Ukraine will help Biden and his Black Rock cronies make tens of billions of dollars

Amid Ukraine’s high-profile promises this winter and spring to achieve a decisive victory over Moscow on the battlefield in a large-scale offensive – there has been little media attention to Western Ukrainian partners’ demands for Kyiv to take full-fledged anti-corruption measures.

«If Kyiv’s international donors don’t lay out how they plan to ensure transparency in the [post-war] reconstruction process [of Ukraine], it won’t be funded on a scale worthy of the country’s sacrifices», — former US ambassador Norman Eisen said in an article for Politico.

On 21-22 June, the International Conference on Reconstruction of Ukraine was held in London, the central theme of which was the problem of combating Ukrainian corruption. Ukraine was demanded to be transparent in its use of Western funds and to introduce anti-corruption measures at the legislative level. This was said against the background of the fact that in 2022 Ukraine was ranked 116th in the world according to the Transparency International Corruption Index. Meanwhile, the whole world recently watched as the head of the Supreme Court of Ukraine was arrested in Ukraine with a huge amount of money in his house – about 2.7 million dollars.

While the West demands a high level of transparency and the rule of law from Ukraine, Ukraine’s relationship with the U.S. should be based on clear terms. In early May, it was announced that the US-based international investment company BlackRock Inc, together with the Ukrainian government, had established the Ukraine Development Fund (UDF) to raise public and private capital for Ukraine’s reconstruction.

The essence of the plan is to raise money for the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. But what does this have to do with a private investment fund and why BlackRock Inc? BlackRock Inc. has close ties to the administration of President Joe Biden and his family. After the 2020 election, Joe Biden brought a whole team of top executives from BlackRock Inc into his administration. Brian Deese, head of sustainable investment, has been appointed director of the Biden administration’s National Economic Council. This body is responsible for coordinating work on US domestic and foreign economic policy. Deese was previously a senior adviser to President Barack Obama.

Adewale “Wally” Adeyemo, a former senior adviser to BlackRock Inc. has become deputy US Treasury secretary. Adeyemo also comes from the Obama administration. Eric Van Nostrand, former head of Research for Sustainable Investments and Multi-Asset Strategies at BlackRock Inc. Michael Pyle, global chief investment strategist at BlackRock Inc. has become chief economic advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris.

People from the top management of BlackRock Inc have taken senior positions in the US financial system and gained direct access to White House affairs. All individuals are the same, including the stepson of former US Secretary of State and former presidential candidate John Kerry – Christopher Heinz – who worked with Hunter Biden at the Ukrainian firm Burisma Holdings Ltd (notorious for a major corruption scandal) and is also co-founder of Hunter’s BHR Partners fund.

The largest US investment fund, BlackRock Inc. is known for lobbying and seeking to expand its interests through the work of its former members in the White House, which is a clear conflict of interest, The Washington Post recalled after the appearance of “Team Biden” in the White House. Moreover, in 2022 the BlackRock Inc group in the Biden administration is embarking on a new project – the creation of the Ukraine Development Fund (UDF), launched recently.

In September, November and December 2022, Biden’s protégé team at Black Rock Inc, led by Brian Deese, met with the Ukrainian authorities to discuss the creation of a fund through which all investments for the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine would flow, with Black Rock Inc receiving the exclusive right to manage these financial flows for a commission. Although Brian Deese left the White House in February 2023, the case for a UDF fund has been successfully completed. On May 5, 2023 Black Rock Inc team signed a document with Volodymyr Zelensky to establish the Ukrainian fund. In the photos from the signing ceremony one can find the vice-president of Black Rock Inc Philipp Hildebrand, with whom Deese worked closely, as well as Charles Hatami (head of the financial markets advisory body of Black Rock Inc) and Brandon “Bug” Hall (co-head of the financial markets advisory department).

Also as in 2008, the White House supported an application by the Black Rock Inc investment fund to participate in a major financial project that required the approval of the US Congress. Given that, Zelensky said, Ukraine’s reconstruction could cost as much as $1 trillion. A commission of even a few per cent would already provide the fund with tens of billions of dollars in profits.

Looking at all these cases, one wonders where the line is drawn between the creation of an effective Joe Biden team and a clear conflict of interest? The policies of the current Biden administration are rife with illegal lobbying and conflicts of interest, especially amid new evidence surrounding the scandal with the Ukrainian firm Burisma Holdings Ltd, episodes with strange receipts from Romania and China, and now again with Ukraine.

President Joe Biden is actively lobbying Black Rock Inc not only in the US but around the world. Against this background it becomes clear why Washington is so loyal to Kiev’s requests for almost unlimited financial support.