China bank turns Biden records over to Congress

FPI / April 17, 2023

A Chinese-American bank has turned over to Senate Republicans records which show Joe Biden's son, Hunter, and brother, James, received millions of dollars from companies in communist China.

Cathay Bank, which is based in Los Angeles but has offices in China, voluntarily turned over bank records requested by GOP Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Charles E. Grassley of Iowa.

“In my mind, it’s the Chinese government telling Joe Biden, ‘We got the goods on you, buddy, and we’re willing to dish it up,’ ” Johnson told The Washington Times. “We just requested the records, and no questions asked; they just turned them over to us. That’s not by accident.”

"Every other American bank denied the two Republicans’ requests for financial records," Susan Ferrechio noted in an April 12 report for The Washington Times.

The pattern of American banks refusing to turn over records on Biden clan business dealings is not new.

House Republicans say they are "following a trail of suspicious activity reports at the Treasury Department to gain access to bank accounts related to the Biden business deals that other financial institutions have declined to provide voluntarily," Ferrechio noted.

Since gaining the majority, Republicans now have better access to Treasury Department records and greater power to subpoena bank records.

House Oversight Committee chair Rep. James Comer of Kentucky said he began seeking Cathay Bank records nearly a year ago.

Comer wrote to Cathay Bank President Chang M. Liu: “The American people deserve to know the president’s connections to his son’s business deals, which have occurred at the expense of American interests and may represent a national security threat.”

The records the Cathay Bank provided to Sens. Johnson and Grassley show deep financial ties between the president’s son and brother and the now-defunct CEFC China Energy, which had ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). CEFC Energy wired $1 million to Hudson West III, a joint venture owned by Hunter Biden and Gongwen Dong, a business associate of CEFC’s founder and chairman, Ye Jianming.

A second Chinese energy company, Northern International Capital Holdings, which is associated with the communist-backed CEFC, wired $5 million to Hudson West III, the Cathay Bank records show. The money sent from the two companies funded a $4.8 million wire transfer from Hudson West III to Hunter Biden’s companies Owasco P.C. and Owasco LLC, and Lion Hall Group, owned by James Biden.

The Cathay records show Owasco P.C. sent 20 wire transfers totaling nearly $1.4 million to the Lion Hall Group. Hudson West III paid Hunter Biden a $500,000 retainer fee plus $100,000 per month. James Biden was paid $65,000 per month, the records show.

The transactions were made from August 2017 through October 2018, after Joe Biden left the Obama White House.

“This is $5 million from a company connected to Ye Jianming and CEFC and its affiliates, which are essentially arms of the communist Chinese regime,” Grassley said during a Senate floor speech.

Republicans said the shady business deals could be softening Joe Biden’s stance against the monumental threat communist China poses to the U.S.

Sen. Johnson pointed out that the Biden Department of Justice in February 2022 decided to disband the China Initiative, a program that was implemented under President Donald Trump to combat China’s efforts to steal cutting-edge technology and other U.S. innovations. The DOJ said it dropped the program because of concerns from civil rights groups.

Biden also suspended tariffs on Chinese solar panels.

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