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Hunter Biden was brokering a lucrative pipeline deal with a Chinese oil company under sanctions in Kazakhstan and a former Kazakh prime minister charged with treason, according to a new report.
Apparently, the president’s son teamed up with the former prime minister of Kazakhstan, Karim Massimov, now on trial for high treason, to bribe Western energy companies for a $120 million pipeline deal after similar projects had faced opposition from the West.
Massimov’s charges do not appear to be connected to Hunter’s pipeline deal.
CNOOC, another of China’s largest oil companies, was involved in Hunter’s Kazakh energy deals.
Its alleged involvement in the Chinese government’s ‘coercive behavior in the South China Sea’ was sanctioned in 2020 and again in 2017.
He traveled to Beijing and Kazakhstan in 2014 and 2015 to forge a groundbreaking oil deal between the two countries, according to emails from Hunter’s abandoned laptop.
During the negotiation process, Hunter represented the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, on whose board he sat.
Hunter’s position with the company, which is controlled by a corrupt oligarch, is already extremely suspect.
Hunter’s involvement with Burisma gives a new and troubling dimension to his dealings in Eastern Europe – suggesting that he was trying to extend the energy interests of the Chinese government while also collecting millions of dollars for himself.
Chinese oil giant CNOOC has been trying for years to break into Kazakhstan’s energy market, a strategically advantageous source of oil and gas for the country, nicknamed the “second Middle East” by the company’s chief financial officer.
A group of Western companies led by Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch/Shell, and TotalFinaElf blocked the Chinese oil giant in 2003 from purchasing a $445million piece of Kazakhstan’s North Caspian Sea Project from BG Group.
A pipeline between Kazakhstan and China has also been discussed for years by the two governments. Although a previous agreement stalled in 1997 over cost concerns, China’s belt and road initiative in 2013 rekindled the appetite for massive infrastructure projects.
In April 2014, Hunter saw dollar signs when one of his Chinese business partners emailed him about CNOOC’s interest.
‘I had a meeting with Mr. Luo Weizhong, the General Manger of CNOOC Gas & Power Group,’ Ziben Lu, an associate at Bohai, a Chinese investment firm Hunter partnered with, wrote to Hunter in an email.
‘Mr. Luo informed us that as the third largest LNG [liquid natural gas] purchaser in the world, CNOOC Gas & Power are making large cross boarder [sic] investments.’
Lu stated that CNOOC was looking for opportunities in countries with a ‘friendly political environment’ that ‘welcomes Bohai as strategic partner.’
‘If you have deal opportunities regarding natural gas in the region mentions above, please let us know and have a discussion,’ Lu added.
A longtime business partner and friend of Hunter’s who also sits on Burisma’s board of directors, Devon Archer, wrote to Hunter excited about the lucrative opportunity.
‘If we can connect the dots here between CNOOC and Burisma we can do only that, forever. Let’s brainstorm,’ he explained.
‘Thinking the same thing. Fraught with many land mines- but…’ Hunter wrote back.
A little more than a month later, he was en route to China to meet the Bohai board and meet CNOOC executives.
Hunter wrote to Burisma executive Vadim Pozharsky in an email that ‘one of the principal reasons’ for his visit to Beijing in May 2014 was ‘to discuss possible cooperation with CNOC/China and Burisma.’
‘Please let Nikolay [Zlochevsky, Burisma president] know that I’m excited to be joining the team- we have lots of work ahead, but great opportunities also,’ he added.
Biden, whose administration imposed sanctions on CNOOC, could be put in a conflict of interest by Hunter’s past involvement with CNOOC.
According to the Commerce Department, CNOOC ‘has repeatedly harassed and threatened offshore oil and gas exploration and extraction in the South China Sea, with the goal of driving up the political risk for interested foreign partners, including Vietnam.’
Sanctions of the Department cover only the company’s South China Sea activities, not their global business operations.
When Devon and Vadim finalized their deal with the Chinese, Devon notified Vadim that they had arranged a meeting with Kazakh Prime Minister ‘Masimof’ on June 2, 2014.
‘Everything will revolve around that meeting and the subject will be securing the highest quality proven reserve fields in KZ [Kazakhstan]. Additional concepts for cooperation will be discussed as well.’
Devon indicated in his note that he planned to fly from the Kazakh capital to Beijing following his meeting with Masimof.
‘There is a preliminary plan from there for me and Alex to travel to Beijing from Astana.
‘If we are able to coordinate CNOOC cooperation meetings in that time frame we would be hopeful you and Nikoly can join as well,’ he wrote in an email on May 7, 2014.
Hunter and Devon planned to have the Kazakh government grant drilling rights to CNOOC, with Burisma operating the wells and rigs. According to their emails, the rigs and wells would be operated by Burisma.
The deal was described by Devon as a highly profitable ‘silver bullet.’
According to an email exchange between Hunter and his Chinese business partners on April 30, 2015, there was a ‘Project Carmen’ in Kazakhstan, which would entail investments totaling $120million, including $40million from Chinese investors.
From Hunter’s emails, it is unclear whether either deal was a success, but Hunter and his family received more than $31 million in total through his partnership with Bohai and other agreements with the Chinese, and he was paid more than $83,000 per month for his Burisma board seat.
Hunter mysteriously decided not to travel with the Secret Service detail that accompanied him at the time, despite flight into the heart of an oppressive post-Soviet country to meet with lawmakers with shady histories.
‘Vadim – I’ve chosen to carry on from Paris with out the Secret Service,’ Hunter wrote in an email to the president of Burisma on May 26, 2014.
‘They are not happy about it, but it seemed far too complicated and unnecessary.’
Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a senior senator, is now investigating Hunter’s overseas trips.
Fox News reported in January that the senator described retrieving Hunter’s heavily redacted travel records held by USSS as ‘pulling teeth,’ and that he could not derive any other explanation but that the agency is providing cover for the president’s son.
Massimov had just been appointed as prime minister for the second time when Hunter met with him in Kazakhstan.
Source: The Republic Brief