- dilbert firestorm
- 10-12-2019, 10:55 PM
He sends letters to NYT, twitter & facebook.
- dilbert firestorm
- 10-12-2019, 10:56 PM
New York Times responds with their statement.
- dilbert firestorm
- 10-12-2019, 10:57 PM
- dilbert firestorm
- 10-12-2019, 11:09 PM
heres the NYT OP ED article that got Biden's gander.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/09/o...e-problem.html
What Hunter Biden Did Was Legal — And That’s the Problem
We need a Washington Corrupt Practices Act to stop political families from self-dealing.
By Peter Schweizer
Mr. Schweizer is the author, most recently, of “Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends.”
Oct. 9, 2019
In 2016, JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $264 million as part of a settlement with the federal government. The reason? An Asian subsidiary of the company had hired the children of Chinese government officials in the hopes of currying favor with their powerful parents — a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Had the same thing happened with a foreign company and an American politician’s family, however, no violation would have occurred — because no equivalent American law prevents a foreign company or government from hiring the family members of American politicians.
This glaring loophole provides political families with an opportunity to effectively “offshore” corruption and cronyism. It gives the politically connected class enormously tempting opportunities for self-dealing, the sort of thing that is blatantly illegal in almost any other context.
Consider two Washington power families: the Bidens and the McConnell-Chaos.
As vice president, Joe Biden served as point person on American policy toward China and Ukraine. In both instances, his son Hunter, a businessman, landed deals he was apparently unqualified to score save for one thing: his father.
In December 2013, Joe and Hunter Biden flew aboard Air Force Two to China; less than two weeks after the trip, Hunter’s firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners, which he founded with two other businessmen in June 2013, finalized a deal to open a fund, BHR Partners, whose largest shareholder is the government-run Bank of China, even though he had scant background in private equity. (Representatives of the fund claim that the timing of the deal and the Bidens’ trip to China was coincidental.) Thus far, the firm has invested about $2.1 billion, according to its website.
In trying to disprove a link between the father’s powerful position and the son’s surprising success, Hunter Biden’s lawyers claim he did not take an equity stake in BHR Partners until after Joe Biden left office. Hunter, whose company, according to its financial records, held an equity stake in the fund, took a board seat when it was founded, in December 2013. At the same time, his business partner, Devon Archer, was vice chairman.
With the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, Joe Biden became point person in Ukraine as well. That same year, Hunter Biden landed a board position with the Ukrainian energy giant Burisma Holdings.
Despite having no background in energy or Ukraine, the vice president’s son was paid as much as $50,000 a month, according to financial records. (He left the board in early 2019.)
Why would someone with so little experience be able to command such enormous payments? Joe Biden recently claimed, “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.” But Hunter Biden admitted to The New Yorker that on one occasion, they had in fact discussed his work for Burisma: “Dad said, ‘I hope you know what you are doing,’ and I said, ‘I do.’” Moreover, a representative for BHR Partners has said that Hunter Biden introduced his father to one of the company’s founders during their December 2013 China trip.
The Bidens are hardly alone. President Trump’s transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, and her husband, Senator Mitch McConnell, are being accused of having profited from their commercial ties to Beijing. In 2004, the two had a net worth of about $3.1 million, according to public disclosures. Three years later, the range was $3.1 million to $12.7 million. The next year, their net worth rocketed to $7.3 million to $33.1 million.
What changed? In 2008, Ms. Chao’s father, James Chao, gave the couple a “gift” of $5 million to $25 million (politicians are required to report money in ranges, not exact amounts). Certainly, their wealth has continued to grow.
Mr. Chao’s generosity was made possible by the fortune he has amassed through his shipping company, Foremost Group, which has thrived in large part because of its close ties with the Chinese government. In late 1993, Mr. Chao and his son-in-law, Mr. McConnell, traveled to China as guests of the state-owned shipyard conglomerate and military contractor, China State Shipbuilding Corporation. There they met with an old classmate of Mr. Chao’s, the former Chinese president Jiang Zemin.
Mr. McConnell’s once hard-line condemnations of China softened in the years to follow. For example, as The New Republic has noted, Mr. McConnell went from telling University of Louisville students that America would never forget Tiananmen Square, in the late 1980s, to hosting the Chinese ambassador at the same school several years later, even as the ambassador publicly defended the regime’s suppression of the Falun Gong.
