When a million-dollar securities fraud wrapped up two of Hunter Biden’s business partners at Burnham Asset Management, Hunter Biden escaped scrutiny. However, bank records and corporate document drafts now show one of the future first son’s shared bank accounts was used in the fraudulent bond transaction. 

After his partners were arrested and charged in the scheme, Biden moved immediately to distance himself from the firm. He later told lawmakers during the impeachment inquiry into his father, former President Joe Biden, that the proposed work with Burnham never came to fruition. 

Any personal liability for his association with the company at the center of the fraud scheme has now been wiped out, after former President Joe Biden delivered a sweeping pardon for his son from 2014 to the present day. 

But, members of Congress have expressed interest in continuing their probe into what the House GOP impeachment inquiry concluded last year was a Biden family influence peddling scheme especially after a final report from the special counsel prosecuting Hunter Biden left several unanswered questions. 

Last year Just the News reported the first evidence that the younger Biden was much more closely associated with the entities involved in the tribal bonds fraud. Corporate records show that Hunter Biden served as Vice Chairman of Burnham and was promised an $800,000 yearly salary. A signature analysis confirmed Biden signed the employment agreement with Burnham dated April 15, 2015. 

These documents were first collected by the SEC and FBI agents back in 2016, obtained by Congress during the impeachment inquiry, and recently shared with Just the News. New documents from the same probe of the tribal bond fraud show that Hunter Biden was closer to the action than previously known. 

For example, a bank account he shared with one business partner was used in part of the bond transaction scrutinized by federal authorities. One individual close to the bond transaction told Just the News that the bonds were transferred to and from the RSB account to associate them specifically with the Biden name, evoking a pattern identified by House Republican investigators that suggested Hunter Biden was trading on his last name to secure lucrative deals. 

Additionally, a draft private placement memorandum for the bond transaction floated Hunter Biden as a potential board member for the entity set to issue the bonds for the tribal entity, according to the documents obtained by Just the News. 

Abbe Lowell, lawyer for Hunter Biden, did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News about the bank records. 

The bank account

The bank records show $15 million-worth of initial Wakpamni municipal bonds were transferred out of the Rosemont Seneca Bohai, LLC bank account, listed under the name of Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer, just days before Biden signed the Burnham employment agreement. This transaction was identified by investigators as part of a wider $60 million fraud scheme for which Archer and several other co-defendants were prosecuted. 

According to the Justice Department, from March 2014 to April 2016, Archer and another partner, Jason Galanis, along with several other co-defendants, were charged with defrauding an Oglala Sioux Native American tribal entity by inducing it to issue bonds, but then failed to invest them as they promised. Archer and Galanis were ultimately convicted, though a judge recently ruled that Archer should be re-sentenced.

After his former partners were arrested, Hunter Biden’s lawyer at the time, George Mesires, released a statement immediately distancing his client from the alleged scheme at Burnham and claimed Archer and Galanis had used Biden’s name without his knowledge.

“The defendants...invoked and used Hunter’s name—without his knowledge—to lend their business venture more credibility,” Mesires said, according to the Wall Street Journal. “As soon as Hunter learned of the illegal conduct, and that his name was being used in this unauthorized and inappropriate manner, Hunter took immediate steps to ensure that his business interests would not be associated with the Burnham Group or with any of the defendants." 

But, the records reviewed by Just the News and congressional testimony from Devon Archer show Rosemont Seneca Bohai and its bank account were closely associated with Hunter Biden. Additionally, evidence provided to the House Ways and Means Committee by two IRS whistleblowers during the impeachment probe show that Hunter Biden was, at one time, the corporate secretary of the firm. 

Archer confirmed Hunter Biden’s association with the firm and its bank account in his impeachment testimony. 

“Hunter was a corporate secretary of RSB. We had a handshake 50-50 ownership. And he conducted, you know, banking business with the COO,” Archer told congressional investigators during his July 2023 testimony. 

The Rosemont Seneca Bohai account was also the primary vehicle for Hunter Biden to receive his salary from the controversial Ukrainian energy company, Burisma Holdings. The company landed at the center of allegations from House Republicans that the Biden family was engaged in an influence peddling scheme using their name and family patriarch’s position as vice president. 

The same bank statement for 2015 reviewed by Just the News records the monthly payments from Burisma, and transfers to Hunter Biden in and out of that account.

You can see excerpts from the bank statement below: 

Proposed leadership role

In addition to the bank transfers, a draft private placement memorandum for the bond offering on behalf of the Wakpamni Lake Community—a subsidiary of the Oglala Sioux Nation—shows that Hunter Biden was floated as a board member in the early stages of the deal. The draft memo, which lays out the plans for the tribal bond offering proposed Hunter Biden serve as a director of a new entity, Sovereign Re Capital Holdings Inc., the bond issuer. 

The entry includes a short bio that highlights Biden’s work for the Boies, Schiller, Flexner, LLP law firm and various Rosemont Seneca firms. It also highlights his Honorary Co-Chair role on the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee, the same year his father was inaugurated as vice president. He is listed alongside his longtime business partner Devon Archer, who testified to the House impeachment inquiry in 2023. 

You can read the memo below: 

It is unclear whether the structure outlined in the draft document was ever involved in the bond transaction or if Hunter Biden was actually offered the role. 

But, during Archer’s trial for the fraudulent scheme, his attorney Matthew L. Schwartz, claimed that Hunter Biden “was part of this deal.” This claim was disputed by Hunter Biden’s then-lawyer, who tried to distance Biden from the Burnham firm and fraud scheme when Archer and Galanis were arrested. 

After the bond scheme came under renewed scrutiny during the House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry, Hunter Biden reiterated to congressional investigators in his testimony that he never became part of the Burnham investment. 

“And did you have any active participation in Burnham, either as an equity holder, director, or officer?” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., asked Biden in his impeachment inquiry deposition earlier this year.

“No. I don't think that ever came to fruition. I think that there was a proposal that I'd be a part of that, but it all fell apart in all of this,” Biden replied. 

One Senator believes it may be possible to bring Hunter Biden back for more questioning. Now that he is protected by his father’s expansive pardon, Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wis., says Hunter Biden cannot exercise his fifth amendment right to avoid incriminating himself. 

“But what is interesting is, with Hunter Biden's pardon, he has no Fifth Amendment right not to testify and tell the truth, and so he could be, we could prosecute him for lying to Congress,” Sen. Johnson told the John Solomon Reports podcast earlier this month. “He's going to have to answer truthfully. So that's a real possibility.”