A Russian Billionaire in AndyLand
New Yorkers should take special note of one part of the Senate report on Hunter Biden’s shady business dealings — because one of his wealthy patrons got “economic development” tax breaks from our own Gov. Cuomo.
Yes, the main implications are national: Hunter got millions from foreign sources while his dad was veep, and though Obama officials feared conflicts, they did nothing. Records “show potential criminal activity between Hunter Biden, his family and his associates” and Ukrainian, Russian, Kazakh and Chinese nationals, the report says.
And the younger Biden sent “thousands” to folks who’ve been tied to “transactions consistent with human trafficking” or have possible associations with the porn industry or prostitution. Ugly stuff.
Yet New Yorkers may care most about the section noting that Hunter’s firm, Rosemont Seneca Thornton, got $242,000 from Russian billionaire Elena Baturina, which it transferred to BAK USA — a Buffalo firm that raked in a quarter-million in tax breaks under Cuomo’s START-UP NY scheme — and then went belly up.
Rosemont, the report adds, got another $3.5 million from Baturina for unspecified “consulting,” but it’s not clear why Biden’s firm was in the middle of payments from her to BAK; New Yorkers can only wonder if Hunter profited off a deal made possible by their tax dollars.
More important, though, BAK is yet another example of Cuomo’s failed AndyLand approach to upstate’s economy: He picks winners (or at least politically connected firms) and showers them with public funds — in the hope they’ll survive and grow jobs. Alas, many deals have simply flopped.
Like the $90 million one with bulb-maker Soraa, for starters. And the $15 million “film hub” that sold for $1. And, of course, Tesla’s troubled $750 million Buffalo plant . . . Indeed, the deals led to more corruption than jobs. Hmm: Maybe that’s a clue to why a Biden was involved with one of them.