners is a joint-venture between Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca and Chinese investment firm Bohai Capital. BHR Partners is a Beijing-backed private equity firm controlled by Bank of China Limited. Hunter Biden reportedly sat on the board of directors of BHR Partners.
The first wire transfer sent to Hunter Biden, dated July 26, 2019, was for $10,000 from an individual named Ms. Wang Xin.
President Biden walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 11, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Ms. Wang Xin is listed on the website for BHR Partners. It is unclear if the wire came from that Wang Xin.
Fox News Digital has learned that the $10,000 wire was labeled as "ACC/LOAN TO BENEFICIARY."
The second wire transfer sent to Hunter Biden, dated Aug. 2, 2019, was for $250,000 from Li Xiang Sheng — also known as Jonathan Li, the CEO of BHR Partners — and Ms. Tan Ling. The committee is trying to identify Ling’s role.
Fox News Digital has learned that $250,000 wire was labeled as "ACC/PERSONAL INVESTMENT."
The beneficiary for the wires is listed as Robert Hunter Biden with the address "1209 Barley Mill Rd." in Wilmington, Delaware. That address is the main residence for President Biden.
Back in October 2019, despite Hunter having received more than a quarter of a million dollars from BHR-linked associates, then-attorney for Hunter Biden, George Mesires, explained Hunter’s role at BHR Partners by saying he "served only as a member of the board of directors, which he joined based on his interest in seeking ways to bring Chinese capital to international markets."
"It was an unpaid position," Mesires said on Oct. 13, 2019. "In October 2017, Hunter committed to invest approximately $420,000 USD (as of 10/12/2019) to acquire a 10% equity position in BHR, which he still holds."
Mesires, at the time, added: "To date, Hunter has not received any compensation for being on BHR’s board of directors. He has not received any return on his investment; there have been no distributions to BHR shareholders since Hunter obtained his equity interest."
Hunter resigned from the board of BHR at the end of October 2019.
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Meanwhile, as the White House declines to comment on the beneficiary address and wire payments, President Biden has had several interactions with BHR Partners CEO Jonathan Li.
The wires were sent just several months after then-Vice President Joe Biden announced his 2020 presidential campaign. Joe Biden, in August 2019, said he "never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else anything having to do with their business, period."
As for Jonathan Li, according to testimony from Hunter Biden’s former business associate, Devon Archer, as part of the House Oversight Committee’s investigation, Joe Biden sat down for coffee in Beijing with the CEO of BHR. Archer also testified that Biden wrote a college recommendation letter for Li’s daughter to Georgetown. Archer said Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone for at least one call with Li in addition to meeting for coffee.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Separately, Fox News Digital first reported in 2022 that Biden wrote a college recommendation letter for Li's son to Brown University.
"Bank records don’t lie, but President Joe Biden does," Comer told Fox News Digital.
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"In 2020, Joe Biden told Americans that his family never received money from China. We’ve already proved that to be a lie earlier this year, and now we know that two wires originating from Beijing listed Joe Biden’s Wilmington home as the beneficiary address when he was running for president of the United States. When Joe Biden was vice president, he spoke on the phone and had coffee with Jonathan Li in Beijing and later wrote a college letter of recommendation for his children," Comer said.
"Joe Biden’s abuse of public office for his family’s financial gain threatens our national security. What did the Bidens do with this money from Beijing? Americans demand and deserve accountability for President Biden and the first family’s corruption. The Oversight Committee, along with the Judiciary and Ways and Means committees, will continue to follow the evidence and money to provide transparency and accountability."
The discovery of the records comes ahead of the first hearing, to be held by Oversight, as part of House Republicans' impeachment inquiry against President Biden.
The White House declined to comment on the wires.
