Hunter Biden to leave Chinese company board, his lawyer says
Son of Democratic presidential candidate would ‘agree not to serve on boards of, or work on behalf of, foreign-owned companies’ if father elected
Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden, the former vice president and a Democratic presidential candidate, intends to step down from the board of a Chinese company by the end of the month, according to a statement from his lawyer.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer, George Mesires, said in a statement Sunday that Biden would resign from the company, BHR, an equity investment fund manager.
The statement added that if Joe Biden were to be elected president, his son would “agree not to serve on boards of, or work on behalf of, foreign-owned companies.”
The role of the younger Biden in foreign companies has been a source of political grist for President Donald Trump, who this month publicly urged Ukraine and China to investigate the Bidens’ role in companies there.
In the statement, Mesires explained the role of Hunter Biden as an independent board member of Burisma, the largest independent natural gas producer in Ukraine. He earned $50,000 a month on the board of the company.
As vice president, the elder Biden pressured Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who U.S. representatives warned was soft on corruption and whose office oversaw investigations into the gas company’s owner. No evidence has surfaced that the vice president, who was carrying out policies of the Obama administration, was motivated by his son’s business interests.
Still, Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani have used the connection to attack the elder Biden, a political opponent who is running for president as a Democrat.
“China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine,” Trump said in a recent interview with reporters.
Trump has his own troubles related to Ukraine.
In July, he urged the Ukrainian president in a phone call to investigate the Bidens.
The House has started an impeachment inquiry into that call and whether Trump used his role as president to influence the 2020 election.
Companies associated with Hunter Biden or his business partners have struck deals involving China in recent years.
The statement Monday from Biden’s lawyer said he served only as a member of BHR’s 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.
In explaining his involvement with the Chinese and Ukrainian companies, the younger Biden is seeking to shelter his father from any political fallout of his business dealings.
His father played a prominent role in U.S. foreign policy, and he and his team have sought to denounce the stories as a political move by Trump to weaken a political opponent.