Did Hunter Biden lie about resigning from board of China-backed firm?

Well, that Hollywood Hills mansion won’t pay for itself, you know. Almost exactly six months ago, Hunter Biden announced that he would resign from the board of BHR (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company, the investment management group backed by “Chinese state-owned entities,” according to Bloomberg. Hunter’s involvement in the firm — and his use of Joe Biden’s 2013 flight on Air Force Two to Beijing to secure backing from those entities — had become a big talking point for Donald Trump and Republicans in the presidential campaign.

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Hunter resigned, his spokesman explained at the time, because Hunter “never anticipated the barrage of false charges against both him and his father by the President of the United States.” Speaking of false, however, it now appears that Hunter never did resign from the board. The Daily Caller did some research on BHR, and guess who’s still listed in its official records in China?

[S]ix months after Hunter Biden pledged to relinquish his position with BHR Partners, no evidence has surfaced to prove he actually followed through on his promise. …

Chinese business records the DCNF accessed Tuesday still name Hunter Biden as a director of BHR. He also retains a 10% equity stake in BHR through his company, Skaneateles LLC, business records for the Chinese private equity firm show.

BHR manages the equivalent of $2.1 billion in assets, according to its website. Hunter Biden has served as an unpaid member of BHR’s board since its founding in 2013, and in October 2017 he obtained his equity stake in the firm with a $420,000 investment, according to Mesires.

Hunter Biden had arranged for then-Vice President Joe Biden to shake hands with the CEO of BHR in December 2013, a meeting that caused some White House advisors to worry whether the younger Biden was exposing his father to criticism, The New Yorker reported.

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One question might be whether these records are accurate or up to date. This data comes from BHR’s own official filings, however, which shows Skaneateles as a major stakeholder in the firm. That seems like more of a problem than the seat on the board. BHR might have wanted to exploit Hunter’s connections by giving him that seat, but Hunter made sure to keep his personal benefit in place while pledging to resign from the board, whether he did or not.

Either way, Hunter appears to have flat-out lied about the board seat and misled at best about disconnecting from his ties to China. That means that Hunter will be in position to benefit from his father’s China policies if Joe wins the presidential election, just the same as Hunter benefited when Joe was VP. And what are Joe’s China policies? The Trump campaign offered this reminder last week:

Get ready for a new round of attacks on Biden over China — both Bidens, this time around. This is not a good year in which to be seen as a lackey of Beijing, needless to say, and Hunter’s apparent deception on this point is going to be very tough for Joe to explain away.

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Addendum: Jeff Dunetz wonders, “How long does it take to resign from the board of a Chinese company?”

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