All along, the Chaos continued to gain influence. Mr. McConnell’s sister-in-law, Angela Chao, and James Chao sat on the board of the holding company for China State Shipbuilding. While Elaine Chao was secretary of labor under George W. Bush, Foremost Group ordered several enormous cargo ships from a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding. Secretary Chao and her father also appeared in several tandem interviews with Chinese media, and in at least one, they sit in front of the Department of Transportation’s emblem and alongside images of a book written by Mr. Chao. Today, Angela Chao sits on the board of the Chinese government’s Bank of China.
Last month, the House Oversight and Reform Committee started an investigation into whether Secretary Chao has leveraged her government positions to benefit her family. But so far there is no investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden. Defenders claim there must first be proof that a law was broken to open an investigation.
That’s exactly backward. Congress can and should conduct an inquiry to determine whether anything illegal occurred.
The problem more broadly is that we rely on a hodgepodge of laws that lack the clarity and bright ethical lines found in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. That needs to change. International bribery laws clearly state that if a person or entity pays a politician’s family member and gets favors in return, it’s an act of bribery; it’s no different from the politician taking the money himself.
Obviously, the immediate family members of high-ranking politicians have to work — no one is saying otherwise. But given their unparalleled access, they should also be required to be transparent about what they are doing.
At a minimum, we need to strengthen American disclosure rules. Joe Biden and Elaine Chao have to report when someone sends them a $500 campaign donation, or when they make a $5,000 investment in a stock.
But when their family members strike lucrative deals with a foreign
government or oligarch, the reporting requirements are vague. The personal financial disclosure rules for American public officials should be expanded to include details concerning all their immediate family members (and not just their spouses, as the law currently states), and any dealings with foreign governments.
To the public, closing a loophole this glaring seems anodyne, a no-brainer. But lawmakers set the system up this way for a reason; they will not stop the foreign cash influence game voluntarily. That’s why we need a Washington Corrupt Practices Act, one that clearly shuts down foreign influence and self-enrichment for some of America’s most powerful families on both sides of the aisle.
Peter Schweizer, an investigative journalist, is the author, most recently, of “Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends.”
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/09/o...e-problem.html
What Hunter Biden Did Was Legal — And That’s the Problem
We need a Washington Corrupt Practices Act to stop political families from self-dealing.
By Peter Schweizer
Mr. Schweizer is the author, most recently, of “Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends.”
Oct. 9, 2019
In 2016, JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $264 million as part of a settlement with the federal government. The reason? An Asian subsidiary of the company had hired the children of Chinese government officials in the hopes of currying favor with their powerful parents — a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Had the same thing happened with a foreign company and an American politician’s family, however, no violation would have occurred — because no equivalent American law prevents a foreign company or government from hiring the family members of American politicians.
This glaring loophole provides political families with an opportunity to effectively “offshore” corruption and cronyism. It gives the politically connected class enormously tempting opportunities for self-dealing, the sort of thing that is blatantly illegal in almost any other context.
Consider two Washington power families: the Bidens and the McConnell-Chaos.
As vice president, Joe Biden served as point person on American policy toward China and Ukraine. In both instances, his son Hunter, a businessman, landed deals he was apparently unqualified to score save for one thing: his father.
In December 2013, Joe and Hunter Biden flew aboard Air Force Two to China; less than two weeks after the trip, Hunter’s firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners, which he founded with two other businessmen in June 2013, finalized a deal to open a fund, BHR Partners, whose largest shareholder is the government-run Bank of China, even though he had scant background in private equity. (Representatives of the fund claim that the timing of the deal and the Bidens’ trip to China was coincidental.) Thus far, the firm has invested about $2.1 billion, according to its website.
In trying to disprove a link between the father’s powerful position and the son’s surprising success, Hunter Biden’s lawyers claim he did not take an equity stake in BHR Partners until after Joe Biden left office. Hunter, whose company, according to its financial records, held an equity stake in the fund, took a board seat when it was founded, in December 2013. At the same time, his business partner, Devon Archer, was vice chairman.
With the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, Joe Biden became point person in Ukraine as well. That same year, Hunter Biden landed a board position with the Ukrainian energy giant Burisma Holdings.
Despite having no background in energy or Ukraine, the vice president’s son was paid as much as $50,000 a month, according to financial records. (He left the board in early 2019.)
Why would someone with so little experience be able to command such enormous payments? Joe Biden recently claimed, “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.” But Hunter Biden admitted to The New Yorker that on one occasion, they had in fact discussed his work for Burisma: “Dad said, ‘I hope you know what you are doing,’ and I said, ‘I do.’” Moreover, a representative for BHR Partners has said that Hunter Biden introduced his father to one of the company’s founders during their December 2013 China trip.
