Francis Moore
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
On April 25, the U.S. President Joe Biden officially announced that he was nominating his candidacy for the 2024 elections. Despite the fact that his ratings do not show the best results – 58% of U.S. citizens believe that the country is moving in the wrong direction, while almost half of Democratic Americans do not want him to re-enter the presidential race [1], Joe Biden will win the primaries with almost 100% chance, experts say.
In addition to his advanced age and not the highest ratings, Joe Biden has other problems. These are, of course, the scandals around his family, in particular his son Hunter. Recently, the Delaware State Attorney’s Office announced its intention to indict the son of the American leader, Hunter Biden, in connection with perjury and tax fraud. It is noteworthy that this is happening after the former U.S. President Donald Trump, who announced his participation in the upcoming presidential race, was charged with 33 criminal charges, some of which are extremely dubious.
The administration of Joe Biden clearly understood how important it was to clean up all possible problem points before his nomination for a second term, primarily related to the corruption cases of his son Hunter Biden in Ukraine during his work at the Ukrainian mining company BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD. The authorities of Ukraine, together with the anti-corruption authorities and the court, put an end to the scandalous case around the “Ukrainian past” of the son of the current U.S. president, having coped with this task successfully and very timely by the White House.
On March 28, 2023, The High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine (HACC) approved an agreement with the investigation in criminal proceedings No. 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, connected with the company “BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD” and proven facts of money laundering, in which, in particular, the name of Hunter Biden appears. The court found that the former head of BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD, Nikolay Zlochevsky, the former Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, was involved in an attempt to bribe top anti-corruption officers to help close the case of investigating the illegal financial activities of the campaign, which featured the name of the son of the current US president. HACC has approved a plea agreement between the prosecutor of The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) and Andriy Kich, one of the former owners of a group of companies affiliated with Mykola Zlochevsky.
Joe Biden’s administration caught the moment when the corrupt “Ukrainian past” of the son of the US president could inflict an irreparable blow to the already not very high rating of the incumbent leader. In the White House, with the support of Kiev, everything was done so that the news that spread all over the world in June 2020 about an attempt to bribe anti-corruption officers in the case of “BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD” again did not receive wide publicity [2].
In June 2020, businessman Andrei Kicha, together with two partners, was detained while transferring a colossal amount of a cash bribe in the amount of $6 million to the heads of two anti-corruption departments of the country for assistance in stopping the investigation against the head of the energy company BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD Nikolay Zlochevsky. The European media claimed that it was the largest documented bribe in all of Europe. The bribe was intended for the heads of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine Nazar Kholodnytsky and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NACBU) Artem Sytnyk for closing criminal proceedings No. 420140000000001590 dated 11/17/2014, in which Nikolai Zlochevsky was the main suspect [3].
[Original of the accusation against Nikolay Zlochevsky in the case of money laundering by BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD]
It is noteworthy that Andriy Kicha himself in the company “BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD” for a long time held the position of Director of Legal Affairs, and was also a personal confidant and lawyer directly to Nikolai Zlochevsky in resolving “non-standard” issues.
What could be interesting about the above decision of the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine dated March 28, 2023? At a minimum, the public was not allowed to get acquainted with it, since the HACC decided to prohibit the publication of the information indicated in the court verdict in case No. 991/2657/23 (judicial proceedings No. 1-KP/991/43/23) [4]. Probably, such a decision could not be made in Kyiv.
[Information about the BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD case, where the name of Hunter Biden appears, is officially closed from prying eyes]
No less remarkable is the fact that out of more than 120 procedural documents (interim court decisions) published in the Unified State Register of Judicial Decisions of Ukraine relating to criminal proceedings No. The rest are published in a limited format of “introductory and operative part” in order to hide from the public as much as possible the facts and circumstances of the case related to the name of Hunter Biden.
One of, and perhaps even the only, of the rulings that provides more information about the process is the HACC ruling of 08/14/2020, in case No. 991/6589/20 (proceedings No. the register of court decisions No. 91089712 [5], which states that the suspect (Andriy Kicha) gave officials (heads of SAPO and NACBU) a bribe in the amount of $6 million for closing the criminal case against his boss, Nikolai Zlochevsky.
[Part of the text from the HACC ruling with details around the $5 bribe to anti-corruption officers by the head of BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD]
The most interesting thing is that the terms of the agreement concluded on March 28, 2023 between the accused and the investigation in the case of BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD, in which Hunter Biden received significant illegal income, are not disclosed. The characters in the criminal case have not been named by the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine either.
Under pressure from Washington and Kyiv, the Anti-Corruption Court, which is the pinnacle of the anti-corruption system created by the US Democratic Party in Ukraine, decided to hide from the public the loudest and biggest anti-corruption case in Europe. It would seem that this is an achievement that Europe and the United States should shout to the whole world about, but the BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD case is too dangerous for Joe Biden’s new election campaign, as his political opponents know. This case is especially dangerous against the background of the renewed investigation of unsolved criminal cases against Hunter Biden in the United States itself.
Let us briefly recall that BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD is a private gas producing group of companies in Ukraine, the only vertically integrated holding company in the country that carries out exploration, production, service and sale of hydrocarbons. BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD is one of the three largest independent gas producers in Ukraine. The founder and ultimate beneficiary of the company was and remains the ex-Minister of Ecology of Ukraine under President Viktor Yanukovych Mykola Zlochevsky [6].
