Relatives of President Joe Biden worked to give China “preferential access” to American gas following a Chinese energy magnate’s pledge to lend millions of dollars to the Biden “family,” materials on Hunter Biden’s laptop reviewed by The Daily Wire show.
The shocking bid to transfer American liquid natural gas (LNG) to an adversarial communist nation came in 2017, when Hunter and James Biden — the now-president’s son and brother — and their business partners sought to help build an LNG facility in Louisiana called Monkey Island using Chinese materials, then sell the gas to China. In May of that year, Hunter Biden met with Ye Jianming, the founder of corrupt Chinese energy giant CEFC Energy, who gave Hunter Biden a large diamond, the New York Times reported in 2018.
A document sent to Hunter Biden by JiaQi Bao, who advised the future president’s son on energy deals, said the cooperation set up to run Monkey Island wanted a Biden-linked firm called Hudson West to invest between $350 million and $1.5 billion in the project, but that onerous U.S. government review process made the investment less attractive.
Monkey Island CEO Greg Michaels told the Biden group that “as an owner in MILNG, Hudson West will have preferential access to all LNG prior to other customers.” That arrangement would have allowed the investors to sell Monkey Island’s gas to China in large quantities.
Michaels also sent Hunter and James Biden “talking points” that said that the facility’s equipment would be built in China, then assembled on-site, which would “put billions of dollars into the Chinese economy and support thousands of construction and procurement jobs for Chinese workers.”
In October 2017, Bao told Hunter Biden he was now in a position to steer American liquid natural gas from other projects to Ye’s company.
“Through you and Uncle Jim’s connection, with Monkey Island/Magnolia/Project ABC as a starting point/talking point, we can check out a lot of all other interesting Louisana/Taxes/Gulf of Mexico U. S. projects,” Bay wrote to Hunter Biden. “You are the best person to help your friend Ye to do that, because you know a lot of folks in the area and you have the access to decision-makers.”
Another proposed joint venture called Sinohawk would bring together CEFC with Hunter and Jim Biden and three other partners. It was the project in which a “provisional agreement” said that 10% of the equity would be “held by H for the big guy?” One of the partners, Tony Bobulinski, said that was a reference to Joe Biden. In a proposal for Sinohawk to the Chinese, the group boasted that Jim Biden “remains a personal advisor to his brother.”
The Chinese side was generous to what it called the Biden “family.” In July 2017, a CEFC official wrote that “Chairman Ye and Director Zang fully support the framework of establishing the JV [joint venture], based on their trust on BD family.” It said a wire of $10 million had been delayed by details including: “$5 million is lent to BD family in the 10 million charter capital. … But if the 5 M is used up, should CEFC keep lending more to the family?”
In August, CEFC wired $5 million to a Hudson West III bank account, which was later transferred to Hunter’s firm, and some from there to a firm controlled by James Biden and his wife Sara. A bank asked Sara Biden about the transactions, and she refused to provide any supporting documentation, leading the bank to close the account, according to a Senate report.
In September, a credit line under the name Hudson West III was established by a Chinese man named Gongwen Dong — who Hunter Biden called “Chairman Ye CEFC emissary” — and Hunter Biden, and credit cards linked to the line of credit were sent to Hunter, James, and Sara, which were used for personal expenses, according to the Senate report.
On November 8, 2017, Hunter drafted a letter to a Chinese CEFC partner that said, “This framework would fill the short term needs of CEFC by providing off take contracts for large quantities of LNG at very competitive rates while also advancing the long term goals of CEFC through a partnership or acquisition of a promising LNG terminal project in Louisiana.”
The same month, Hudson West produced presentations advertising America’s gas reserves to a Chinese audience.
The deal fell apart only because key figures were arrested. On November 18, 2017, CEFC official Patrick Ho was arrested in New York on corruption charges involving seeking to bribe African leaders. The first call he placed was to Jim Biden, reported Yahoo! News. Hudson West III later paid $1 million to Hunter’s law firm, purportedly for Hunter serving as Ho’s lawyer, as reported by The Washington Times.
Soon after Ho’s arrest, CEFC top executive Ye was imprisoned by China, leading Hunter Biden to lament, “My business partner is now a prisoner on death row in China.” When a New York Times article that mentioned Hunter Biden’s involvement with Ye came out, Joe Biden called him and left a voicemail about the article saying, “I think you’re clear.”
The Monkey Island deal was only one instance of Hunter and Jim Biden attempting to enrich themselves by steering large amounts of America’s energy resources to China.
Their associates frequently discussed how China had invested in another Louisiana LNG facility through Cheniere Energy, which runs a plant in Sabine Pass. Also in 2017, through a Louisiana-based lawyer named Bob Fenet, Hunter and Jim Biden attempted to arrange for five million tons of LNG per year to be sold to China for at least five years — about a quarter of the Sabine Pass plant’s capacity at the time.
Hunter Biden explored connecting China with LNG from Alaska beginning in 2014, while Joe Biden was vice president, but apparently eventually concluded that it would be too expensive.
Hudson West also explored another LNG deal in Louisiana called Magnolia, as well as investing in constructing a port called Port Cameron for “oil export through the Gulf of Mexico.”
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