The Bidens are hardly alone. President Trump’s transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, and her husband, Senator Mitch McConnell, are being accused of having profited from their commercial ties to Beijing. In 2004, the two had a net worth of about $3.1 million, according to public disclosures. Three years later, the range was $3.1 million to $12.7 million. The next year, their net worth rocketed to $7.3 million to $33.1 million.
What changed? In 2008, Ms. Chao’s father, James Chao, gave the couple a “gift” of $5 million to $25 million (politicians are required to report money in ranges, not exact amounts). Certainly, their wealth has continued to grow.
Mr. Chao’s generosity was made possible by the fortune he has amassed through his shipping company, Foremost Group, which has thrived in large part because of its close ties with the Chinese government. In late 1993, Mr. Chao and his son-in-law, Mr. McConnell, traveled to China as guests of the state-owned shipyard conglomerate and military contractor, China State Shipbuilding Corporation. There they met with an old classmate of Mr. Chao’s, the former Chinese president Jiang Zemin.
Mr. McConnell’s once hard-line condemnations of China softened in the years to follow. For example, as The New Republic has noted, Mr. McConnell went from telling University of Louisville students that America would never forget Tiananmen Square, in the late 1980s, to hosting the Chinese ambassador at the same school several years later, even as the ambassador publicly defended the regime’s suppression of the Falun Gong.
All along, the Chaos continued to gain influence. Mr. McConnell’s sister-in-law, Angela Chao, and James Chao sat on the board of the holding company for China State Shipbuilding. While Elaine Chao was secretary of labor under George W. Bush, Foremost Group ordered several enormous cargo ships from a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding. Secretary Chao and her father also appeared in several tandem interviews with Chinese media, and in at least one, they sit in front of the Department of Transportation’s emblem and alongside images of a book written by Mr. Chao. Today, Angela Chao sits on the board of the Chinese government’s Bank of China.
Last month, the House Oversight and Reform Committee started an investigation into whether Secretary Chao has leveraged her government positions to benefit her family. But so far there is no investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden. Defenders claim there must first be proof that a law was broken to open an investigation.
That’s exactly backward. Congress can and should conduct an inquiry to determine whether anything illegal occurred.
The problem more broadly is that we rely on a hodgepodge of laws that lack the clarity and bright ethical lines found in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. That needs to change. International bribery laws clearly state that if a person or entity pays a politician’s family member and gets favors in return, it’s an act of bribery; it’s no different from the politician taking the money himself.
Obviously, the immediate family members of high-ranking politicians have to work — no one is saying otherwise. But given their unparalleled access, they should also be required to be transparent about what they are doing.
At a minimum, we need to strengthen American disclosure rules. Joe Biden and Elaine Chao have to report when someone sends them a $500 campaign donation, or when they make a $5,000 investment in a stock.
But when their family members strike lucrative deals with a foreign
government or oligarch, the reporting requirements are vague. The personal financial disclosure rules for American public officials should be expanded to include details concerning all their immediate family members (and not just their spouses, as the law currently states), and any dealings with foreign governments.
To the public, closing a loophole this glaring seems anodyne, a no-brainer. But lawmakers set the system up this way for a reason; they will not stop the foreign cash influence game voluntarily. That’s why we need a Washington Corrupt Practices Act, one that clearly shuts down foreign influence and self-enrichment for some of America’s most powerful families on both sides of the aisle.
Peter Schweizer, an investigative journalist, is the author, most recently, of “Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends.”
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.
- friendly fred
- 10-13-2019, 07:48 AM
That is an excellent article.
- Redhot1960
- 10-13-2019, 10:17 AM
All things Ukrainian... 
- I B Hankering
- 10-13-2019, 10:51 AM
That is an excellent article. Originally Posted by friendly fredHere's another one:
“While there is no evidence that Hunter Biden or Chris Heinz knew of the tribal bonds scheme, the corporate structure of the Rosemont businesses suggested they could have – and maybe should have – known.” Secret Empires by Peter Schweizer.
Seven Accused of Selling Fake Bonds
Devon Archer, Jason Galanis and others face securities-fraud charges related to alleged tribal bond scheme
By Christopher M. Matthews
Updated May 11, 2016 8:08 pm ET
Federal prosecutors charged a former campaign adviser to Secretary of State John Kerry and a second man once dubbed by the media “porn’s new king” along with five others in an alleged scheme involving a Native American Tribal bond offering.
Devon Archer, an adviser to Mr. Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004, and Jason Galanis, a former investor in the adult-entertainment business, allegedly duped clients into investing more than $43 million in sham bonds issued in 2014 and 2015 by an affiliate of the Oglala Sioux Nation in South Dakota.