After the change of power in Ukraine in 2014, Mykola Zlochevsky realized that an established highly profitable business would be taken away from him. Therefore, he acquired high patronage in the United States, introducing in April 2014 the second son of the then US Vice President Joseph Biden, Hunter Biden, to the board of directors of BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD. According to an investigation by The Hill journalist John Solomon, Hunter Biden’s American firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners LLC, received regular transfers from spring 2014 to autumn 2015 totaling more than $3 million for political patronage of Nikolai Zlochevsky. It is noteworthy that Hunter Biden did not have a specialized education or experience in the field of gas production. At the same time, according to information from open sources, the salary of the son of the ex-Vice President of the United States was $50,000 a month.
Later, the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine announced the investigation of a criminal case against a number of companies from the gas industry that were affiliated with BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD, and against Mykola Zlochevsky himself (criminal proceedings No. 420140000000001590 dated 11/17/2014, in which he was charged).
One of the most important circumstances of the criminal case against BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD is that, in addition to official salary payments, Nikolai Zlochevsky paid Hunter Biden from his “personal account” in the company to the company accounts of the son of the former US Deputy Prime Minister. Konstantin Kulik, a senior group of prosecutors who investigated the BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD case, said: “In the period from November 2014 to October 2015, money stolen from Ukrainians was transferred, which was on the account of the company BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD in the Latvian AS PrivatBank on account of ROSEMONT SENECA BONAI LLC with MORGAN STANLEY bank – mainly with payments of US$83,333 totaling US$3.4 million for advisory services. This company, according to the extract given to us by witnesses, is closely associated with [former US Vice President Joe] Biden. This is payment only for the political “roof” that Zlochevsky was provided by [ex-US Vice President Joe] Biden” [7].
[Evidence of sending illegal funds to Hunter Biden company accounts]
Regarding the Rosemont Seneca company, it is owned by Devon Archer and Hunter Biden and appeared in the materials of criminal proceedings No. 420140000000001590 of November 17, 2014, in which Nikolai Zlochevsky was charged. One of the documents from law enforcement agencies of Ukraine in the financial sector indicated that a number of persons, which included Andriy Kicha and Nikolai Zlochevsky, organized a criminal group to launder illegally obtained funds, some of which, in the amount of $ 3.4 million, were ultimately As a result, they got into the accounts of the company of Hunter Biden, the son of former US Vice President Joe Biden.
[Text with suspicion to Nikolai Zlochevsky in criminal case No. 420140000000001590 dated 11/17/2014, where accounts, dates, names of senders and recipients, as well as transfer amounts]
“As a result of the above illegal actions, Kurchenko S.V., Zlochevsky M.V. Kichi A.V., Poza M.A. and other persons were legalized (laundered) the funds of a criminal organization in the amount of 16,630,337 US dollars (14,665,982 + 1,964,375 = 16,630,357) and 550,965 Euros (366,015 + 185,95). Later, in the period from 11/18/2014 to 10/16/2015 Zlochevsky M.V. and Kichey A.V. part of the above funds of criminal origin, as a result of a number of financial transactions with them on the accounts of the company “BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD”, was debited to the accounts of 4 individuals,” – from case No. 420140000000001590 dated 11/17/2014.
Another interesting fact was the dismissal of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Shokin, who at the time of the beginning of the investigation held this position. US Vice President Joe Biden was forced to make another visit to Ukraine in December 2015 to help remove him from office.
In February 2020, Viktor Shokin gave an interview to Rudolph Giuliani, the personal lawyer of then-US President Donald Trump, making a number of sensational statements. The ex-Prosecutor General accused US Vice President Joe Biden, whose son was a member of the leadership of the Ukrainian company BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD, in relation to which Shokin, being the Prosecutor General of Ukraine in 2015-2016, was involved in organizing the attempt on his life. led the investigation.
“I have no obvious enemies, which I know for sure that this is an enemy. Of course, one of the versions, but this version requires research, but there is the possibility of Biden’s involvement in some way in these issues”, he said. Whether the attempt on the life of Viktor Shokin was part of hiding Hunter Biden’s inconvenient past is unknown. The investigation into this episode did not proceed.
Thus, the agreement concluded on March 28, 2023 by the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine with the suspects in the BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD case is a well-executed campaign to hide the corrupt past of the son of the current US President, Hunter Biden. Joe Biden, in the political struggle against his main opponent Donald Trump, took a big risk by inspiring charges against him on a number of rather dubious articles. The goal is clear – to drag out a competitor in court cases that should hinder the success of his election campaign.
At the same time, the US prosecutor’s office, as well as a group of congressmen, began to act against Joe Biden himself and many members of his family, which the White House did not take into account in advance. All sorts of accusations have come into play, from abuse of office to dubious receipt of millions of dollars from China. They did not forget about the scandalous income of his son Hunter from the Ukrainian mining company BURISMA HOLDINGS LTD. The court decision on collusion with the authorities of Ukraine, which no one in Europe and the United States gave much publicity, should smooth out the negative effect of the prosecutor’s checks and accusations from members of Congress before the presidential elections in 2024.
- https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/6jir2a8rbh/econTabReport.pdf
- https://ctrana.online/news/272802-nabu-i-sap-podtverdili-presechenie-podkupa-kholodnitskoho-i-sytnika.html
- https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-polytics/2699981-gpu-postou-ogolosila-pidozru-eksministru-zlocevskomu.html
- https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/109844097
- https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/91089712
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burisma
- https://glavk.net/news/752099-istochnik_na_bajdena_iz_burismy_vyveli_3.4_milliona
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