Messrs Archer, Galanis and the five other defendants, including Mr. Galanis’s father, then allegedly diverted tens of millions of the bond investments to accounts they controlled and used them to purchase luxury goods and support an initial public offering for a technology company, authorities said.
Lawyers for Mr. Archer and for Mr. Galanis and his father didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
All seven defendants were arrested Wednesday, and the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office charged them with securities fraud. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed related civil charges.
Along with Jason Galanis, 45 years old, those arrested were his father, John Galanis ; Devon Archer; Bevan Cooney ; Hugh Dunkerley ; Gary Hirst and Michelle Morton.
Susan Brune, a lawyer representing Mr. Dunkerley, said her client “looks forward to addressing the charges.” A lawyer representing Mr. Cooney denied the allegations.
A lawyer for Mr. Hirst didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. And a lawyer for Ms. Morton, couldn’t be immediately identified.
The younger Galanis was charged in Manhattan federal court in September for activities related to an alleged pump-and-dump scheme. He was accused by prosecutors of secretly taking control of reinsurance firm Gerova Financial Group Ltd. and then dumping its stock, reaping nearly $20 million in illegal profits. Mr. Galanis’ father is also charged in that case. They have pleaded not guilty in the Gerova case.
Mr. Archer was the college roommate of the secretary of state’s stepson, H.J. Heinz Co. ketchup heir Christopher Heinz, and has business ties to Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.
Mr. Archer, 39, and Hunter Biden, 44, have worked for Rosemont Seneca Partners, a U.S. investment company. It is affiliated with Rosemont Capital, a private-equity firm Mr. Archer co-founded with Mr. Heinz.
Messrs. Archer and Biden also recently joined the board of directors of Burisma Holdings Ltd, a Ukrainian gas producer controlled by a former top security and energy official for deposed President Viktor Yanukovych, as previously reported by The Wall Street Journal.
That move has attracted attention, given the Obama administration’s recent support for pro-Western demonstrators who toppled Mr. Yanukovych’s Kremlin-backed government in February.
Rosemont Seneca, now a part of New York-based Burnham Asset Management, according to Rosemont’s website, declined to comment. Burnham didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment.
Jason Galanis has previously run afoul of the SEC. To settle another SEC case, he agreed to a five-year ban from serving as an officer or director of a publicly traded company in 2007. The agency alleged he had filed false accounting information for Penthouse International Inc., an adult magazine publisher in which Jason Galanis owned a significant stake, that SEC complaint said.
Jason and John Galanis were also accused on Wednesday of diverting funds to pay for legal costs in their ongoing pump-and-dump case. Seven individuals have been charged in the alleged Gerova fraud, including Mr. Hirst, who was Gerova’s chairman and chief investment officer. In the separate Gerova case, six of that case’s seven defendants are scheduled to go to trial in September and have pleaded not guilty.
—Ezequiel Minaya contributed to this article.
Write to Christopher M. Matthews at christopher.matthews@wsj.com
(WSJ)
New York jury finds three guilty of $60 mln tribal bond fraud
Brendan Pierson
NEW YORK, June 28 (Reuters) - A jury in Manhattan federal court on Thursday found three people guilty of orchestrating a scheme to defraud a Native American tribe and multiple pension funds through the issue of $60 million worth of tribal bonds, prosecutors said.
John Galanis, 74; Devon Archer, 44; and Bevan Cooney, 45, were convicted of conspiracy and securities fraud following a 5-1/2-week trial, according to a statement from the office of Deputy U.S. Attorney Robert Khuzami.
“As a unanimous jury swiftly found, these defendants orchestrated a highly complex scheme to defraud a Native American community and multiple pension funds, all to corruptly bankroll their own personal and business interests,” Khuzami said in a statement.
Lawyers for the defendants could not immediately be reached for comment.
Galanis is already serving a six-year sentence for a separate financial fraud involving manipulation of the stock of now-defunct reinsurer Gerova Financial Group Ltd. His son, Jason Galanis, has pleaded guilty to taking part in both the Gerova and tribal bond schemes, for which he has been sentenced to more than 11 years and five years, respectively.
Prosecutors said John Galanis persuaded an entity affiliated with South Dakota’s Oglala Sioux Nation to issue bonds, using false representations. Jason Galanis, Archer and Cooney fraudulently induced pension funds to invest in the bonds through an investment adviser firm they controlled [Rosemont Seneca], according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said the defendants misappropriated the proceeds of the bond issues for themselves. The tribe was not accused of wrongdoing. (Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney)
(Reuters)